That was not my intention.

I just received a full page colour photo of my car posted in my letterbox with no message (not even a passive aggressive one). Someone clearly not happy with me parking in a free spot (that isn’t rented) in the garage for 5 mins to unload some things into my cellar last weekend, while it was pissing down outside.

I just hope that they had to pay the strassenverkehrsamt for the privilege of finding out the owner, although I’m half expecting them to bill me tbh.

Ironically it's the other way around: unless you removed yourself from the car index (I believe you also pay for it?), it is 5 seconds on a website or using some mobile apps to get your name and address from a license plate.
Try it yourself: https://www.viacar.ch/eindex/login.aspx?kanton=zh

As others have said, first read your house rules. The woman may be parking completely legitimately, within those rules. How long she parks there, whether all day and night, etc. may, or may not, be covered by part of those rules. In other words, though you find her behaviour annoying, she might not actually be doing anything wrong (or she might be, it depends upon the rules).

Can your visitors not find parking? If that is, indeed, a problem for your visitors and you, then it is worth speaking to the woman and asking her please to park elsewhere when you anticipate visitors, or for her advice on other nearby spots where your visitors could park. For example, perhaps it is completely fine for them to park on those other visitors' spaces of the other buildings on your block, for example, if they are considered part of the same complex.

That you pay for your parking space, but she does not rent one (or maybe she does, for her other car) is neither here nor there... unfair as it may feel.

After you've spoken to her, and if you and she don't reach a solution, then approach the caretaker and/or the agency/landlord and... this is my advice... do not complain about her behaviour, but rather ask how the rules work, so that you can do it right, and insofar as it has happened, tell them that your visitors haven't been able to find parking, and ask them for suggestions.

Visitors' parking tends to be seen more as a fortuitous extra, rather than a resource which is shared out equally.

Ring the police, say you are always seeing the car there and feel it may be stolen and left abandoned.

free or not is a cantonal thing(who would've thought), https://www.linker.ch/eigenlink/autonummern_index.htm


however, hiding your details might lead to a Anzeige, as a private person would not be able to get that data to just warn you, only after a Strafverfahren is started. So, use this option with caution:

	Quote:
	Beachten Sie bitte, dass Ihre Daten bei einem Vergehen (z.B. Missachten eines Parkverbots) nicht an Private weitergegeben werden. Die Sperrung kann in solchen Fällen aber zu einer Anzeige führen.

why do you have a problem with someone else's common sense, which is a big grey zone anyway? asking somebody directly will in fact put a label on you for sticking your nose not in your business, especially when you are new on the block. Zuzi666 is doing what a reasonable and concerned neighbour would do - ask the only source of truth which is renting agency. All talks with the neighbours are by definition biased and opionated. Not only that, but zuzi666 is asking wheather taking a photo is allowed - something, that not everyone would do. I'd recommend checking StGB to be sure.


A little example: a neighbour has installed a pipe on their balcony, actually lengthened the existing one - may be you noticed that many houses in this country have short pipes to bleed rainwater off the balcony floor, because they liked to wash their balcony and instead of removing water to the drain, they decided to put it down the pipe - yes, onto the street. It was soapy and it stinked.



Next thing I confronted them about it and asked whether they got a permission to do that at all. Sure enough they answered "yes!", without a blink of an eye. Little did they know that me, being a smart ass, as in assume, because I knew this shit could not be legal, already mailed a photo of this ugly black pipe hanging above my balcony to the agency and got a definitve "Nein, haben wir nicht genehmigt und besten Dank für den Hinweis" kind of reply. The took it down.


Would you trust someone when it comes to their interests? would you personally cause a debacle on what is allowed and what is not?

Of course they do. The police will have no problems telling you what they deem necessary or useful if you have a plausible reason.

I found a number plate a few years ago, the owner had blocked the contact details in autoindex.ch. Given the circumstances there seemed to be a high probability that the owner was from somewhere not too far away. So I called the police. After a short description, and suggesting I could contact the owner directly if they're reasonably close, the police provided the full contact details as the owner was only about 1km away from me.

My experience with renting agencies is that they vary considerably in their concept of the "truth".
Some agencies are not good at what the law demands and what they would like the law or house regulation to demand. Also not all clauses found in house regulations will stand up in court (eg most smoking bans) which is another good reason for joining the tenants association.

There are ways of asking that should not cause offence.

If letters are sent by the agency without the complainant having talked directly to the people involved, it can cause considerable problems in the block especially when the complaint was not warranted . I have had direct experience of this.

In the instance discussed here, it would cost very little to make some enquiries before formally complaining.

since you mentioned "complaint" for the third time I had to re-read the original post just to find this:


a question is not a complaint, like in my example I did not complain about the pipe, instead I asked whether it was permitted. I got a straight "no", whereas the neighbour tried to bullshit me.


Talking is very human I agree, but depicting this as the only common sense is just not right. And in some cases not useful.

given the circumstances, i.e. as an exception. I am glad there is some common sense in there, but I wanted to provide a detail on what could be the consequences. If they did not know now they know.

Perhaps her name is Visitor, and what the Op thought was a marked visitor parking space was in fact her personal reserved parking space?

Is it possible she's a childminder?

Our ex neighbour rented out what had been a visitor's parking space and then continued parking his car under repair on it without putting a new sign on the parking space; just to piss off some other neighbours - ah the joys of urban warfare

so, I have sent a politically correct email and asked what are exact rules for visitor parking while explaining what I think could be happening.
the agency asked me to send them a photo of the car so that they can check who does the car belongs to and get in contact with them.
let's see what will happen....

And if the visitor is actually such, you can expect a bill for their wasted time.

Just saying.

Tom

well, I plan to send couple of photos from day and night parking during different days so let's see....

so I have sent the photos and saw building management lady today and she told me that I am right, that they are photographing the car on weekly basis and sending them "letter" but that more than that, legally they can't do anything. and that she hopes that they will either move or at the end have enough of the letters are asked to rent.
how is that possible that nothing legally can be done?
they are Italiens, they will not change what they do....

i think a photo is needed to understand what is going on.

In some complexes, the owners/agents obtain a special judgment (a kind of protection order over their parking space) and then they're allowed to put up a Court authorised sign which declares that if anyone parks on this space other than under the conditions x and y (for example a time limit), they can be fined* Fr. 200.

Some complexes issue each apartment with one Visitor's Parking Permit, which the tenants then give to their visitors to display in the window of the visiting car. Any car without such a Permit can be fined*. Or any car which remains for longer than x hours, etc.

For this to have any effect, however, the owners have to be willing to pay for the services of a private security company to whom they delegate the task of patrolling and issueing the fines*. And then they'll be dealing with phonecalls from those who've been fined and feel they ought not to have to pay those fines. It is a lot of extra work. They might consider this simply more money and effort than they're prepared to spend.

* Strictly speaking, this is not a fine at all, because those can be issued only be the police, and the police can issue fines for public ground only. Therefore it is called something like a "service fee" (Umtriebsentschädigung) for the trouble that the owner had when dealing with the wrongly parked car.


Maybe I'm missing something, but I still haven't actually understood how this situation impacts upon your life using your apartment, and your use of your parking space (beyond your finding the principle of it unfair).

For example, do your visitors have need of this specific space? Are there no other options for visitors, e.g. parking on the street? It's true that there often aren't.

If many other tenants share your views, then you, collectively, might be able to persuade the owners to spend the money for such a private security company to patrol. If, however, most of the tenants are more or less coping with things as they are, then the landlord is unlikely to be motivated to bother with the extra expense.

Some options I've seen work are:

• tell your guests to park on the street
• tell your guests that it's better to visit you by public transport (and if the nearest bus-stop or station is a way away, offer to fetch them there, by car)
• speak directly to the person/family who is now over-using the space, and ask her/him/them not to park their car there, or for their telephone number so you can call them and ask them to move their car before your guests arrive
• speak to all the other neighbours with parking spaces near yours, and ask whether, when their space is empty, you may please allow your guests to park there, on the strict pledge that they should call you immediately any of your guests' cars is in the way, and you'll have it moved straight away, and offer them the use of your parking space, on the same basis. In that case make sure that everyone has everyone's numbers.
• ditto, but also to neighbours out of your complex, e.g. across the road
• rent a second parking space, if there is one, and if you have lots of visitors. Sometimes, such a space may be available in a different complex, down the road, for example. Even if it's a little further, when you know you're going to have visitors, you can park your own car over there, so your guests can use your nearby space.