Good day reddit friends. Forgive me for bothering but I am in urgent need of help. My girlfriend is Norwegian and is renting flat from some people her family knows. The problem is there were problems with the appliances they provided and so she was trying to talk with them about it, they didn't like it. They said each appliance is brand new, even motor from washing machine was past the warranty (6y), fridge is ranging up and down from -1 to 7,8 °C. My lady wrote them email about us getting sick because meat went bad. And so they decided they are throwing us out. Can they just terminate contract like that? Can we go to police with it? ( We can't, thank you for info. It's not police matter)
Edit: adding information
We told them that we want them to take out those appliances that won't work properly and we will buy our own.
We have the lease for renting that flat(contract).
Piping under the sink is done in a weird way, it was leaking for months, finally fixed.
Washing machine didn't wash properly, would skip part of a cycle a random, wouldn't drain water it mostly skipped the spin and drain. Finally switched out for different one, they send us page of what they are buying so we can position dryer properly and bought different cheaper one on which we can't put our dryer.
The main door is bad, wind is blowing through, in winter it was freezing inside the flat, energy bill was insane. Doors are still not fixed. We havevti put blankets over it.
The light(not just the light bulbs)in bathroom needed to be completely switched out, again took 5 months.
They wrote they are on vacation now, and our family saw them in the city, while they were supposedly on said vacation yesterday.
Info I received, thank you.
2 documents about law and page where they help
https://www.huseierne.no/alt-om-bolig/leie-ut-bolig/slik-bruker-du-husleietvistutvalget/
by Reply-West
7 comments
Do you have a lease?
If you’ve got a written agreement, it should define such terms. If you haven’t a rental is regulated by the law https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1999-03-26-17
Minimum notice period is 3 months
No, they can’t throw you out. But no, you should not go to the police, go to Husleietvistutvalget https://www.huseierne.no/alt-om-bolig/leie-ut-bolig/slik-bruker-du-husleietvistutvalget/
Calling the police will raise the level of conflict. If they threaten to call the police, let them do that. They would be in for a surprise:)
It’s time to read up on your legal rights. Here’s a summary of Norwegian law in English. https://storage02.forbrukerradet.no/media/2015/09/Information-on-the-regulations-pertaining-to-tenancy-agreements1.pdf
Quick summary is that the landlord can’t lawfully kick you out like that.
Many apartments are rented out with all electronics but if they brake they won’t fix it. That’s one of the things I make sure to check when I’m apartment hunting as I cannot afford buying all new stuff if something goes to hell.
That should be stated I the contract if it is the case
> And so they decided they are throwing us out.
Not really. They can decide to not renew the contract when it’s over if that’s the lease. We just opted for the 3 months ahead leave, so both us as renters and our renters when we were landlords sent the notice, three months in advance.
People here are right that they cant kick you out, technically.
BUT
In practice, this sounds like a flat in a single house. Her parents know the people she rents from and they probably rented out to her as a favor to them. Now she’s complaining she gets sick from meat spoiling in the fridge, which may or may not be true, but sounds like a very high maintenance renter from whom there will be a ton of future problems.
Complaining about appliances not being new sounds weird to my ears. Just saying.
AND
They are private landlords so they can just say they’re going to use the flat themselves. And then you’ll have to move out. Might be 3 months termination on the lease, might be 1, but there is in practice nothing you can do if they terminate a lease due to using the flat themselves/a son/a relative.
Reddit have very few landlords commenting and usually take a technical aspekt, you’ll see people comment on my answer here with all sort of konfliktråd and husleielov. But it usually doesnt play out that way.
ALSO
What does her parents say about it? They got her the lease, after all.
DONT
Dont call the police. Its a civil matter and you’ll embarass yourself. You sound like renting is new to you. Older appliances is fairly common in flats. Complaining you get sick from them is not so common.
I would have terminated a renter doing what your girlfriend does too. Though I would be smarter and wait 3 weeks before sending an email about how sorry I am, but my brother is getting divorced blah blah and need the flat bye bye.
If the appliances are listed on the contract, thats the landlords responsibility, and you can hold the rent untill the issue is resolved.
Went through the exact same thing with my landlady about a year ago so take my words with a handfull of salt, and you ***shouldnt*** take legal advice from redditors, but maybe i can help guide you.
She threatened to evict me, called a lawyer and figured out my rights.
If its on the lease and its not broken because of missuse by the renter, but simply its old or deffective, they have to fix or replace it asap, if they dont, you can legally buy a new appliance of similar quality and price and give them the recipt, if they continuesly over time refuse to replace it, for example a fridge, cant go weeks or months without that.
For me it was a broken fridge, washing machine and dishwasher, and since its listed on the contract, i wasnt going to pay for what im not getting.
MAKE SURE, you are in the right, the way i did it, i called “fri rettshjelp” (free lawyer services if you earn under x amount, worked by students, they are really good and passionate) and had them explain it to me, they also helped me get numbers for all kinds of agencies that would also help me legally if needed and how to go about it. For example you can call trondheim kommune and have them forward you to a person with amswers.
However any lawyer should be able to answer these questions for free after just taking a glance at your contract.
By the sounds of it, you’re in the right, but you **need** to verify.
They also need a valid reason to evict you, and you complaining about broken appliances isnt one of them, its very hard to evict tenats in Norway, its a little bullshit how hard it can be… Dont go to the police, its not their job, i belive i was told to call the “namsmann” if the landlady kept being difficult.
You also need to consider living with a hostile landlord/lady wont work in the long run, as they will be actively looking for a reason to get rid of you when they have to spend money to maintain their own property.
Start looking for other places to live as a backup regardless of what you do next.
Edit: heres a link to [lovdata](https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1999-03-26-17/KAPITTEL_5#%C2%A75-2) which lays out the law regarding this, but your contract can overrule parts of this.