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‘Drunks’ hired to scare off rival flathunters

A bunch of men "squealing like stuck pigs" showed up at 6pm on the dot only to meander off when a flat showing in a trendy area of Stockholm concluded 30 minutes later - with their howls prompting the estate agent's suspicion.

Published: 26 March 2014 10:56 CET

'Drunks' hired to scare off rival flathunters

Carrier bags from the state liquor shop Systembolaget. File: TT

"Their timekeeping was just a bit too perfect for it to be a coincidence," realtor Josef Hejibel told The Local on Wednesday.

He said the fact that the four men arrived bang on time for the showing – set up camp outside to holler – only to leave on schedule was just one of three factors that tipped him off to the possibility the men had been hired to show up.

The ragtag bunch was also "much nosier than usual (alcoholics)", Hejibel said, and a neighbour quickly told him she had never experienced anything like it in her decade in the apartment block.

"I thought 'What on earth is going on'," neighbour Eva Bowerstone told the Metro newspaper on Wednesday. "I thought someone had become the victim of a crime, but then I saw the alcoholics sitting there screaming and squealing like stuck pigs."

As more than 50 flathunters inspected the flat in Södermalm on the first viewing, with another 20 so showing up on the second day, the squeals were loud enough to be heard inside the apartment – "the balcony door was open" – but not so noisy that Hejibel couldn't talk to the prospective bidders.

"I told all of them that I thought it was staged and most seemed to accept that," he said.

"There's a lot of pressure on the (property) market right now with high numbers of people looking for a new home and very high prices," he added. "I can't say with 100 percent accuracy that it was staged, but I believe that it was a desperate measure to frighten off the other would-be bidders."

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INTERVIEW: 'Most foreigners in Sweden don't know they can get back excess rent'

More and more of the people asking the Swedish Tenants’ Association, Hyresgästföreningen in Swedish, for help with excess rent are foreigners, Sjölin told The Local in an interview.

“The problem is that if you’re coming from another country, and you’re subletting an apartment, you’re probably not familiar with the rules in Sweden, because in other countries, it might be okay to overcharge your tenants.”

He said that clients from India in particular seeking help from the association were now “very common”.

“Many people come here to work as engineers in the IT sector and then have to rent somewhere,” he said, adding that as a group Indians appeared to be “very aware of their rights.”

Sweden’s rental sector is heavily regulated, with first hand contracts negotiated between landlords and the Tenants’ Association, and the rent that can be charged for second-hand contracts limited to only a small fraction above what the first-hand renter pays.

“You’re not allowed to make any profit subletting an apartment in Sweden,” Sjölin explains. “You can only charge the subletting tenant the same rent as you [the first-hand tenant] are paying to your landlord, and then you can add the costs for internet and electricity, and perhaps a parking lot, if that is included.”

Tenants’ Association lawyer Roland Sjölin. Photo: supplied.

You can also add a påslag or “markup”, if you are renting out the apartment fully furnished, but this cannot exceed more than 15 percent of the rent.

That doesn’t mean that most landlords follow the law. The competition for rental apartments, especially in Stockholm, is so intense, that unscrupulous sublet landlords often try to get away with charging well over the legal amount, charging what is known in Sweden as ockerhyra, or “excess rent” and hoping that their tenants are too desperate to complain.

What many foreigners do not realise is that even after the rental period is over, they can still get back any excess rent they have paid by applying to the Rental Board or Hyresnämnden, which functions like a court judging rental disputes.

“If you have the evidence then it’s fairly easy,” Sjölin said. “I get a new case every second week on repayment of unfair rent, and I think that I win most of them.”

“Nowadays, you can get paid back excess rent up to 24 months back in time, so people tend to get more money,” he added. “In some cases, they can get 200,000 kronor. In other cases, perhaps it’s only 30,000 kronor or 60,000 kronor. It depends on how long you have rented the apartment, and how excessive the rent you’ve been paying has been.”

The first step is to establish what would have been a fair rent, either by asking your landlord what they themselves pay directly or by checking with the Tenants’ Association.

“Because we negotiate most rents in Sweden, we normally know what the firsthand rent is,” Sjölin explained.

Then you need to collect together your evidence.

“It’s a good thing to have a written contract and also papers from your bank showing that you paid rent every month, and perhaps photographs of the apartment, so the rental board can get an idea of the apartment you were renting and what would be a fair rent, and also the termination for the contract so you can show the court how long you’ve been living in the apartment.”

But Sjölin underlined that since Sweden has free burden of evidence, none of this is essential.

“Even if you’ve been paying in cash, if you have witnesses who can testify what you were paying each month, you still have a chance of getting your money back. It’s a bit more tricky, but I’ve won two cases like that this year.”

People in Sweden, he explained, tend to wait until the rental period is over before seeking to get paid back excess rent rather than challenging their landlord while they are still living in the apartment.

“You don’t have any legal protection for your home for the first two years, so if you bring the matter up with the person you’re renting the apartment from you risk losing your contract and having to move out, so most people wait until they’re supposed to move anyway,” he said.

If you apply to the rental board for a refund close to the day you move out, you can then make your landlord pay back all excess rent paid in the 24 months leading up to the date you contacted the rental board.

If you are a member of the Tenants’ Association, you can contact them and ask for help with your application, but there are also specialist companies, like Orimlig Hyra AB who will buy your case off you and give you a refund within 48 hours, saving you a long wait in exchange for a cut of the money reclaimed.

Sjölin said that the rental board normally took about 8 months to come to a judgement, but that if the person with the first hand contract appeals, that could extend the waiting time by between six months and a year.

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