In Helsingborg, wheelchair user Kurt Webing, 83, has been stuck in his apartment for four months because of a broken stair lift.
It has not been able to be repaired and since then the landlord has been in dispute with the municipality about who should pay.
– It feels very bad, you lose touch with reality and friends. We usually go to a lot of concerts and exhibitions, but nothing has happened, says Kurt Webing
Kurt Webing lives on the sixth floor and can take the elevator down to the ground floor – but there six steps prevent him from getting down and out into the street. The reason is a broken stair lift.
At first the idea was that it would be repaired, but now it will instead be completely replaced. From Kurt’s landlord, the real estate company Willhem Fastigheter, he has received no help during this time, nothing Home and Rent was the first to tell about.
– I received a suggestion from them (the landlord) that I should take over the ownership of the stairlift and apply for a grant from Helsingborg Municipality. It would have certainly cost a lot, the new one costs SEK 200,000 and I think the limit on the grant amount is SEK 25,000.
Argument over who is in charge
Already in May, Kurt Webing was told by the municipality that the person responsible for the stairlift is the property owner. This is because the person who had it installed in the first place has been dead for a few years now.
But Willhem fastigheter believes that there is uncertainty around the liability issue.
– We have had a dialogue with the municipality here where we did not agree on the responsibility issue and wanted to sort it out and therefore it has also taken time, says Niki Radjenovic, property manager at Willhem real estate in Helsingborg.
She also says that they first tried to repair the stair lift but that it was so broken that it didn’t work. In the end, the choice was to replace it.
From Wilhem’s side, they have also referred to another entrance and exit to Kurt Webing’s staircase, but it goes through the basement. There are too many heavy doors and too big and wide thresholds which means that Kurt Webing and his wife Christina cannot use that exit, it becomes too heavy with the wheelchair.
Want to be compensated
Next week, the plan is for the new stair lift to be installed.
But Kurt Webing believes he may demand to be compensated:
– I think I will request an adjustment to the rent, but that will be the next step here, he says.