In collections of interesting facts about Switzerland you can often find mention of a strange ban. We checked to see if it really exists.
According to various sources, in Switzerland, residents of apartment buildings after 10 pm are faced with a rather unpleasant restriction. At night, they allegedly cannot use the toilet flush mechanism and take a shower, since these actions violate the law, the purpose of which is to combat noise during quiet times of the day. Violation of the law is said to result in heavy fines for unruly residents.
Russian-language resources such as: The Voice Mag, "Rambler", "Russian seven", "Peekaboo", Blitz+ And "Delicious+" Among the Telegram channels that disseminated information, the following can be highlighted: “Science and facts"(several similar publications received 145,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Interesting facts"(95,000), "Fact of the day"(93,000), "Science and facts" (53,000) and "It's a fact"(50,000). Foreign media also write about the unusual Swiss restriction - in particular, Daily Mail.
The behavior of Swiss residents in their own homes is regulated by laws and, in the case of rentals, by the terms of the contract. The latter is especially important for this country - according to official data, about 60% of locals rent an apartment or house.
Swiss Civil Code does not impose any specific restrictions on the behavior of people in their homes. True, Article 684 states: “When exercising property rights, including the right to conduct business on their land, landowners are obliged to avoid any actions that damage neighboring properties. In particular, all harmful effects that are not justified by location, the characteristics of the territory or local customs - air pollution by emissions of noxious fumes, noise, vibration, radiation or deprivation of sunlight or daylight - are prohibited."
However, as we see, the wording of this law is quite streamlined: it has nothing to do with the time of day, specific noise indicators, and especially with the bathroom or toilet. The same goes for Swiss Federal Law on Environmental Protection, where there is also no specific information about noise exposure, and the case of flushing the toilet or taking a shower is not considered separately. Thus, Swiss legislation does not establish such restrictions.
Few specifics appear in legislation at the municipal level. So, in decree Zurich police, which came into force in 2012, states that the so-called “night silence” lasts from 22:00 to 7:00 the next day, and in the summer on Fridays and Saturdays from 23:00. During this time, “destructive behavior” is prohibited—however, the meaning of this term is not defined. As he told in an interview with the resource Blick rental expert Fabian Glor from the Swiss Tenants Association, a similar vague restriction applies in many regions of the country. However, both he and another specialist Thomas Oberle, say that at the individual household level, owners can interpret the law as they see fit and set their own specific limits.
Nevertheless, Oberle, Glor, and the legal adviser of the Swiss Tenants Association Rudy Spendlin assure that such things as flushing a toilet or taking a shower cannot become the basis for complaints to law enforcement agencies, no matter what is written in rules specific household. Neighbors or owners will simply have to come to terms with the fact that these processes cause noise that can be heard in other apartments. The opposite practice is unknown to these specialists, and an attempt to apply it will be considered an infringement of the rights of residents.
Their words are confirmed at website the association itself. It says that the internal rules of households, even those written in the contract (and only such can have legal force), are valid only if they have a factual reason and are proportionate. Bans for the sake of bans are illegal, and the rules are subject to common sense. As a result, the site says, people have the right to ignore, for example, a clause in the contract that the tenant is not allowed to shower at night.
Thus, Swiss laws do not regulate in any way showering or flushing after 10 pm in apartment buildings. The applicability of such restrictions, even at a local level, is denied by local rental specialists, and only those people who make really loud noise - for example, if they move furniture at night - will encounter problems. But even in such cases, government websites advise talk to your neighbors first and only then contact the police if necessary. Separately, we note that in houses built using modern technologies, with thick and dense walls, this problem is less relevant. And if abroad the story about the unusual ban is among the most popular facts about Switzerland, then in the local media it is included among most famous myths about the country.
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