I was tempted to put this in the jokes/memes category, but unfortunately for the residents it’s not funny at all.
"Jonas Lauwiner has appropriated more than 150 ownerless lots. In the canton of Lucerne, the goodwill of the self-proclaimed “King of Switzerland” could cost the residents of a small street dearly.
He did it again: the self-proclaimed “King of Switzerland” was enriched with a new piece of land that had previously been ownerless. In the municipality of Geuensee in the canton of Lucerne, Jonas Lauwiner now owns the Rosenweg. Residents are duped, the canton is powerless and the “king” can set conditions for use and/or restitution, as reported by the “Luzerner Zeitung”.
It should be remembered once again that Switzerland is not a monarchy and that Jonas Lauwiner is of course not a king either, and that, according to “Blick”, he works mainly as an IT specialist in a pharmaceutical company.
Nevertheless, in the meantime he had built up a considerable empire. He reigns over more than 150 courts in Switzerland, which he has made his own with a simple trick.
To do this, he takes advantage of a gap in the case law and specifically searches for ownerless land. These plots of land that belong to no one are more numerous than we think in Switzerland.
In principle, anyone can appropriate such land. A simple entry in the land register is enough to take possession of the land. The only cost: the official application fee of a few hundred francs.
This is what happened in Geuensee. Since the inhabitants of the Rosenweg were not quick enough to set up a road cooperative, Lauwiner has almost “stolen the road from under their noses” and may even demand money for the right of way.
In the meantime, Jonas Lauwiner has made three proposals to the residents on how they could recover the street. The first possibility is to rename the Rosenweg the “Lauwinerweg”. But no one wants that. There are still options two and three: buy the road for 80,000 to 150,000 francs or exchange it for a plot of land of the same value. But this too is not considered realistic.
“He is already aware that we are not in the canton of Zug and that we cannot pay such prices,” says Janine Wapf, head of the construction and infrastructure department of the municipality of Geuensee. It confirms that Lauwiner has done nothing wrong and that the transfer of ownership is legal.
But local residents should expect that Lauwiner will be able to demand “certain perimeter contributions” for future maintenance work on its road."
Makes you wonder how a piece of land that a road is built on is unowned though.