Hidden defects in tenant-owner apartments: who answers?

You moved into the flat and find something wrong. Damp under the bathroom floor, a drainpipe that smells, a kitchen where the worktop turns out to hide old water damage.

The first question is not whether it is a hidden defect. The first question is who answers for that part of the flat. In a tenant-owner apartment the answer can be the seller, the association, or yourself. This guide goes through the boundary lines, the Sale of Goods Act rules, what counts as a defect, how you complain, and what differs from a house.

First: who owns the defect?

The association answers for the building, you answer for the flat’s interior, and the seller answers for defects in the interior that existed at purchase. That boundary decides whom to turn to.

Buying a tenant-owner apartment, you do not buy the flat as a physical object. You buy a share in the association and the right to use a certain flat. The association owns the building. Tenant-Owner Apartment Act chapter 7, section 12 says the tenant-owner must at their own expense keep the flat in good shape, with statutes specifying what that includes.

The main rule is that the association answers for frame, roof, facade, window exteriors, pipes and shared ventilation. You as a tenant-owner answer for the flat’s interior: surfaces, non-load-bearing walls, kitchen fittings, appliances, and usually bathroom waterproofing.

This decides where you go. A leaking pipe is the association’s problem whoever sold you the flat. Faulty bathroom waterproofing installed by a previous holder is instead something you may need to complain about to the seller. Read the statutes before fighting the wrong party. Many boundaries, especially around bathrooms, radiators and windows, vary between associations.

A common middle ground is damage starting in the association’s part spreading into yours. A pipe leaking into your bathroom floor is the association’s leak, but damage to your surface may still become yours to pay, depending on statutes and whether anyone was careless. There, report to the association at once, document, and read what the statutes say about water damage precisely, before deciding whom to aim claims at.

The Sale of Goods Act applies, and gives you two years

The seller’s liability for defects in a tenant-owner apartment runs two years from moving day, not ten like a house. Because a tenant-owner apartment is movable property, the Sale of Goods Act applies instead of the Land Code.

Within the two years you must also complain within reasonable time of noticing the defect. So both clocks must run your way. More on how they work is in the walkthrough of how long hidden defects last.

Two years pass fast when a defect develops slowly. If something feels doubtful at move-in, investigating it right then is worth it, not postponing to the next renovation. Damp behind tiles showing in year three is the seller’s problem only if you can show it existed at purchase and you complained in time, and the second is no longer possible.

What counts as a defect in a tenant-owner apartment?

A defect is something deviating from what you agreed or from what you, given price, age and condition, could expect, existing at purchase without being discoverable. The basic principle matches houses, but the legal text is the Sale of Goods Act.

Sale of Goods Act section 17 says the goods must match the contract and what the buyer could rightly assume. Flats are in practice almost always sold as-is, and then section 19 applies: the flat is still defective if the seller gave wrong facts, stayed silent about something material they knew, or sits in materially worse shape than you could expect given the price.

Worn surfaces in a sixties flat are no defect; that is age. A bathroom renovated in 2019 without waterproofing and without a qualified contractor is something else entirely. It deviates from what you could reasonably expect.

Your duty to inspect under Sale of Goods Act section 20 applies here too, but it is easier to meet than in a house purchase. You cannot tear up floors at a viewing. But you are expected to look, feel, smell, open cupboards, run taps, and read the documents, including the association’s annual report, which often reveals coming pipe replacements and maintenance needs.

Worked example: the bathroom without waterproofing

You buy a three-roomer for 3,200,000 kronor. The bathroom is stated renovated in 2019. Fourteen months after moving day, the hall floor outside swells, and a damp investigation shows waterproofing missing behind the tiles. Renovating the bathroom costs 180,000 kronor.

First the boundary: waterproofing is your interior maintenance under the statutes, so not the association’s matter. Then timing: fourteen months sits inside two years, and you complain in writing the same week the investigation completes, so within reasonable time. Then the defect: a bathroom described as renovated in 2019 but lacking waterproofing sits in materially worse shape than you could expect, and the defect existed at purchase. Nor was it discoverable without breaking up tiles.

The claim becomes a price reduction. It should match the gap between the flat’s value with and without the defect, with repair cost in practice often used minus a deduction for you getting a new bathroom instead of a seven-year-old one. A sane claim can therefore land somewhat below 180,000 kronor. Had the seller done the renovation themselves knowing waterproofing was missing, the broken duty of disclosure applies, and damages may add.

Had the same defect appeared after 26 months, the seller would have been free, however clear the defect. That is why a buyer review of precisely the bathroom before bidding is worth its money in a tenant-owner deal.

Financial trouble in the association is rarely a hidden defect

A fee rise or a coming pipe replacement is almost never a hidden defect, since it could be read about before purchase. Feels like a hidden defect. Rarely is one.

Maintenance plan, finances and decided renovations as a rule appear in the annual report and meeting minutes. Those documents are available to you before purchase, and what can be read counts as discoverable. Not reading them does not help you afterwards.

The exception is when the seller actively gave wrong facts or withheld something they knew. Then it is no longer about the duty to inspect but the seller’s duty of disclosure, and the situation differs. A pipe replacement decided at a meeting the seller attended, but denied when you asked, is such a case.

How you complain

Complain in writing, as soon as you found the defect, and investigate the extent afterwards. A complaint is a message stating you believe a defect exists, not a finished claim with an amount.

Write an email with a date, what you found, when you found it, and that you claim a defect in the purchase and will return with demands. Photograph before anything is torn up or wiped away. The burden of proof that the defect existed at purchase sits with you, growing heavy once the damage is fixed and only the invoice remains.

Bring in an expert early. A statement from a surveyor or damp investigator describing the defect, its likely age and cause is usually what decides whether the seller agrees to settle. Meanwhile check the legal protection in your home insurance, which can cover parts of the cost if disputes come.

Complain to the right person. The claim aims at the seller, the one standing as transferor in the agreement, not the agent and not the association. The agent can hold separate liability for giving wrong facts, but that is another track. Send the complaint to the address the seller stated in the transfer agreement and to the email you used during the deal, so nobody can claim it never arrived.

If the seller says no

With no hearing, you can turn to the National Board for Consumer Disputes, which hears tenant-owner disputes between private individuals free of charge. Decisions are recommendations, but in practice often followed.

Failing that, courts remain. Count on an expert investigation proving decisive, and check your home insurance legal protection before deciding. A dispute over waterproofing can quickly cost more than the waterproofing.

Best of all is of course never going there. A buyer review before binding bids, proper reading of the annual report, and written confirmation of what the seller tells spokenly takes an evening. And it removes most disputes otherwise appearing in year one. What applies to houses, with ten-year liability and Land Code rules, is in hidden defects after purchase.

Legal basis

A tenant-owner apartment is movable property, and the purchase is regulated by the Sale of Goods Act (1990:931). What counts as a defect sits in section 17, existing condition in section 19, buyer inspection in section 20, and complaints plus the two-year limit in section 32. Remedies of price reduction, cancellation and damages live in sections 37, 39 and 40. The line between tenant-owner and association maintenance duty sits in Tenant-Owner Apartment Act (1991:614) chapter 7, section 12 and in the association’s statutes. The National Board for Consumer Disputes hears disputes over tenant-owner purchases between private individuals.