Identical rooms but higher rent and worse conditions. This is the reality for hundreds of exchange students in Lund. Exchange students must in some cases pay up to 50 per cent more rent than Swedish students.
They live in two identical rooms but the exchange student pay at least 30 per cent more rent than her Swedish corridor friend does. This is shown by the random samples that Lundagård has done in the housing areas Sparta, Parentesen, Ulrikedal and Vildanden.
In a corridor in Ulrikedal a Swedish and a foreign student live next door to each other. The Swedish student has a current agreement with AF Bostäder and pays rent for the whole year in nine months, which makes June, July and August free of rent.
A difference of 12,000 SEK
The exchange students have a fixed term nine-month agreement through the university during the terms only. Thereby they pay the same rent as the Swedish students but can only live there for nine months a year. This is equivalent of 25 per cent in additional rent.
In addition to the exchange students not getting the summer months free of rent, but instead are forced to look for new housing, their rent is several hundred SEK above the usual rent. Add another SEK 600 in administrative fee. The difference is then up to SEK 12,000 annually – for identical rooms.
The exchange students rent from International Housing Office, IHO, which in their turn have rented the rooms from AF Bostäder where the rents are negotiated in consultation with the tenants’ association. A rate for the rent that Rolf Svensson, managing director of AF Bostäder, says they charge for renting the rooms to IHO. So the increase in rent takes place at IHO, which is a freestanding part of the University of Lund. At IHO they are surprised when Lundagård presents the figures.
– At the base we have the administrative fee, but otherwise we follow the basic rent per month that AF Bostäder sets even if we have different periods for the rent, says Ingela Fallenius, housing coordinator at IHO.
Would lead to bankruptcy?
At present it is not the proper time to convert the rent to the nine months the students can live in their rooms and thereby lower the rent.
– There is no possibility for that right now. We already pay AFB for a whole year, not for nine months. Then AFB won’t get their money. Already we run at a loss of several millions and the administration suffers. The loss would put the business into bankruptcy.
But the students have basically already paid you for the three months during summer?
– We can’t possibly let them stay during the summer. We have the summer groups, what would it look like if they shouldn’t pay? Then we have those who pay twelve months rent, are we supposed to subsidize those as well?
Don’t you think it is unfair that your tenants pay at least the same amount of rent, or even more, but only can live there nine out of twelve months during the year?
– Yes, life isn’t always fair. But what can I say, we pay for a whole year and not for nine months.
But regardless of the three months during summer the exchange students pay more anyway?
– There is a possibility that it concerns an extra charge for us providing for example kitchen utensils or furniture. But it varies from housing to housing, says Ingela Fallenius.
Says nothing in the agreement
The fact that there is no specification in the agreement is not strange she thinks.
– If there are any questions they are welcome to contact us. Besides, it is written at our website what you pay for, says Ingela Fallenius.
Mats Lindahl at the tenants’ association recommends the individual student to bring his or her case to the rent tribunal for a possible adjustment or refund of their rent.
– If you are concerned about the consequences of such an act the tenants also have the right to claim a refund three months after they have moved out, says Mats Lindahl.
Photo: Emma Svensson
Translation: Yvonne Tevström
