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Comment by yrgulation | Hacker News Reader

I knew a software engineer who used to live in sweden. One day he had a payraise. Out of the blue his landlord raised his rent. Apparently she somehow found out about his payraise and now i know how. She even told him that she knows he can afford more. He left sweden for this reason and racism. Before you believe all them nice stories about scandinavia, be sure to talk to people that lived in any of those countries as they all have some very disturbing practices.

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This sounds incredibly hyperbolic. Others have already mentioned that this likely is an inaccurate retelling of events based on how Swedish rent control actually works. Additionally though, tax records from the previous year is publicly accessible, your current income (or any raise you receive) is _not_.

The article is not correct on salaries being public: What is public are your tax reports and those are done a year later. To my knowledge you cannot see all details either, only totals that the tax is based on. Thus I think your statement is wrong or at least it is not related to the public databases mentioned in the article.

The full social security number for a person is not easily obtained and not published by the free websites.

It is, on mrkoll for example. You could also ask the government. Your full social security number isn't a secret.

Very easily obtained, though: just call +46856485160 and ask for it. They also reply to questions like "okay, so did this person have any siblings and what were their parents' names?" and "who else lives at that address?" and so on.

I have needed to provide information for a visa application including family history on dead half-relatives from a branch of the family tree I have very little contact with. It was a breeze. Names at birth, later marriages, dates of death and everything that I had no idea was given without delay (as stipulated by law).

Sounds like a bad, private landlord not affiliated with landlord associations. If the landlord was affiliated, this would be a breakage of agreement and the tenant union organization [0] could help, drive the case against the landlord.

[0] https://www.hyresgastforeningen.se/

A landlord in Sweden cannot increase the rent out of the blue. If there is a rental contract in place at least. If renting without a contract for some weird reason, well, you better be sure you rent from someone you trust. Like in most other countries I would expect.

Probably raised at renewal. Deflecting the issue really doesnt help. My advice stands - people should exercise due diligence before moving to that country.

So it was at renewal, not out of the blue? Did the landlord actually mention the pay raise?

One should always do as good due diligence as possible before doing a major change in life such as moving to another country. No matter which country it is.

It may have been raised at renewal but notified beforehand. It is deeply frightening knowing someone can monitor your personal finances and with the law on their side.

But what you write isn't true, at least not in the way it comes off:

When I hear "monitor your personal finances" I think on a month to month basis or more frequently.

In Sweden, as written above it is yearly and with several months delay.

Also what you you write just doesn't "feel" realistic at all. Source: I live next to Sweden and have Swedish colleagues.

I think 'people should exercise due diligence' before moving to any country!

I once read that Sweden has a “huge” subletting blackmarket because of the strict rent control, maybe OP friend was subletting?

Landlords cant raise rent as they please in Sweden, the renting market and the amount of rent is controlled by the goverment.

Or at least by the landlord and tenant organizations that establish rules and agreements with each other.

Well across the border in Norway you can look up the pay of people, though I agree with sibling comments, I am rather sure that this practise would be illegal https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40669239

Yeah, this didn’t happen, or at least not in the way implied by parent.

Only way to get salary info is to count backwards from the tax records, which are made public after the coming May.

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