Landlord nightmares
Landlord nightmares
Journalist: Bonnie Suntherland
Illustration: Viktor Talgøe Syvertsen
The nightmare begins
I was washing my dishes when my new roommate pointed out the white blob impregnated in the counter behind the faucet tap. “This mold is dangerous to your health,” he said, “But I’ve already told the landlord; he’s gonna fix it.” It was August, I had just moved to Ås, and this unpleasant surprise was the beginning of a dispute with my landlord which would last more than a year.
The mold growing in the kitchen counter was not the only problem with the house. A square of countertop next to the stovetop was loose and repeatedly fell into the drawer below. If we showered too long, or too soon after one another, the bathroom floor flooded. The thin toilet seat slid around on its porcelain; you had to sit very carefully. We were given one house key to share among nine roommates. I could go on.
One Saturday morning, I was awoken by a knock on my bedroom door. It was a middle-aged man who said I had taken his room. The landlord had apparently forgotten about him, and rented it to me, helping me empty the room of the man’s belongings.
The mold
My food was going moldy within days of being exposed to our kitchen. I was experiencing unusual health problems, which were all common symptoms of mold exposure. In October, I asked in writing. The landlord replied the mold would be fixed next week. Each week I would ask for updates. Each week he told me “Somebody’s coming next week.” Eventually, someone dropped off new countertops, which laid in the hall for over six months, blocking my roommate’s bedroom door. Later, someone came and cut out the moldiest piece of the counter. Unfortunately, this just left a largish hole exposed next to the faucet, with mold creeping in.
By December only my clothes were living there; I was eating and sleeping at a friend’s house. I had read up on the law and gotten advice from several sources. I notified the landlord that I would be withholding my rent until the mold was fixed, and that I was moving out before Christmas.
The whole ordeal drained a lot of time and energy – I was reading law, finding a new place to live, and taking exams. Five of the nine tenants were moving out after only four months (the remaining four wouldn’t last much longer). I couldn’t do anything to stop him renting out the house. The only scrap of restitution I had left was getting my illegal deposit returned to me. I kept messaging him, and he kept promising to send it in two days, next week, next month. After months of unfulfilled promises, it was revealed that he didn’t even know my account number.
In June, I learned that the landlord had abruptly moved into the house, and that only one tenant had gotten their deposit back, and it came in three separate installments. My only chance was to send in a case to Rent Disputes Tribunal (HTU), which handles disputes between renters and landlords. I alerted my landlord; he said, “Just give me three more days. I have money coming in.”
In November, HTU ruled the case in my favor, but couldn’t enforce it; I had to make my case with a division of the police, Namsmannen. They can deduct directly from his bank account. Bureaucracy and more missed deadlines brought us to March; now I’ve waited 15 months trying to get back 13500 kr (and 1600 kr interest). But the wait is finally over – the police have ended the case. They found that my landlord has no employer, no income, no savings, and he doesn’t own anything of any value (the house is owned by someone else). The man who drove a Tesla and bragged to us about his penthouse apartment in Oslo can’t afford to pay me back. I now owe 1500 kr in case fees, and he owes nothing.
A shared nightmare
My rental experience was unique in some ways, and absurd, but hardly uncommon. I talked with another student, “Sam”, who was wise enough to avoid the illegal deposit, but still dealt with quite an unpleasant landlord.
When winter descended, it became obvious how poorly insulated the house was. The doorway was leaking out heat. Sam could feel wind by standing in front of their closed window. Condensation dripped down the glass. The landlord’s response was that they should be vigilantly wiping the condensation off the windows. “I can’t do that every twenty minutes,” Sam comments. The landlord shamed the tenants about their electricity use, rather than fixing the insulation issues. Several times the landlord came to the house, letting himself in without knocking, and checked the heater temperature. Once when it was unsatisfactory, he screamed at the tenants. “Show me the law where the landlord can demand your heating level,” says Sam. The landlord also suggested they unplug their freezer to save electricity, despite it being full of food. Additionally, the landlord would sometimes choose not to speak English to the international tenants, as if he had forgotten how.
Sam’s landlord, like many others, uses yearlong contracts as a norm. But such short fixed-term leases is only allowed under a few restrictive exceptions, such as renting student housing, or when the renter lives in the same house as the landlord (see footnote). Using one-year contracts allows private landlords to raise rent with each new contract, without regard to the consumer price index.
Exploitation
Students are extremely vulnerable to exploitation in private housing. Inexperience, naivety, pressure on time and finances, and other immediate priorities can lead to students not wanting to or not knowing when to speak up. Carelessness from previous tenants can also lead to problems with housing conditions.
What’s the solution? I don’t know. But here are some things to avoid:
Yellow flags (watch out)
Photos on Finn.no are old and obviously recycled, and don’t have descriptive captions.
The Finn.no description is so old it refers to UMB instead of NMBU.
It’s unclear how many rooms are in the house or the rental price for each room.
Several (3+) rooms of the house are available at the same time (previous tenants have fled).
They’ll only rent to certain groups, like students (They either don’t know the law or are knowingly breaking the law - they’re not a serious actor).
You come to a showing and the landlord isn’t there.
The address isn’t listed in the Finn.no announcement.
Good tips
Keep records of everything! Take pictures or videos when you go for a showing and when you move in – show all the flaws that are already there.
When you ask your landlord to fix something, ask in writing. If you talk in person, you can send a text afterwards reminding them what you’ve discussed.
A legal deposit is in a separate deposit account with the renter’s name on it.
Bargain collectively with your roommates.
Red flags (get out!)
The tenants cycle out so often, or there are so many empty rooms, that the Finn.no announcement is always active.
The landlord is cagey about information or hard to get into contact with.
The landlord wants a deposit in their private account because “it always works fine”.
The landlord complains about the fee involved in setting up a legal deposit account.
It’s not possible to talk with the current tenants. Even worse if the current tenants tell you to get out while you can.
The landlord seems to be aware they’re breaking laws.
There’s a line in the contract that says: “renting as is” (som den er), gives a deadline to alert the landlord about flaws, or similar. Signing onto this contract severely weakens your right to get flaws fixed later.
To get help:
Jussbuss – law students in Oslo who give free legal help. 7 specialties, including housing law.
Juridisk Rådgivning for Kvinner (JURK). Law students in Oslo who give free legal help to women. Several specialties including housing law.
Jussformidlingen. Law students in Bergen who give free legal help, also for housing law.
Leieboerforeningen (LBF) – Renters union. Student membership is 250kr per year and includes legal help and full access to their online resources.
Husleietvistutvalget (HTU) - Rent Disputes Tribunal. Their webpage “Your rights and obligations” https://www.htu.no/en/your-rights-and-obligations /
Source:
Leieboerforeningen, Tidsbestemte leieavtaler – lov eller ikke lov?
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