Confused By Your Rent Invoice For March? This is What Happened

If you’re a student at KTH, you’d probably have heard of Stockholms Studentbostäder (SSSB). As the largest student accommodation provider, many of our students rent their housing from them.

Annually, the Stockholm Student Tenants' Association (SSF) negotiates with SSSB to decide the fixed rent prices for the year. In 2022, the rent for the year was released on 1st December 2021, giving students a whole month's leeway to prepare and organize their finances for the rent hike.

And while negotiations are normally concluded before the new year begins (like for 2022), this year is slightly different.

For over 2 months, negotiations were stalled and no agreement about the rent prices was reached. The only deal that was agreed upon on 15 February was an increase in the ‘furniture fee’ and ‘electricity fee’ components that apply from January (these increases were taken from the SSSB website):

• Furniture fee is increased to SEK 95/month
• Electricity fee 1 room & kitchen/kitchenette is increased to SEK 190/month
• Electricity fee 2 rooms & kitchen/kitchenette is increased to SEK 370/month

However, on 06 March, the two parties finally managed to come to an agreement. That’s why your rent for March saw a jump.

How Much is the Increase?

For most students, the general increase for the annual rent will be 4.75% from February onwards.

However, if you live in the more recently built homes, the increase will be 3.0%. If you have individual electricity (“El Schablon” on the rental agreement), the increase will be 3.2%.

According to the SSSB website, the following addresses are considered to be “our most recently built homes”:

• Armégatan 32 B + C
• Maltgatan 4-12, Hammarby Allé 78
• Professorsslingan 10
• Professorsslingan 47-53
• Simrishamnsvägen 15, Understensvägen 10 & 20

Apart from rent and the previously mentioned furniture and electricity fee increases, water heating template fees have also been raised. Based on the information published by SSSB, the “hot water template fee for 1 room & kitchen/kitchenette is increased to SEK 120/month while the hot water template fee 2-4 rooms & kitchen/kitchenette is increased to SEK 239/month”.

For these water heating template fees, the increases apply from January.

So, When Will The Increases Affect You?

If you have noticed, none of the increases in prices starts from March onwards. The hot water heating template fees, furniture fees, and electricity fees apply from January onwards. The rent increases apply from February.

This means that since the increases apply to months before March, you will have to pay for these increases retroactively.

Since the furniture and electricity fee increase was agreed upon in the middle of February, the increases have been implemented and can be seen on the rent notice for March (along with the retroactive payment).

For the water heating measure, the fee increase will only be felt in April. However, this also means that the retroactive increase for the 3 months of January to March will be reflected on your April invoice.

Since the rent increase includes a large financial amount, the retroactive payment has also been spread out.

“For 1-4 rooms & kitchen/kitchenette, the retroactive increase for February and March is distributed over April, May, and June’s invoices.”

On the other hand, “for rooms in corridors, the retroactive increase for February and March is distributed over the April and May invoices”.

While this reduces the sudden increase in financial burden, this also means that you will be facing higher invoices for the upcoming few months. If you do live in an SSSB accommodation, be sure to look out and prepare for the upcoming increases.

Note: OL has reached out to SSF (Stockholm Student Tenants' Association) for comments. However, they have yet to reply. We strive to get more information out as soon as we can.