Andrahandshyresgästens ställning i förändring - en undersökning av förändrad praxis på området

Sammanfattning: The relationship between a residential tenant and a landlord is regulated in Chapter 12 of the Swedish Land Code. These regulations are compulsory for the benefit of tenants unless the law states otherwise. The rules of protected tenancy, Chapter 12, Article 46 and 57, and the rule of reasonable rent, Chap-ter 12, Article 19, are two crucial protective regulations in Chapter 12 of the Swedish Land code. In addition to the mandatory rules there is according to Chapter 12, Article 1(6) a special rule on so-called blockrental (Sw: blockhy-ra) of residential apartments. The purpose of blockrental is that the residential apartments are to be rented out to subtenants. In a block rental agreement, the parties can agree on waiving certain compulsory conditions, but the blockrental agreement and the waived conditions must be approved by a Swe-dish rent tribunal. Such approval will only be given if the block tenant has a serious need for block rental and the conditions as set out in the lease agreement are acceptable. Historically, subtenants have had a worse protection in comparison to tenants. The purpose of subletting has never been to provide a permanent living for subtenants. This thesis shows that there has been a possibility for the landlord to use a middleman with the purpose of firstly use a blockrental agreement and secondly negotiate the protected tenancy off the agreement for the tenant. Through a blockrental agreement the landlord can negotiate other amount of rent than the lawful utility value rent. The Landlord can also terminate the blockrental agreement so that the subtenant would be evicted automatically. However, in chapter 7, Article 31 of Land Code have the subtenant a special protection. This regulation is applicable when there is a community of interest between the tenant and the landlord, and that community is exploited to cir-cumvent a mandatory rule which is in favor of a tenant. For this Svea Court of Appeal, which is the highest instance in this type of cases, has during 2022 announced three cases concerning blockrental agree-ment and The Supreme Court decided in one case of dummy owner relation-ship. This thesis examines whether the legal situation for authorized and unau-thorized letting via middleman has changed after these rulings. Svea Court of Appeal has through these cases established that a blockrental exists primarily when the blocktenant needs to provide housing to a clearly defined group of people within its own operation. Through these cases, the Svea Court of Ap-peal has also established that the blocktenant should be required to have more significant need than a mere rental interest for a reservation in blocklease agreement to be approved. Therefore, the Svea Court of Appeal has indirectly banned blockrental agreements through letting agencies. The Supreme Court established that the tenant agreement itself can fulfil the community of interest requirement. For this to be valid it is required that the tenant has no plans to take up residence in the apartment, which means that the tenant has no need for the apartment. The conclusion is that these new rulings from Svea Court of Appeal and The Supreme Court have strengthened the protection of subtenants. Letting through letting agencies as tenants is consid-ered according to the law to be contrary to chapter 12 article 1(6) and chapter 7 article 31 of Land Code because, in addition to a mere rental interest, they have no other need for the apartment, and they have no interest in taking up residence in the apartment themselves.