From 1.1.22 a new regulation is being introduced in Norway. The seller, and the realtor, will be obliged to give more detailed information about the technical standard of the home in the sales material.
The seller may be responsible for incorrect and missing information to the buyers. He or she has this responsibility also today, but so far court decisions have only made the seller liable for damages if the damage or misinformation amounted to at least 5 percent of the value of the home. This is a lot of money, and therefore the seller has been imposed to give compensation to the buyer only in a few cases.
In the new law the limit for compensation is decreased down to NOK 10.000.
For this reason, the seller must be much more careful to give ALL the information about the property. He must , through the realtor, order a condition report from a technical expert or surveyor. The government has made a regulation of how this inspection must be implemented and the contents of the condition report.
The purpose is better protection of the buyer. This is a good thing in my opinion.
Be aware of the new rule about buyers’ duty to inspect !
As a home buyer you must be aware that the new law has a rule on the buyers’ duty to inspect before giving a bid. If you miss some information in the sales material or the technical report, or miss other information given on the viewing, you cannot complain after the bid has been accepted by the seller.
So, the duties goes both ways in the new law!
My concern as a home buying concultant is to protect the buyer. I am therefore prepared to help my customers to examine the new technical reports carefully and warn them about risk elements.
If you do not master Norwegian, I will warn you to buy a property without help to translate and interpret all the written material. This is and will still be,very complicated, even for Norwegians.
Because as I have told you before the bid is binding in Norway.
Is it necessary to purchase sellers insurance? I am selling a condo of a deceased relative and I never lived in it. The only work in the apartment the last five years has been to upgrade the fireplace, which is documented and under warranty. I feel I am being pressured into purchasing this insurance and several sources in Norway have told me it is a scam. Could you shed some light on this topic?
It depends on the state of the apartment and if you have a “tilstandsrapport”. You must give the correct information about the property. If that is easy and there probably are no hidden faults and things that the buyer can complain about later you do not need it. Why don’t you talk with your realtor about it. I am more into the buyers incurance. Trude Larsen
If the seller was fully aware of some problem but she/he had not told the buyer, can the buyer ask for compensation (<10 000 kr ) after taking over? Thanks.
Yes you can Ask for compensation if the faults are hidden or if the seller haven’t given information that would have influenced on the purchase decision
Trude Larsen
what about new properties directly from developer
Purchase of properties directly from developer is regulated from another law
https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1997-06-13-43
Home building act. It is different and quite “buyer friendly”, compared to the other Law for used houses, at least before the new rules I am writing about.
Hi,
What about the buyer’s duty of inspect before 01.01.22. If the buyer does not visit the house before making the bid and if that bid is accepted, can the buyer ask for any compensation for anything that is not mentioned in the technical report?
It was the same Law before 1.1.22,but the technical report was seldom there. Because it was difficult to get compensation for less than 5% of the value of the property. Seems a bit odd that the buyer did not visit the house before bidding. But if there any lack of information it should be possible to get compensation. But this seems like a complicated case so cannot answer you fully on this.
I bought a home in 2023 and one week after the take over the circuit breaker dedicated to the dishwasher went off. Now, after 6 weeks, the circuit breaker is going off after 1-2 of dishwasher use. Upon a quick check it seems like the dishwasher is the problem. Is this something I can request compensation for ?
Hi
I do not think this will be a case for compensation. The diswasher is used and can be out of order any time. If it worked for one week it is your responsibilaty. And it is also not a major damage. Probably under NOK 10.000 which is the lowest amount you can get compensation for .
Good day, what happens if the seller haven’t clean the property and didn’t respect the handover date? I have the buyer insurance. 😊
If the seller do not clean properly the best thing is to remark this on the take over. And ask the realtor to witheld money until he has cleaned or given you compensation. Maybe this will be around 5.000 to 8.000. If not you have to ask for compensation afterwards.
If he does not respect the handover date you can also seek compensation according to the purchase contract and the law.
But it depends on how much economic loss that has given you. If it all together will be more than NOK 10.000.
You have to ask the incurance company for your buyers incurance. I think this is a border line case.
We want to bid on a house that is being sold privately. There is no tilstandsreport yet, but the seller suggested that we add a clause to our bid that allows us to withdraw if the report brings any major problems to light. Is this true, can one add a disclaimer to your bid?
Thanks 🙂
I have never experienced that the seller will approve such a clause, but if she/he are willing it is maybe a good idea. The only thing is the definition of major problems, what is that ? So I would have preferred to have the Tilstandsrapport in advance of the bid.
Best regards – Boligdama Trude Larsen