Friday night we were watching a movie (what we thought was at a perfectly ok volume) and at 23:00 the Polizei show up on behalf of a noise complaint.
I can understand that maybe it got loud at parts because it was a war movie (War Horse..(not very good!)), and also can understand that it was past the bedtimes of our dear Swiss neighbors so we should have seen some sort of complaint coming our way (no noise after 22:00 after all). But what i can't understand is who calls the cops for a TV being too loud without first asking us to turn it down? Honestly, we didn't realize it was too loud and of course we would have turned it down had we been asked to.
So the cops show up, said that we received a warning and if it happens again it'll be a 100CHF fine. That just doesn't seem fair to me...what if someone just calls the cops again to be spiteful without it being deserved? We never got a complaint from our neighbors in the first place, so how do you know if you ever do anything wrong until the Polizei show up?
And of course we don't know who called them, so every time I pass by a neighbor I get in a bad mood
I believe you can have it loud up to 23:00, but after that you need to tone it down.
My sound system has a "Late Night" mode that pulls back on the base whumps, so I can generally keep a decent sound level without the bass disturbing traveling around rattling windows. .
Certainly NOT my way of doing things- and in my experience, not 'THE' Swiss way either - but perhaps where I live is a bit ... different to where you are. A great pity imho - pathetic indeed. Are you sure your neighbours are Swiss btw? Surely you know who your neighbours are below, over and next to you. Why not put a note in their letter-box apologising and asking them to knock on your door another time?
Taking the time and effort to know your neighbours really pays dividends in the long run, and can avoid that sort of thing (hopefully!).
Yes, I think it is a good idea to go to talk to your next door neighbours and tell them what happened and therefore you want to apologize to them personally.
I did the same thing (but with the other way scenario) when I was awaken by loud music at 7 o'clock on Sunday morning by my next door neighbours. They understood my point , said sorry and it has never happened again (up to now).
The funny thing is, I had never heard the expression "Bünzli" until we moved to Zürich. And that was after 10 years in Basel. I always assumed the posts on EF about neighbours were just exaggerated.
Our downstairs neighbours - the ones who complained about my 4 year old saying "bye bye Daddy" in the corridor when I left for work - frequently run their in-apartment washing machine on Sundays and after 10pm. Should I call the police?
gee seems to be a typical case of haerent in assinum if you ask me (stick in the ...) I am happy to report so far that has not happened to me, but then again my apartment building has great isolation
well i have never lived in an apartment building until i moved to switzerland. it still surprises me that even in tiny, random alp villages the majority of housing is always apartments! there is so much room here, why aren't there more houses? (then it might be possible to watch a movie after curfew and not get in trouble)
i guess the Swiss just like to live close together and then complain about each other
I think the Swiss and English are not too dissimilar. The Swiss like to complain, the English like to grumble.
Today, I was wondering where I could live which would be within 1 hour of civilization (say, central london or NYC) yet have a detached house that is far away from neighbours - oh and it has to be affordable :P any ideas?
Hubby and I always wear headphones to watch TV after 10.pm. We can turn the sound up high, disturb no-one, everybody's happy. As they say, a no brainer!
I don't know but I consider noise as very anti-social.
Perhaps your neighbours don't speak English and therefore can't make their point clear or perhaps they had in the past neighbours like you and simply don't want to deal with problems like this anymore.
But why do you ask us and not them? I am sure they know the answer
It is not "the Swiss" way to call the police but maybe they have had bad experiences in the past and were just fed up? Do you know your neighbours at all? Maybe they have a small child sleeping in the room below the room where you're watching TV and the child was woken up or they have to leave very early for work the next day and could not go to sleep - there are many possibilities and all here is speculation.
I would do as suggested by others and post a note / speak to your neighbours in order to find out what you should do/change and ask them to call you / knock on your door the next time they think the TV is too loud.
Unfortunately noises travel and isolation is not always very good. I can hear all my neighbours as well in the evening, even if they are just talking / walking normally. I woke up at least once as my downstairs neighbour rang the bell to his flat. I nearly got out of bed because I thought it must have been the bell in my apartment. It could very well be that the isolation in your apartment is as bad as it is in mine maybe ask your neighbours if you can enter the apartment - you might be surprised at how well you might hear your own TV....
Short answer: it's a cultural thing, pure and simple. Knocking on your neighbor's door to ask him to turn it down is seen as more of a potential escalation, if you don't know him well, than leaving a note in his mailbox or calling the landlord/police.
Seems upside down to most English speakers but it's just how it is. Going through official channels (whether that means the landlord, the police or a letter in the mailbox) is simply good manners, anything more direct smacks of aggression and vigilantism. According to the Swiss way of thinking, this is what landlords and police are put on this earth for - so that the rules can be upheld and fairly applied without the need for personal confrontation.
If you're already on friendly (and I mean friendly, not just amicable) terms with the neighbor, it's a different story. In that case the informality of not making an official complaint is appreciated. You still don't go downstairs and knock on his door immediately though, that would be an intrusion on his privacy. Instead, the Done Thing is to ignore the disturbance if at all possible and then mention it to him the next time you see him. "Last Tuesday evening between 10:30 and 11:15 PM you seemed to be watching TV at a loud volume. Do you think you could turn it down in future as the house rules state that these are supposed to be quiet hours?" (Note that you still have to refer to the rules! This is important, you want to avoid any whiff of "because I said so".)
Again, this is really difficult to grasp because it's still completely backwards for us... local custom is what it is though, and the sooner you can get to grips with it, the less mad these encounters will drive you.
If it's any comfort, once you're friends with your neighbor you can explain it to him over coffee some day and watch him try to bend his mind round the difference.