Tips to avoid trouble with bedsits

Student Apartment Bedsits rental flat student housingStudent Apartments. Photo: Pixabay.com

CAC with tips to avoid trouble with bedsits

The study seat allocation for higher education was presented on Thursday. Now thousands of students are hunting for a place to stay. The Consumer Advisory Council (CAC, Forbrukerrådet) has several tips up their sleeves for those hunting for bedsits or similar accommodations.

 

Thousands of students are hunting for a place to live, and figures from Education News (Utdanningsnytt) in late June showed that just shy of 10,000 students were queuing to obtain a students’ flat already.

This means that they also have to look for bedsits in the private market, which prompts the Consumer Advisory Council to provide several tips. The council receives many thousands of questions regarding rent every year, and last year, the Boarding Conflict Committee (Husleietvistutvalget) received more than 2,700 cases where the tenant and the landlord were in disagreement.

– Our advice to avoid trouble is to check the contract and status of the apartment or bedsit, says Thomas Iversen. Iversen is a lawyer working for the Consumer Advisory Council.

Depositum, faults and deficiencies

It is especially when it comes to deposits that one has to be on the alert.

– Never put the deposit in the landlord’s bank account. It must be placed in a separate deposit account, where the money is safe in case of trouble. We regularly hear about landlords who have the deposit in their account, and often the tenant loses this money due to vague claims for compensation for faults and deficiencies, he says.

Among the things one has to check is if there is moisture in the apartment. Black patches and stains in the apartment can be a sign of mould. If you notice other faults like holes in the walls or doors, loose cabinet doors and other similar things when moving in, the landlord must be informed of this immediately, preferably witnessed to be on the safe side. Later it may prove to be too late.

– You can not complain about anything that you should have seen or understood during the viewing of the apartment, Iversen emphasizes.

To few student apartments

According to the Norwegian Student Organization (NSO), 3,000 student housing units must be built every year to meet the demand. The national coverage rate for student housing is now 15 per cent, but NSO thinks this must be upped to 20 per cent.

– It’s a shame if students have to waive the study seat just because they can not find a place to live. Some students have to sleep in makeshift dorms or temporarily stay at a hotel. It’s an extra burden that we do not want any students to experience, says Leader of the NSO, Håkon Mikalsen, to the Radio Station P4.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today