Rent check
Spot scams and too-high rent
In many places there's a housing shortage, and scammers exploit it. Check the ad before you pay anything, work out whether the rent is too high, and see how you can get money back.
- Never pay before you've seen the home and the contract is signed.
- The rent tribunal (hyresnämnden) decides whether a rent is too high. This is a rough check, not legal advice.
1. Is the ad a scam?
Tick what's true about the ad or the landlord. Nothing is saved.
Do this before you pay
- See the home in person, and bring a friend if you can.
- Check with the property owner that the person rents the apartment and may sublet it. Find the number yourself. Don't use links or numbers the landlord has sent.
- Ask to see the landlord's ID, and insist on a written contract.
- Never pay before you've seen the home and the contract is signed, and never through anonymous payment services.
- A personnummer or account number from the landlord doesn't protect you.
Already paid? Call your bank right away: it may be able to stop the payment. Save transfers, e-mails and messages. Then report it to the police on 114 14 or at a police station, and report the ad to the site where you saw it.
2. Is the rent too high?
Who do you rent from?
You sublet from someone who has a rental contract themselves (hyresrätt). Then the starting point is the rent they pay, the first-hand rent. If the home is furnished, the rent may be at most 15 percent higher. Electricity, internet and parking included in the rent may cost at most what they actually cost.
- If you only rent part of the apartment, such as a room, a reasonable share applies.
- Ask whether the sublet is approved by the landlord or the rent tribunal. Without approval the first-hand tenant risks losing the apartment, and then you have to move too.
You rent a bostadsrätt (co-op apartment), house, owner-occupied apartment or a room from a private person who owns it. Since 1 July 2026 the new private rental law (privatuthyrningslagen) applies.
- The rent must be reasonable compared with similar homes that private people rent out. The rent tribunal only lowers it if it's substantially higher than what's usually charged.
- So compare with ads for similar homes: same size, area and standard. There's no simple formula to calculate with.
- A lower rent usually applies from the day you apply to the rent tribunal. What you've already paid usually isn't paid back, so don't wait.
- You can't insist on staying when the contract ends.
- If the owner regularly rents out more than two homes, other rules apply.
Did you sign the contract before 1 July 2026?
Then the old law on renting out your own home applies. The rent may not clearly exceed the owner's costs for the home: a reasonable interest on its market value plus the running costs. First tell the landlord in writing that you want the rent changed. A new rent applies from the day you apply to the rent tribunal at the earliest.
3. Have you paid too much?
How to have the rent tried. Tick off the steps as you go.
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Keep the contract, receipts for what you've paid, messages and the ad. If you sublet, you also need the first-hand rent, for example from the first-hand contract or a rent notice.
The rent tribunal doesn't gather evidence itself. You hand it in.
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Subletting a rental apartment: apply at the latest three months after you've moved out. You can also apply while you still live there. You can get back overpaid rent for up to two years back, counted from the day you apply.
A home rented from its owner: a lower rent usually applies from the day you apply.
Don't wait: the time is counted from the day you apply.
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It's free. Write your own application or use form HN1, and send it by e-mail or e-service to the rent tribunal where the home is. Say what you ask for, for example to get a certain amount back and a lower rent, and why. Attach copies of your evidence.
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The rent tribunal sends your application to the landlord. Usually you're both called to a meeting (sammanträde), sometimes by video or phone. You can also reach an agreement there. The rent tribunal decides.
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Members of Hyresgästföreningen (the tenants' union) get advice on their housing and legal help if needed.
Read more on the blog
Sources
- Polisen: Ad and apartment fraud (in Swedish)
- Swedish courts: Fair rent when subletting (in Swedish)
- Swedish courts: Subletting a home (in Swedish)
- Swedish courts: New rental rules, summer 2026 (in Swedish)
- Swedish courts: How to apply to the rent tribunal (in Swedish)
- Swedish courts: What happens after you apply (in Swedish)
- Konsumentverket: Subletting a rental apartment (in Swedish)
- Konsumentverket: Renting from a private person (in Swedish)
- Riksdagen: Private rental law (2026:772) (in Swedish)
- Riksdagen: The old law on renting out your own home (2012:978) (in Swedish)
- Hyresgästföreningen: Support and advice (in Swedish)