Trick or treat… or a complaint?
On Halloween evening, my children, dressed as a witch and a skeleton, went round the neighbourhood with some other children to go trick-or-treating. One neighbour didn’t open the door and shouted at them that he’d call the police. The next day, his front wall was pelted with eggs. Were they allowed to ring the doorbells of strangers’ homes? What are the consequences if he files a complaint? M, Carouge
Your little rascals were perfectly within their rights to ring that grumpy man’s doorbell, as there is no law prohibiting children from walking down a freely accessible path. Trespassing (section 186 of the Criminal Code, CC) only applies to anyone who enters a house or enclosed garden without authorisation, or who remains there despite being told to leave. By turning back at the first remark, your children therefore did nothing wrong.
In Geneva, however, Article 37 of the Regulations on Public Health and Peace (RSTP) prohibits maliciously disturbing residents, in particular by misusing their doorbells. Your neighbour, for his part, had the right to keep his door shut and his sweets all to himself; his refusal called for neither justification, nor insistence, nor even a curse…
As for the warning «trick or treat!», it must, of course, remain a joke. Throwing eggs at a building façade constitutes damage to property (section 144 of the Swiss Criminal Code), which is prosecuted upon complaint. The aggrieved party has three months to lodge a complaint once they know the perpetrator (section 31 of the Swiss Criminal Code). However, they will still need to identify the culprit, and it is up to them to establish who threw the projectiles. As long as no one can prove that it was your children, you have little to worry about.
If your children were nevertheless implicated, their age would be the deciding factor. Children under the age of 10 are not liable to any criminal sanctions. The authorities will simply notify their parents (section 4 of the Juvenile Criminal Law, DPMin). From the age of 10, they are liable to sanctions that are primarily educational in nature.
In civil law, the head of the family is liable for damage caused by their minor children, unless they can prove that they supervised them with the care required by the circumstances (Article 333 of the Civil Code, CC). This liability is therefore not automatic. The parents of a 6-year-old child left alone at night will be judged more severely than those of teenagers who have been properly briefed.
Ultimately, your children are in no way to blame if they simply rang the doorbell and then left. The wisest course of action is to go and speak to that neighbour and tell them frankly what you know. L’Escalade is coming up, and your children will soon be going from door to door again, singing as they go. It would be a shame if neighbourly relations were to break down before the stew is ready!
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