I live in Zürich and the neighbor next to my plot has decided to demolish the existing property and build a new house.
The shape of the house does not really fit the neighborhood and there is a serious privacy issues if the house will be built as planned.
I reached out to the neighbor when the plans were published in order to show and explain to him why the current planning is a problem for me.
He went ahead with it and now I have 30 days to decide whether to object.
My questions:
1. Are shape/ privacy/ decrease of value of my property could be strong argument for objection?
2. Has anyone had experience in this field to contribute from his knowledge?
3. Can anyone recommend an attorney who has speciality in that field whom I can consult with? Preferably someone who speaks English and is not too expensive?
Read the cantonal and community building regulations for your zone and compare with the plan. Pay particular attention to distance from your border, percentage of land in the lot occupied by the new build and the height.
If any of these are in your opinion outside the regulation, then contest.
There is no right to privacy in the Switzerland as such. Decrease in your property value is irrelevant.
The only strong objection would be a breach of the planning regulations and the changes of a local architect breaching these in a material way are not very high at least in the initial.
One point. Where I live, if you can't reach agreement after the first round of objections, then you need to go to court. They can't build so long as you're bringing objections, so you can delay the project until you run out of money for the legal costs.
all of this is contained in planning regulations, and you should object when they were changing them, or evaluate it when you were buying your property. People renovating/building a house are not worsening anything, you just had a wrong perception about your property.
2. yes, neighbours complaining is a normal part of the process to get a building permit. Complains, especially about sentiments, are in general dismissed if you don't prove the violating of the planning regulations / building code. Possible damage to buildings, people or objects is also taken more seriously.
As others have written, one can object/fight a permit in court. Normally it would slow the process, not prevent it. Often this can be used as a leverage in negotiations, but you have to be realistic.
If you've got deep pockets, nothing else to occupy your time, a cast-iron determination and friends in the local gemeinde, you can snarl up some poor sod's building plans for years. There's a woman in our village that is famous among her immediate neighbours for it. Her next door neighbour has been trying to demolish and rebuild his previously planning-approved house for the past 6 years.
(Not for a moment assuming that's the OP's intention at all, just demonstrating that it's possible even if the building party has all their ducks in a row).
There was a case similar to the in Beobachter. But she pissed off the local gemeinde, bring trivial object after trivial objection. In some countries she'd be branded a vexatious litigant and refused access to the court over the matter.
Wow, I wonder if it's the same person? She certainly picks up on whatever crappy little detail will get her another stoppage and hearing.
The bloke whose house she's preventing from being rebuilt is living in some tiny rental place with his family waiting to build the dream family house, and his then toddlers are now 9 and 11.
Just wondering if it is worth while to object just in order to put some pressure on the neighbor.
After all, the delay is against his interest (also money wise). So from his view the question could potentially be: should I be smart or should I be right?
I guess I can back off at any stage anyway if he does not blink first...
As previous posters have said, as long as the proposed construction meets all the local commune's constuction rules regarding %age of site used for building, distance to neighbour's boundary, height limitations etc etc there is not much you can do.
You can check with your commune's website for this information and if it doesn't check out, then raise an opposition.
Beware: The communes also have a derrogation (Exemption) clause which can override "minor" differences.
You are going to have to live beside this person, so consider it very carefully. Generally speaking builders plan for some delays so I would not count of being able to put him under financial pressure. There is also the possibility he takes up your challenge and comes up with a plan that you like even less.
One street over from us, a neighbor started playing these games. The other guy decided that since he could not built the house he wanted he’d sell it to a developer. How then built three houses all exactly to regulation, instead of the one house with large gardens.
My advice is to never play silly buggers with something that is important to you, because you just might loose.