Fel i objektsbeskrivningen: what a Swedish buyer can claim

The bid is in, the contract is signed, and the flat turns out to be six square metres smaller than the brochure said. In Sweden that brochure has a legal name, the objektsbeskrivning, and a law behind it.

An objektsbeskrivning is the written property description every Swedish estate agent must hand a consumer buyer under the Estate Agents Act, Fastighetsmäklarlagen (2021:516). If it is wrong, the buyer can seek a price reduction from the seller, damages from the agent when the agent was negligent, and can report the agent to Fastighetsmäklarinspektionen.

What must the objektsbeskrivning contain?

Chapter 3, section 14 of Fastighetsmäklarlagen (2021:516) requires the agent to give a prospective consumer buyer a written description of the property. For a house or plot, a fastighet, it must state the property designation, the tax assessment value (taxeringsvärde), the area and the running costs (driftskostnader), any mortgages (inteckningar), easements (servitut) and other rights burdening the property, shared facilities (gemensamhetsanläggningar), and the building's age, size and construction method.

For a tenant-owner flat, a bostadsrätt, section 15 replaces that list. The description must name the housing association and state whether the flat is pledged, the share number (andelstal), the flat number and size, land and spaces outside the flat that come with it, the annual fee and any decided changes to it, the flat's indirect net debt (indirekt nettoskuldsättning) and the running costs. The same section obliges the agent to hand over the association's latest annual report and its registered articles, or the financial plan if no annual report exists yet. Section 16 adds that the agent must offer a written calculation of the housing costs.

The indirect net debt is one of the five key figures every association now has to publish, and we walk through all five in our guide to BRF key figures.

Who is responsible when the description is wrong?

Fastighetsmäklarinspektionen (FMI), the Swedish Estate Agents Inspectorate, states that the agent may rely on the seller's information unless there is reason to question it. Area is the exception FMI singles out: if the agent receives different figures for the living area (boarea), all of them must appear in the description unless one is obviously wrong. FMI also notes that a buyer may be entitled to a price reduction when the seller stated an incorrect area, and that the agent can be liable for damages if it emerges that the agent knew or should have suspected the information was wrong.

The damages rule sits in chapter 3, section 25 of the Act. An agent who intentionally or negligently breaches the duties in sections 6 to 21, which include the objektsbeskrivning duties, must compensate the buyer or seller for the loss that follows. Section 26 requires the buyer to notify the agent within a reasonable time after realising the grounds for the claim, or the right to damages under the Act is lost.

What can the buyer claim, and from whom?

The claim against the seller depends on what was bought. For a fastighet, chapter 4, section 19 of the Land Code, Jordabalken, applies: if the property does not match the contract or otherwise deviates from what the buyer could reasonably have expected, the buyer may claim a price reduction or rescind the purchase, and damages if the deviation stems from the seller's negligence. The same section limits the claim to defects the buyer could not have discovered through a reasonable inspection, the undersökningsplikt. Section 19 a demands a complaint within a reasonable time after the buyer noticed or should have noticed the defect, and section 19 b sets a ten year limit from taking possession.

A bostadsrätt is movable property, so the Sale of Goods Act, Köplagen (1990:931), governs instead. Section 18 counts information given in marketing before the sale as a defect when the flat does not match it and the information can be assumed to have influenced the purchase. Section 19 keeps that rule alive even when the flat is sold "in its existing condition", and section 20 blocks claims about anything the buyer knew of, or should have noticed during an inspection they made or were urged to make.

The complaint to FMI is separate from any money claim. FMI's complaint statistics show 797 complaints against agents between January and August 2026, and the objektsbeskrivning was cited in 121 of them, behind only general marketing issues and poor communication. In the same period FMI's disciplinary decisions numbered 116: 12 registrations revoked, 70 warnings, 32 reprimands and 2 cases closed without sanction.

Most cited reasons in complaints against Swedish estate agents, January to August 2026

Reason	Complaints (complaints)
Marketing, other		+208complaints
Poor communication		+126complaints
Objektsbeskrivning		+121complaints
Misleading asking price (lockpris)		+116complaints
Bidding		+114complaints

How do you check the description before you bid?

Three checks cost nothing. First, put the description next to the annual report the agent must hand over: the annual fee, the andelstal and the indirect net debt should reconcile with the accounts, not just with the listing. Second, ask whether more than one area figure exists; FMI's rule means the agent must show all of them, so a single tidy number deserves the question. Third, compare the running costs with the seller's actual bills for electricity, heating, water and insurance, since those are the seller's figures the agent usually passes on.

A wrong objektsbeskrivning is rarely fixed after the signature. The description binds the agent to the law and the seller to the contract, and both remedies start with the buyer reading the document before the bid. AiMYNDi reads the annual report and the description together and flags where the numbers disagree.