A resident of Baden took the case of the noises of her upstairs neighbors to the highest levels of Swiss justice. The reason: every Thursday and every Saturday, the people upstairs vacuumed for about 25 minutes. Total: 50 minutes per week. She wanted to force them to install full sound insulation in the living room and dining room.
In February 2023, he filed the lawsuit with the District Court of Baden. They rejected him. He went to the Cantonal Court of Aargau. They rejected it. It reached the Federal Court, in Lausanne. They also rejected him, and he also had to pay 3,000 francs of court costs.
The arguments of the courts were consistent in all three instances: the noise existed, it could be annoying, but it remained within the limits of what is a normal use of a floor. Those who live in a stacked block of flats have to accept certain noises. The neighbor's vacuum cleaner is one of them.
The story has just been published after the ruling of the Federal Court. But it's not an anecdote. It illustrates something very concrete about how coexistence works in Switzerland: the rules are there, the limits are there, and yes, there are people who go to Lausanne for their neighbor's 50 minutes of weekly vacuum cleaner. And here what is most surprising is not that someone has tried. It's just that I tried three times.