Brf Ängssätra is short for Ängssätra Bostadsrättsförening. The Swedish term of ”Bostadsrättsförening” can be translated into Tenant-owner’s association which roughly corresponds to the English term of Housing cooperative (see also information specific to Sweden). A Bostadsrättsförening is a form of living and ownership in between a rental flat and an owned house. As it is a form of housing/living that is not normally used outside of the Nordic countries, please take some time to read up on what this means through the above links.
As a guiding rule the association ”förening” is responsible for the building, property and its facade, together with the system for heating, water and plumbing. The monthly fee that you pay to the association covers the costs for these basic services, and all other costs the association has to maintain the property. Note that electricity is not included in the fee and you need to have a private deal with both the network owner Ellevio and one of the hundreds of electricity companies in Sweden. One example of such a company is Vattenfall.
Broadband, and telephony (not the minute fee) by Bahnhof is included in your fee to the housing association. You do however need to contact Bahnhof and order the needed equipment before you can use the internet service or telephony. A basic assortment of TV channels is also provided by Tele2.
The association is run by a board of members, consisting of a number of people living in the building and elected at a yearly meeting which all tenants are invited to during the late autumn. The yearly meeting also votes on other matters of importance for the buildings, property and association.
The statutes (Swedish ”Stadgar”) of the association controls in details the division of responsibility between the apartment owners (you), association and the board – see the page with our Statutes.
The tenants living in the building, the members that makes up the housing cooperative, are responsible for the interiors of their apartments which gives a high degree of freedom to affect your style of living (without all the exterior maintenance that comes with owning your own house). It however also gives you a high degree of responsibility to take care of your own apartment! It is also of outmost importance that you have an insurance for your apartment (in Swedish called ”Hemförsäkring”) but theres also another important, and a legal requirement to have an add-on insurance needed only if you live in an association, this add-on is called a ”Bostadsrättstillägg”. This add on will cover big parts of costs that you will otherwise personally have to take, if there for example is a water leak in your apartment. You need to sign this as a separate add-on to your home insurance.
Please note that you do not own your apartment, you own a percentage of the association which includes the right to live in a certain apartment. This means that you are not completely free to do whatever you see fit with the interiors of your apartment, for example moving walls and making changes to systems such as apartment door, windows, plumbing, pressurized water pipes and ventilation is not allowed without the explicit written permission of the housing association. If you are not sure what is allowed to do or not, always ask first to avoid any costly mistakes.
All communications sent out from Brf Ängssätra, including this webpage, is in Swedish. Only very important information is sent out in both Swedish and English. Our bi-annual newsletter is also provided in English on the website. It is the responsibility of everyone living in our buildings to read and understand the information sent out. If there is some information you do not understand, please first try Google Translate or use the translation function of Google Chrome, or some other translation service. If you still do not understand, please do not hesitate to contact the board (in Swedish ”Styrelse”) and we will do our best to explain the information to you.