Good fences may make good neighbours, but since most people in Switzerland live in apartments, such close living conditions often spark tensions.
For some residents in Switzerland, the dictum ‘Love thy neighbour’ is difficult to live up to, as a new study carried out by the Zurich-based Marketagent Institute reveals.
The main take-away from the survey is that nearly a third of people in Switzerland have had conflicts with their neighbours, and for 80 percent of respondents, the responsibility for the dispute lies — not surprisingly —with the other party.
On the positive side, most of those surveyed judged that they had a ‘fairly good’ or even ‘very good’ relationship with their neighbours — 46 and 22 percent, respectively.
Only 6 percent consider it to be ‘bad’.
What are neighbours squabbling about most?
The most frequent bone of contention (for 45 percent of respondents) are noise-related disturbances.
Anything from barking dogs, screaming children, playing the drums, or loud parties can be a huge headache for people living in apartment buildings where walls are sometimes too thin for comfort.
Non-compliance with the laundry room schedule or regulations — such as using the equipment on a day other than the one assigned to the tenant, or not removing fluff and hair known as lint from the dryer — is in a distant second place (22 percent).
Some friction also arises from issues regarding storage of personal belongings in common areas of the building.
And these problems don’t just occur between tenants.
The survey found that disagreements sometimes also arise between owners regarding property boundaries, such as fences, plants, etc.
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How are these frictions resolved?
The survey shows that 43 percent of those questioned said they had sought dialogue with their neighbours — that is, an amicable resolution.
A quarter (24 percent) were “silently angry,” while 22 percent contacted their management company.
Only 7 percent called the police.
What do other surveys reveal about ‘neighbourly’ relations?
It seems that tensions of this kind — and how they are resolved — are based on where in Switzerland they occur (after all, everything here is canton-based).
A study by real estate portal Homegate looked at the most common gripes in different parts of the country.
It showed that French and Italian-speaking Swiss are more likely to have problems with their neighbours than those in German-speaking Switzerland.
But the coast isn’t totally clear for German-speaking Swiss – in fact, the problems are a little closer to home.
That’s because they are more likely to have problems with people living in their own household than those in Italian-language Ticino.
Residents of German-speaking Switzerland are also more likely to have disputes with their landlords than those in the rest of the country.
READ ALSO: What annoys Swiss people most about their neighbours
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What is a foreigner to do?
It is not always easy to fit into a local culture, especially an established, rule-heavy one like a Swiss neighbourhood.
If you come from abroad and don’t want to offend your new neighbours in any way, simply follow these rules:
READ ALSO: Nine ways you might be annoying your neighbours (and not realising it) in Switzerland
