What happened around Hotel du Nord in Linköping is every apartment buyer's worst nightmare.
Buying an apartment - and later discovering that it is not approved as a home.
That you are not allowed to stay there.
Nor be able to sell it on to other private individuals.
- The apartments will be unsaleable.
Nobody wants to buy a condominium in a house that does not have a building permit, states Mats Sjöquist who is a lawyer at Mäklarsamfundet.
The broker does not need to check the building permit
But he does not think that you can blame either the apartment buyer or the realtor - if there was no reason to suspect any inaccuracies.
After all, it is very unusual not to have a building permit for a property.
- Of course it happens.
That you build a villa without a building permit.
Or that a tenant-owner association builds apartments in the basement or in the attic without a building permit.
But it is not so common, says Mats Sjöquist.
And the broker actually has no obligation to check that there is a building permit for the property.
Not if there is no reason to suspect that something is wrong.
- If there is a suspicion that something is not right, the broker has an obligation to check it.
The broker checks that there is a financial plan and the like.
But if the person who has made the financial plan has not looked at it or raised it, it will be problematic, says Mats Sjöquist.
The buyer must be able to assume that a building permit exists
He also does not think that you as an apartment buyer should need to do such a check.
- To ask that you as a buyer should check the whole project, I think it is a bit hard.
There are probably quite a few buyers who call and check if there is a building permit.
You as a buyer must be able to assume that there is a building permit.
When it comes to most construction projects, everything is in order, he points out.
- But every now and then there are certain projects where the seller just runs on.
It's just to regret it.
The systems are not one hundred percent.
The board has a great responsibility
Mats Sjöquist, on the other hand, believes that a major responsibility lies with the tenant-owner association's board.
The board is responsible to its members, he points out.
- It becomes a problem when you have an association and board that does not have control over the structures.
Then it becomes a risk for all parties.
Both for the buyers and the broker.
The consequences of such an error will be great, for many different parties and in several stages.
Can cancel the purchase for two years
As a buyer, you should be able to request cancellation of a purchase if there are significant errors, but it is a long legal process.
And the problem is that it is a two-year liability.
After two years, you can not cancel the purchase, says Mats Sjöquist.
As a buyer, you can also pursue a lawsuit against the tenant-owner association, which has a responsibility towards the members of the association.
Board members can not just point out that they knew nothing.
- If you sit on a board, you have a great responsibility to find out how it works in the association, says Mats Sjöquist.