A leasehold exists when a property owner contractually grants the usufruct to land within the property to another party, known as the lessee, for a consideration. Tenure through leasehold agreements has, historically speaking, been of considerable importance in Sweden, and is still an important form of tenure.
There are four types of leasehold agreement: agricultural, facility, housing, and apartment leaseholds. Agricultural, facilities, and housing leasehold agreements are only valid if they are drawn up in writing, and as the legislation is primarily designed to protect lessees, and lessees consequently have some form of security of tenure with regard to the area of land.
Agricultural leaseholds come in two varieties, namely farmland leaseholds or farm expansion leaseholds. A farmland leasehold includes housing for the lessee and is, therefore, associated with strong security of tenure.
A facilities leasehold exists when a property, or part of a property, is leased for a purpose other than agriculture and entitles the lessee to erect or maintain one or more buildings for business purposes. This might involve petrol stations, factories, or other buildings intended for commercial purposes. The parties can contractually waive security of tenure.
A housing leasehold exists when a property, or part of property, is leased for a purpose other than agriculture and affords the lessee the opportunity to erect and maintain residential buildings on the area of land leased. Housing leaseholds are, nowadays, most common in conjunction with the leasing of land for the construction of vacation homes.
An apartment leasehold exists when none of the other leasehold variants exist, and an agreement of this kind can be entered into verbally.
We assist clients with the drawing up, review, and interpretation of all forms of leasehold agreements. We also represent our clients before letting tribunals, in public courts of law, or arbitration panels in connection with all types of leasehold agreement.
An easement entails the right for a property to use another property in a defined and limited way and applies between the properties and not between the property owners, as such.
Easement rights can arise in three ways: through written agreements pursuant to chapter 14 of the Swedish Land Code (known as contractual easements), through a cadastral procedure pursuant to the Property Registration Act, or through expropriation pursuant to the Expropriation Act (collectively referred to as official easements). The properties covered by an easement are known as the ruling property and the serving property, respectively.
Contractual easements can, for example, mean that the ruling property has the right to use roads and parking spaces or to run water from the serving property. Contractual easements can be registered in the Swedish Land Survey’s property register.
Official easements are formed in conjunction with a cadastral procedure.
Questions of compensation arising from easements are often of considerable importance and we assist our clients with the drawing up, review, and interpretation of easement agreements, and represent our clients before the Swedish Land Survey, in the Land and Environment Court, and in public courts of law.
The Facilities Act addresses such issues as the establishment, alteration, and annulment of community facilities, e.g. for roads. We also work with issues concerning the management of community facilities pursuant to the Management of Community Associations Act, both with regard to community associations and to residents’ association management.
We assist property owners, property developers, and other operators in all of the different phases of property registration within this business area, and also act as our clients’ legal representatives during the processing of property registration cases with the Swedish Land Survey, in the Land and Environmental Court, and in public courts of law.