In the property in question in Skultuna, there are four apartments with unique apartment numbers, three of which have registered tenants. In addition to that, there are four more households written on the address’s A, B, C and D.
When SVT meets the residents of the house and takes a closer look at the circumstances, it turns out that the four apartments on street level lack a building permit. This means, among other things, that fire safety and ventilation have not been checked and approved on the basis that someone will live there.
The building permit application was not used
Several of the premises have previously housed shops, but exactly when they were converted into apartments is unclear. The last building permit application dates from 1992 and applied to three apartments at street level, but it expired two years later without having been used. The last approved building permit is from 1981 and applies to the four registered apartments. This is shown in documents that SVT reconciled with the urban planning administration at the city of Västerås.
High fines
The current property owner bought the house in 2005. When SVT points out that there are only building permits for four apartments, he is surprised.
– Is it a black building? I didn’t even know it was this way.
In a case like this, the municipality has the option of issuing a fine, a type of municipal fine, which can amount to hundreds of thousands of kroner.
May be prescribed
A loophole in the regulations means that the property owner can still get away, because this type of case is time-barred after ten years. Something that the property owner is fully aware of when SVT confronts him with the task.
In the clip: “Then it’s not a black building anymore” – hear how the property owner reacts to the information that there is no building permit.
Sewage pipes through the living room and loose electrical sockets – residents have had enough
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“I arrange things whenever they come up” – follow me to the apartment building in Skultuna where the drain pipe from the neighbor’s dishwasher goes down through the ceiling. Photo: Photo: Ulrika Westerberg/SVT