Sublet your home – HSB

How to apply to HSB

Apply in writing before the sublet starts, and wait for the answer in writing. Verbal permission is worth nothing the day there is a dispute.

• State your reason, and be concrete: studies or work elsewhere, a trial cohabitation, care of a relative, a long trip, illness.
• State the period, with a start and an end date. Permission is always time-limited.
• Name the person taking over, with their personal identity number.
• Send it to the board of your housing co-operative, not to the property manager.
• Keep the written answer. It is the document that proves the sublet is lawful.

A co-operative flat is governed by a different act

Subletting a co-operative flat runs on the Housing Co-operatives Act, not the rent act. In practice that means the assessment is the board’s, the association’s statutes may add conditions of their own, and a fee for the sublet is allowed where the statutes provide for one. Read the statutes before you apply.

If the answer is no

A refused application can be taken to the rent tribunal (hyresnämnden). It grants permission when you have reasons for the sublet and the association has no justified cause to refuse. Applying there is free.

What you must not do is sublet anyway. An unauthorised sublet is grounds for terminating your own contract, and charging an unreasonable rent on top of it is a criminal offence.

What you may charge

• A co-operative flat is not rent-regulated by use value. The lawful rent is your actual cost: operating costs plus a reasonable capital cost on the value of the home.
• Furniture and appliances may add up to about 15 % on top.
• Electricity, broadband and a parking space may be charged at cost, itemised separately.
• The association may charge you a fee for the sublet (at most 10 % of the price base amount per year) if its statutes say so.

Contract, notice and security of tenure

• Always a written contract. It is what protects both of you.
• Letting your own home falls under the 2012 private letting act: three months’ notice from you, one month from the tenant, and no security of tenure for the first let.
• Your home insurance has to know. Several insurers require notice before a sublet, and a claim can be refused without it.

Tax

Rental income from your own home is taxed as capital income at 30 %, but only on the surplus. You deduct a standard allowance of SEK 40,000 per year, plus the rent or monthly fee attributable to what you let out. Most ordinary sublets end up with nothing to pay. Declare it anyway.

Find your sub-tenant

With permission in hand, publish the home on Bofrid. Listing is free, everyone is verified with BankID, and you talk to applicants before you choose.

Renting out where HSB owns

Common questions