More info for example from ZUG

anyone know if something similar exists in Canton Vaud? ... I just had a look thru the police website but couldnt find anything ( altho yes it was a pretty cursory search )

I am not sure. But in this part of Canton Vaud, I know of at least one homeowner who had to go through a (detailed) procedure at the commune to be able to do this. Basically he had the right to post those signs, that said one could be fined by parking there, then he had the right to ticket the cars that subsequently parked there. Not sure if the future offender(s) got the ticket to pay from him or if it was funneled via the police, but he had the right to place it on the car. Check with your local commune authorities, the one in charge of police in particular.

thanks .... I suppose in thinking about it I should just start with my landlord...

obviously he owns the land in question and he's an ex-copper to boot.
(there may be no parking problems at all but as I said above my pessimistic side is expecting a "break in period" while the new neighbours learn. )

Of course, the other option here is the landlord is charging you for a public parking space.

it's a private spot( 8 spots actually ) but it's just on the edge of his property, just off of the road

As it's different people every time I'd say the retribution based methods won't work!

I think one of the lockable posts would be best (although a pain for you, too). You could also try for a larger, brighter or better positioned sign. A multilingual sign might be good too.

If it's allowed to tow, get a towing sign and tow repeat offenders.

Otherwise, why not erect a sign that says "Private Space. Available for public use at CHF 200 per 24 hour period or part thereof". Then just start invoicing (it's not a fine - just like a private car park!!).

I have a private underground parking space in my building but because my wife is pregnant I have been parking on the besucher(guest) parking for a few days. There are around 20 spots for guests and half are empty.

Today I got a privatanzeigen and not sure what I need to do now. It is a guest parking and not a private property, ticket has me there for 9 hours. I live there, I parked on my own building's guest parking.

What is the big deal? I don't understand which law has been broken.

What stops a lunatic from going down there and writing 100 of those tickets a day if they want to? Shouldn't at least the police come and verify any such claims and then get a real police fine?

I just see a random green paper which is handwritten and looks so fake. Not sure how to appeal/complain against it or if now I should expect a police fine...

Any ideas?

Guest parking is private property of the owner of the building maybe?
Have a similar situation where I live. We were informed by the owner to let them know if we park there or our guests as too many people (not living there) used it for free parking. There is a company now putting parking tickets on "strange" cars

Where I live all those parking on the guest spaces have to display a provided -to-residents parking card (one of two) (with resident's name included) which of course has to be handed to the visitor(s) upon arrival and entails them going back to their car to position it.


But it works, and nobody has complained, visitors can almost always park.


Any car, including residents' cars are thus liable to an ES.

Yes, this system of cards seems to be becoming more popular.

But what is an ES, please?

You're parked in guest parking and your not a guest. The fact you have a space elsewhere in the garage is irrelevant to the private company that ticketed you.

So anyone comes in and parks there for free but me who live there can't? I don't believe that. There are also plenty of people in the building who rent cars and stay there for a few days as they don't have a permanent parking place. It doesn't make sense to ticket the person who pays nebenkosten and rent to that building for using the guest parking but any random person parking there is ok.

There is also no card system whatsoever. You cannot know who is parked and for how long and if he's a guest or not. As I mentioned, there is always at least a 20%-50% availability, it's never full.

I'm trying to understand the logic behind all this. Unless the police comes and verifies the claim, what kind of BS system is this that anyone can write a random green piece of paper and then gets charged an arbitrary amount of CHF?

It is signed by the property management company who handles all the buildings here. I can only guess they do this a couple of times per year to collect a nice sum of money if no one protests.

My objection is that there is no rule written anywhere and no limits. So I have no idea what are the rules to avoid breaking. On the ticket it says I was parked there for 9 hours, a handyman who comes in for repairs stays more than that. Not even overnight...even then, as there are no rules written anywhere how is anyone to know?

Edit, found on my rental contract:

"PARKING
It is to be noted that the Parking area outside the building is mainly for visitors. The RESIDENT can use the outside parking should any space be free from time to time for short term purposes ie. 1-3 days but should note that should parking in this area become a long term habit, the Caretaker of the building is under instructions to issue penalty fines and fees on vehicles which do not have allocated outside parkings. "

Ticket says I was there 9 hours....

How many days have you been parking there? You indicate above it's not a one-time thing, that you've been doing it because your partner is pregnant. So in this instance you were there 9 hours, but how many days before that? Someone must have called to complain, perhaps because it exceeded 3 days?

Did you contact the ticket issuer to indicate you're a resident and share with them the clause of your lease? Most of the time the ticketing company is not the management company so right hand and left hand aren't always coordinated. It could be a simple misunderstanding, not something nefarious.

To resolve this longer-term you have a few options - either drop her off and pick her up in the visitor parking but park the car underground, or get a permit from the management that says you can temporarily park in visitor parking until X date.

I don’t know about the fine or legality aspect but could you not have dropped your wife off near your apartement entrance and then moved your car into your own space?

Building entrance is not accessible by car directly, it's pedestrian only. That's why we have all this trouble.

We either park in the underground and it's 2 floors without elevator or we park outside and it's 100m in a straight line. It's a shitty situation but only a few months left before the arrival of the new guy so should be ok.

I'll ask to get an exception from the company, that's good advice.

P.S I live here 6 years and it's the first time I parked outside overnight and got a ticket. Got to love Switzerland but I'm not complaining, I just want the rules to be clear and transparent and in this case they are not even written anywhere so I don't know what is ok and what isn't. Especially when half the spaces are still empty..

Yes, you're probably right. But if my wife were highly pregnant, I might want the car to be near the entrance of the building so I could rush her to the hospital if needed. Therefore I second the idea of asking for special permission for the last few months.

The logic is simple: if there are 5 guest spots and 4 other people like you take those spots, then where are visitors supposed to park? Imagine that you and your wife go visit a friend and their visitor parking spots are all taken by people living there, so you have to go and find a parking spot on the street far away, and pay for it! How does that feel?

As a rule, the people renting an apartment have no right to use the visitor parking. It makes sense: visitor parking is free and is shared by the whole community, while you pay to use permanent parking spot all by yourself.

Either get some form of official permission or stop making up your own rules and park where you are allowed to park.

You know very well what an ES is!!!!