The complainant paid 18,500 kronor a month over the course of 14 months for a 57 square metre apartment with two rooms, plus kitchen and bathroom, writes Dagens Juridik.
In Sweden, people subletting rented apartments are not allowed to charge more in rent than they pay for the apartment themselves, plus costs for internet, electricity, and similar running costs. They can also add a fee of up to 15 percent for a fully-furnished apartment.
The rent for the Stockholm sublet included furniture, but the rental tribunal as well as the appeals court found that a reasonable rent would have been 9,950 kronor, meaning the apartment's former resident will now be paid 120,527 kronor in overpaid rent.
Despite Sweden's strict rules on subletting, far from all 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 people do not realise is that even after the rental period is over, you can still get back any excess rent you have paid for a sublet by applying to the Rent and Tenancy Tribunal or Hyresnämnden, which functions like a court judging rental disputes. If you've paid excess rent, you can make a claim for up to 24 months back in time, depending on how long you were living in the apartment.
Note that if you're renting an apartment that's owned by your landlord (rather than subletting an apartment which your landlord rents), the rules are slightly different. They are allowed to charge a higher amount and you are not able to get rent back retroactively.
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