My previosu landlord does not repay my deposit - what can I do to get the money back?
I moved out of an apartment 4 months ago. The landlord wanted to give me back the deposit (5000 sek) in cash but I asked him to transfer it to my bank account. He did not do that, and now he is making up all sorts of lies as to why he does not have to give me back the deposit. He is twisting verbal agreements we made, whereas we have emails confirming those agreements (yet no contracts). There are emails confirming that he was going to transfer the deposit as well. I need the deposit back, but I do not know how to force him to pay me, since he is not reasonable and trying take advantage of this situation.
Lawline svarar
Hi and thank you for sending Lawline your question!
It can be very difficult to get your money from someone who has just decided to not pay a debt, but there ways to force a payment. It's good that you have tried to settle it on your own first, but it sounds to me like you are stuck right now.The legal alternative in your case is to go to the Swedish Enforcement Authority and apply for an order to pay. If you get an order to pay, it means that the Enforcement Authority has officially established the debt and can assist in recovering the debt.
How do you apply for an order to pay?
To apply for an order to pay, you fill in the form that you find here. You fill in the details for the parties i.e. you and your landlord, your claims and the ground for your claims. It doesn't matter that you do not have a written, formal contract. You can use those email conversations where you discuss your agreement as proof for your claims. There is an application fee of 300 SEK today (May 2018), but you can tick a box in the application form statin that you want the landlord to compensate you for that fee. You can also state if you want the Enforcement Authority to assist you in recovering the money if the debt is established. Once you're done with the form, you can find the right address to send it to here.
What happens once you file the application?
Once the Enforcement Authority has checked that the application looks alright, they will send a letter to the landlord informing him that you require your money back. In the best case scenario, this prompts him to pay you immediately. If that happens, you must withdraw your application. If he answers and objects to you claims, the Enforcement Authority will inform you and give you the option to have the issue passed on to the court for further processing. The last option is that your landlord neither objects or pays you. In that case, the Enforcement Authority will issue a verdict that says that the landlord is obligated to pay the debt. If you stated in the application that you wanted assistance in recovering the money, they can immediately start working on doing that once they have issued the verdict.
The option to go to court
If the landlord objects to your claim, the Enforcement Authority will offer you to send the case to the court. This will eventually lead to a trial. That would cost even more time and money, so if you end up in that situation I suggest you think it through and decide if you think it is worth it or not.
To sum up I think that you should first try to email the landlord one final time. Inform him that you require the money back and that you turn to the Enforcement Authority if he does not pay his debt. If that does not work, you can apply for an order to pay. Hopefully, the landlord will choose to pay at this point to avoid any further problem. Should he object, you will have to option of going to court of you feel that it is worth it in this case.
I hope that this has been of some help. If you have anything else you want to ask about, you are welcome to send us another question. If you want to ask questions specifically related to the Enforcement Authority, you can find their contact info here.
Best regards,
