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Renting in Sweden: How do I know if I’m being charged fairly?

Swedish law states that if you're renting a home, you must not be charged more than a "reasonable" rent, and yet a black market exists. There are several calculations you can do to make sure you're not being ripped off.

Published: 24 July 2020 07:39 CEST
Updated: 24 June 2021 07:41 CEST
Renting in Sweden: How do I know if I'm being charged fairly?
How do you know if you're being charged a fair rent for an apartment, room or house in Sweden? Photo: Tomas Oneborg/SvD/TT

This only applies if you’re sub-letting an apartment, room or house from someone else, called renting i andrahand or ‘secondhand’ in Swedish. Renting directly from the building owner or housing agency, with a so-called förstahandskontrakt (first-hand contract) means rent controls often apply, but so does a queue system which often means you have to wait years to get one of these contracts in the bigger cities.

If you sub-let, you’ll either be renting from someone who has their own first-hand contract (this is called hyresrätt), or from someone who owns the property (called bostadsrätt if it’s an apartment or house belong to a housing association).

The rules are slightly different in both situations. It’s easiest to calculate a fair rent for a hyresrätt apartment, because your landlord pays rent themselves. They can charge you more than the exact amount they pay in rent, but only enough to cover extra fees or services included in the rent (such as internet, TV, and electricity) as well as a surcharge if you’re renting the apartment furnished. 

It’s not set out in law how much extra they can charge for a furnished apartment, but around 10-15 percent is generally seen as reasonable. Note that that’s for a fully furnished home, in other words a property where the tenant can live without bringing any extra furniture.


Homes in desirable areas of large cities can often be sublet at a high price. Photo: Bertil Ericson/SCANPIX

It’s more complicated for a bostadsrätt apartment or any other privately-owned home. 

In this case, the actual amount your landlord pays for their mortgage doesn’t affect how much they can charge for rent, so even if they own the property outright they can charge you based on the property’s value.

Instead, the calculation is made based on the market value calculated at a monthly rate, which might be worked out based on recently sold similar properties. Then, four percent is usually added on to cover the “cost of capital”.

On top of that, you’ll be charged for monthly costs. That includes things like internet, TV, and electricity, but also the monthly fee paid to the bostadsrättsförening (housing association) if the property belongs to one — this is the case for most apartments and some houses. And once again, if the property is being rented out furnished, the landlord is allowed to add 10-15 percent to cover this.

Some companies that manage sublet apartments have tools for calculating out reasonable rent based on the property’s size, location, and monthly costs, for example Samtrygg and Qasa. These services are both aimed at landlords, and an alternative is Boupplysning’s calculator, although only available in Swedish.

And what if you’re not going to be using the whole property, but just part of it?

If you’re renting out part of the apartment or house as an inneboende or one of several tenants, you do the same calculations as above depending on what kind of property it is, and calculate the proportion of the total rent/market value plus cost of capital equivalent to the proportion of living space you can use. Then you add on the cost of any services or furniture in the same way as above.

Doing these calculations yourself should give you an idea of the figure you should be looking at, but your landlord should also be able to show you how they’ve calculated the rent. Don’t be afraid to ask for the breakdown of costs.

Most importantly, make sure that you sign a contract with your landlord which states the full rent amount including any deposit, and that you pay it to the bank account stated in the contract each month. Never hand over any money without first signing a contract, and never make any transfers not regulated by the contract or any payments in cash.

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PROPERTY

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

In Sweden, people subletting apartments are not allowed to charge more in rent than they themselves pay. But foreign subtenants don't always know this. We asked Roland Sjölin, lawyer at the Swedish Tenants' Association, about how to get back excess rent.

Published: 18 April 2024 15:19 CEST
Updated: 21 April 2024 08:12 CEST
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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