Rent control and other aspects of tenancy law in Sweden, Denmark and Finland: how can a balance be struck between protection of tenants’ rights and landlords’ ownership rights in welfare states?

In the Nordic EU member states legislation on landlord’s and tenant’s rights is defined from a socio-economic aspect. The three countries share a common legal »core« which originates from common contract law principles. Tenancy law regulation is different in major areas – especially rent regulation. In other areas the regulation is quite alike and the results are most often a result of trying to keep the balance between the tenant’s rights to dispose over a home contrary to the landlord’s rights as a property owner.

This paper will explore some different aspects of tenancy law regulation – especially the rent regulation regimes in Sweden and Denmark as opposed to the »free market« in Finland. The aim is to draw conclusions on the functionality of the different and whether some things can be learned from the differences in between them. The elements of tenant »ownership rights« in the three countries are also compared and leads up to the question of whether they should be assessed as so important in relation to contractual principles that one can state that a tenant has a »right of ownership« to a home in the three countries.

Analysing rent regulation regimes understanding the importance of path dependency and social-economic structures of today, it is not possible to pick a best practice. With regard to the purpose of the rent regulation being protecting of tenants »right of ownership« in the same way as »society« protect true owners, conclusions on how the rent regulation could be constructed can be made.