More than 40CHF because they will have some admin costs to add on top as it is not a normal parking fine

Bienvenue chez les Suisses .

The parking probably had the '2 hour max' sign on it  , tenant or not, hence the fine.  And I bet this was not the first time you parked your car there ?

As to David's comment about "welcome to Switzerland", in the UK they would have put a yellow BOOT on one of your tyres .  As far as disagreeable experiences go, I'd guess the ticket is pretty civilized and commensurate with the offence.  Many you never receive the fine as this is just one way of discouraging you not do it again

I've got to be honest with you but I've no idea what they do in the UK, I was just warning that when you get a fénonciationthere are additional administative costs compared to a normal fine and these are normally passe don. I think a warning might be more reasonable in the first instance.

However there is little to be done against the mighty dénonciation, we've got a bit of a hang up about it in France due to the implications regarding Jews in the Second world war but that's how it is done in CH.

If there was a sign saying maximum 2 hours or something like that I would deserve it.  Here is a picture of the sign.  No mention of a time limit!

Well I hope you are right and that I don't actually get the fine.  Nothing received so far, and it is at least seven days.  (Swiss efficiency?)

It is undoubtedly the conçierge of the building who stuck a PV on Marcus' windscreen. Legaly the owner of the property cannot go after Marcus directly (at least he didn't slash his tyres), however the police/admin play the game and do the legal ticketing.

My guess is that Marcus won't ever see a ticket for this offence (maybe he will, who knows), but just to say that the Swiss system is fair and reasonable.

To  David, you announce yourself as British, I assume you know what the "Boot" is, a rather nasty experience (let's see, first its a trip to the police station, then pay your fine and the cost of putting on the Boot +£100, find the guy who put on the Boot and pay him to take it off (another £100) and beg him to remove it within the next 6 hours; bad luck if you aren't htere when he does remove it, as they are likely to add yet another Boot for passing the parking meter by 15 minutes, back to square one.  I think CHF 40 is a fair price to pay. 

In Switzerland it is called "dénonciation", in the USA its the CIA+FBI=deportation, in France they are on strike, in Italy its the mob.  As for the UK, the Boot works just fine.

I strongly suspect you might be right about the concierge.  I asked him if he knew about the tickets and parking rules and he seemed to know far more than I would have expected about the ticketing process and which cars had been done this week than I would have expected from a man who cleans the halls.  I guess its too late to bribe him?

I would suggest phoning the regie or the number on the ticket(or both if you don't have luck with the first one).

The contravention is quite likely to have been made out by private security company working for the regie. That’s what hapens where I live

Explain that you  live in the building and that you left your vehicule exceptionally for a tempory period and were delayed getting back to it in time and apologize,  ask them if it is possible to cancel the contravention.

With luck you may get away with it before the paperwork goes any further and just get a warning not to do it again. 

An official fine will have to be processed and would take probably about a month to arrive if you haven’t challenged it, or they aren't sympathetic to your request

Thanks for that detailed explaination of the "boot", I've never lived anywhere where they use such a thing.

Forgot to say that in our parking lot the visitors places are officially valid for 3 hours, even though like yours there is nothing marked. 

The concierge here told me the time limit and security firm checks are often to dissuade frontalier workers from leaving their cars there during the day.

David - they use the boot right here in Geneva. (or, at least, they used to) I was booted in the Mont Blanc parking garage a couple years ago for having a wheel on the yellow line. I had to go to the parking office, pay a 25chf fine and then they came immediately and removed the boot. I've been careful how I park, since then;-)

KEN///

I've never seen such tiny bays as you get in the Geneva carparks so I can understand you getting a wheel on a line.

Yeah, never appeal parking fines in CH. :-(

Marcus: 2 fines of CHF 60 each? Why 2?

.. to dissuade him from appealing again, presumably. How can this private company "fine" you extra, when you appeal? ..

There are cases of people who have gone to court about these kinds of fines and ended up with 1000 CHFs in court costs, additional fines etc.