• Sweden edition

Cockroach surprise for Swedish property mogul

Published: 16 Sep 09 08:03 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/22108/20090916/

A Stockholm-area investment executive received a package of live cockroaches in protest of his firm’s perceived negligence in upgrading run-down apartment buildings in Malmö’s Rosengård neighbourhood.

Last Wednesday evening, police were called to the home of Simon Kling, vice president of Acta, a Norwegian investment firm which owns several rental property management companies in Sweden.

Upon arriving at Kling’s home in the upscale Stockholm suburb of Täby, police were directed to a mysterious package lying outside his front door.

When police opened the package they were startled to find 21 live cockroaches and a threatening note.

“Start renovating the buildings in Rosengård in Malmö immediately,” read the note, reports Hem & Hyra, a magazine published by the Swedish Tenants’ Union (Hyresgästföreningen).

The note was signed by Antifascist Action (AFA), which later claimed responsibility for the stunt on its website.

AFA said it delivered the roaches to Kling because Acta, “has let several rental properties which they own fall into disrepair while the leadership lives well in their newly renovated houses”.

While refraining from commenting on the incident in detail, Kling confirmed to the magazine that he’d been threatened in his capacity as an employee with Acta, calling the matter “extremely unpleasant”.

Through a chain of subsidiaries, Acta owns several rental apartment properties in Herrgården in Rosengård which gained national attention last year following reports that the buildings were infested with cockroaches and fraught with mold.

The buildings’ apartments are in such bad shape that Malmö’s environmental department delivered an ultimatum to the owners over the summer threatening to levy fines if hundreds of bathrooms, toilets, and kitchens weren’t cleaned and renovated within ten months.

The foot dragging by Acta comes after one of its other property management companies was named Sweden’s worst landlord for 2008 by Hem & Hyra.

Altogether, Acta companies held six of the ten places on Hem & Hyra’s 2008 list of the worst rental management firms in Sweden.

David Landes (news@thelocal.se/+46 8 656 6513)

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The comments below have not been moderated in advance and are not produced by The Local unless clearly stated. Readers are responsible for the content of their own comments. Comments that breach our terms and conditions will be removed.

10:09 September 16, 2009 by antoniolgj
So. TL has removed the comments from Kassir's report.

I see you guys are following step by step the manual "how to create a happy Orwellian state".

Mr. Editor do you really think ignoring what the people think about immigration in general, and Islam in particularly, will make them change their minds?
10:41 September 16, 2009 by peropaco
antoniolgj, the article is not about Islam. It is about decrepid housing and a scumbag landlord.
13:11 September 16, 2009 by Beynch
The package of cockroaches should be sent, not to the landlord, but to the social democrats and the Immigration authorities, whose policies have so royally failed over the years, with their assimilation efforts. The roaches are a direct result of the cultural degradation resulting from insufficient social infrastructure serving recent thrird world arrivals.
14:23 September 16, 2009 by Tuan Jim
One wonders whether any contractors sent to renovate these buildings and address such issues would be met in the same way that the police and firefighters regularly are? Stones, bottles, molotov cocktails, bullets?

Surely they'd be imposing and creating a hostile environment for the natives? Who would be responsible for paying for security for workers sent in to these areas?

Or would it be beneficial to consider hiring some of the vast numbers of unemployed "youths" and training them in construction (perhaps with tax breaks from the government)....or would there be no takers for a serious job offer?
14:52 September 16, 2009 by Rick Methven
What absolutely amazes me is the aptitude of the usual 'anti' posters to bring race/religion into any story in TL. It does not matter to these slime ball purveyors of hatred what the story is. They just use the comment box to spout hate. TL has recently judicially not permitted comments on some stories as the editorial staff are well aware from recent experience, that it will only become a soap box for these people. Continuing to allow such posts could lay the local open to being in breach of the discrimination act that came into force on 1st January this year

Section 1 of the discrimination act states

"The purpose of this Act is to combat discrimination and in other ways promote equal rights and opportunities regardless of sex, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation or age"

Many of the posts recently in TL are encouraging discrimination and should be stopped

So lets stop the mindless hate messages and just comment on the real subject matter. This story is about a company that is one of the countries worst landlords who are not providing the standard of accommodation that the tenants are paying for. The tenants have used an innovative way of getting the situation in the national headlines and good luck to them!
15:33 September 16, 2009 by Beynch
@methven

Which of the above comments do you consider `mindless hate messsages`, `slimball purveyors of hatred`, `breach of discrimination act` and such? Or are you perhaps a member of the über-liberal falanx on the anarchic left, with blinders on, which believes that certain things should not be said, notwithstanding the truth? I challenge you to revert with a constructive, meaningful, retort.
16:57 September 16, 2009 by Eurostan
the local.se has removed the comments from Kassir's report

the comments appeared first but then editors removed all the comments.

otherwise it would get easily more than 100 commnets.
17:34 September 16, 2009 by Rick Methven
@Beynch

The root cause of the problems or rather perceived problems is people like YOU. Who use any media to stir up antagonism against anybody who you don't like you use phrases like "The roaches are a direct result of the cultural degradation resulting from insufficient social infrastructure serving recent thrird world arrivals." I take it that 'thrird" means third? But you most probably have been lobotomized by your own hatred so are word blind.

You make statements without any foundation whatsoever, lay the blame for anything and everything at the door of immigrants. It is precisely narrow minded people like you that lead to the rise of Nazi Germany making false accusations and spreading lies. I am not a member of the anarchic left, just somebody who has spent many more years on this planet than you, and have seen the damage that your kind of posturing can do.

You leap on this story to spout your poisonous views without any link between the story and immigration. It is not about immigration but about Rachman type landlords who fail to maintain properties . the company in question - Norwegian owned ACTA is already in trouble with Malmo Komun

Hem &Hyra says re ACTA

"Efter avslöjandet har fastighetsägaren hamnat i en utdragen strid med kommunens miljöförvaltning som krävt snabba renoveringsåtgärder. I somras beslutade en enhällig miljönämnd att skärpa kravet ytterligare. Ägaren har fått tio månader på sig att renovera och sanera 302 badrum, 155 toaletter och 278 kök, annars hotar vite."

Where in the story does it say anything about immigration?

Oh sorry the word "Rosengård" was mentioned therefore your tiny brain thought immigrants and off you go ranting again. You are entitled to have your opinion. What you are not entitled to do is to use TL or any other form of media to create racial tension. That is Racial discrimination and is a crime
19:45 September 16, 2009 by Nemesis
Well now, they will know exctly what the problem is.
21:06 September 16, 2009 by Rick Methven
Beynch

Sieg Heil Mein Führer better take down your swastika before Säpo come
22:35 September 16, 2009 by kenny8076
so not only is it impossible to find a place to live in sweden, when you do, you have to get comfortable with the roaches running around? great, just great!
00:15 September 17, 2009 by totyis
@ Beynch

Well spoken. Just ignore those people who's first (and last) "best argument" is accusing the interlocutor of racism. This kind of people are not willing to have a dialog, but to attack the person, not the ideas. Better simply ignore them; You are not going to reach a common point with them.

Good luck!
13:45 September 17, 2009 by Beynch
@totyis

I know. Forgive them Father, for they do not know what they are saying.

@Rick Methven

Thank you for helping me prove my point. You dotted the `i`. I now rest my case.
10:39 September 18, 2009 by Rick Methven
Totyis & Beynch.

You prove in your posts that you are the ones that are not open to any dialog. I am always open to dialog and discussion on any subject and am always ready to listen to a point of view that is based on verifiable FACT not unsupported supposition and accusation.

I would be one of the first to say that the handling of immigration by the Swedish authorities has been mishandled to some degree. In theory immigrants should be spread around different Komun's, which has not always been the case. This has lead to concentrations of migrants in the larger conurbations (where the opportunity for work is better). This is not good for integration into the wider community as those migrants who live in areas where there is a majority of people from their own country/language have little pressure to learn Swedish. I speak 5 languages, but Swedish is most probably my weakest language even though I have been married to a Swede for 28 years, because Swedes like to speak English which reduces the pressure on me to improve my Swedish and I always have a native born Swede to help me out when required.

The lack of knowledge of either the language or culture leads to instances of abuse from some unscrupulous individuals/companies such as ACTA who do not do the maintenance work that they should do because they think that no action will be taken against them because the migrants are ignorant of their rights.

The current government seems to have accepted that there is a problem, in that they have now proposed new ways to speed up integration of immigrants. The Social Democrats where most probably a little naïve in there handling of mass migration and could of handled the situation better. BUT the Sweden Democrats utopian idea of a racially pure Sweden for ethnically pure Swedes is not going to happen. Stirring up trouble and marginalizing the migrant community is not going to result in getting all migrants from third world countries to leave Sweden. Neither is it going to stop further immigration. Get used to it, if you can not, vote with your feet and leave the country if it is the hell whole so many posters seem to believe. On the other hand you could try to be positive and help with the assimilation of migrants into Swedish society. Sure there are certain sections of the migrant communities that display anti-social or criminal behavior, but NOT ALL migrants are criminals and NOT ALL crime in Sweden is carried out by migrants. It is human nature for people to behave in the manner that the wider society perceives of them. When groups of perfectly ordinary people find that they are perceived as being bad then they start to behave badly. Making unsubstantiated accusations of criminal or anti-social behavior against any group or individual just strengthens the 'Us and Them' mentality which only deteriorates the situation further. Look for the positive aspects in multi-cultural Sweden rather than make unfounded statements.
13:11 September 18, 2009 by Beynch
@Rick Methven

This is not the place to write an epic doctorate. In a forum like this it is advisable to limit your commentary to seven lines or less. Could you restate your message once more, so that I too can read it without losing the train of thought? Thank you.
14:14 September 18, 2009 by Rick Methven
Whats wrong too many big words ie more than four letters for you?
19:06 September 18, 2009 by Dhyana
So Mr Kling says he has been "threatened"? No threat was spelled out in the message, he was simply urged to renovate the apartments under his care. And if he construes the content of the package as a threat that his home may get infested with cockroaches, then he is truly making a fool of himself and lending credence to AFA's point: to live in a cockroach-infested home is unacceptable. Quod erat demonstrandum.
00:14 September 19, 2009 by aairon
Totyis & Beynch

Are merely back ground noise, something you notice for a moment, then you get used to it and don't notice it so much, best to ignore the incomprehensible noise.

Dhyana I have to agree I see no threat in the note just an urgent plea for something to be done about a bug problem, and the sender was very kind to send a power point presentation, In 3D no less, Kudos.
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