Dreadful Procedure of the Zürcher Baugenossenschaft Röntgenhof:
The administration shredded all the shoes that stood in the stairwell.
- by Reto Stauffacher, Beobachter, updated on 12 September 2017
https://www.beobachter.ch/wohnen/gen...5c80d-93251413
"There have been discussions about the stairwell for years," says a resident of the building cooperative "Röntgenhof" in Zurich. These are inexpensive but very small apartments in the middle of the city of Zurich. Above all young, low-income families live there. There is hardly room for shoes in the apartment, so it is necessary to deposit them in the stairwell - especially if they are wet or dirty.
"We have suggested to the cooperative that we have to put up shelves, or cupboards, at our expense," said the resident, "but they refused." For every issue, the administration had always put the same argument: "Be grateful that you can live here so cheaply. If it does not suit you, then you can leave. "
Once or twice a year the residents received a letter asking them to take their shoes out of the stairwell. If they did not, they would be removed. "We did not take this threat so seriously," says the resident. "For I have doubted whether my shoes & boots can be so easily stolen and destroyed."
He was wrong. At the end of August, the building cooperative began to put their threat into action. Employees gathered all the shoes in several houses and disposed of them in a shredder in front of the appartments. An employee of the cooperative confirmed the action against the observer but did not wish to comment any further. The director Tatjana Horvath did not want to comment.
Rosmarie Naef, an observer & consultant, had something to say: "In fact, the behavior of the cooperative is not correct. It is not allowed to simply shred the shoes standing in the stairwell. "However, the tenants' behavior was wrong:" The staircase can only be used as an access to the apartment. There is no right to store items there. "It would be correct if the administration set a deadline for the tenants - and the shoes would be collected after the expiry of this period, but not disposed of. This would allow the cooperative to return them.
Normally, a clarifying discussion between the two parties, if necessary also free of charge, before the arbitration authority for rented items. In this situation, however, it would be difficult to do something: "If the receipt is still available, the lessor may be asked to pay damages in the case of newer shoes." In any case, a criminal complaint could also be examined, according to Naef. "In court, however, I consider the chance of success as extremely small."
