Buying Swedish property — the compliance you inherit

When you acquire Swedish property, the statutory inspections come with the building. A ventilation certificate that expired two years ago expired for the building, not for the seller, and from completion day you are the owner and therefore the party an enforcement order is directed at. That is the simple principle behind this page: you buy the portfolio's regulatory compliance along with the portfolio.

It makes inspection status a due diligence question, not a management problem that starts after completion.

The documents to request — and what to read in them

Document	Its existence is not enough — also check
Ventilation inspection report (OVK) per building	Date, ventilation system type and whether the report passed. See reading the report
Energy performance certificate per building	The date it was issued — it is valid ten years from issue, not from purchase
Radon measurement	Which spaces were measured and when, not just the headline value
Fire safety documentation (SBA)	Whether the boundary of responsibility towards tenants is written down
Refrigerant inventory and latest annual report	Quantity in CO2e per unit and when the next leak check falls due
Fire protection documentation	Whether it exists at all — see the requirement

The right-hand column is the whole point. A list of documents says somebody once did something. The dates and the remarks say what you are inheriting.

Three traps specific to acquisitions

1. Documents are presented per property, not per building. A property (fastighet) with six buildings can arrive with a single energy certificate and look complete in a binder. The inspections apply to the building — see building or property. Ask for the presentation per building and count the rows against the number of buildings.

2. A passed report with unremedied remarks. A ventilation report can pass and still contain remarks that must be addressed. Ask what was done about them, not just what the outcome was. See remarks.

3. Inspections falling due just after completion. An energy certificate issued nine years and ten months ago is formally valid on completion day and a cost to you shortly after. The same goes for a ventilation inspection carried out three years ago on an extract-air system. List what falls due within eighteen months separately — that is a line in the model, not a defect.

Does the energy certificate transfer with a purchase?

Yes. The certificate is valid for ten years from the date it was issued and does not change validity with the owner. At the sale itself, however, it is the seller who must ensure a valid certificate exists and show it to the buyer — see energy certificates when selling. If one is missing, the buyer may have one produced at the seller's expense within six months of taking possession.

No equivalent rule exists for the other inspections. There, the defect simply becomes yours.

Radon is the blind spot in acquisitions

Radon has no fixed interval, and so it is often absent from due diligence altogether — there is no date that has "expired" and therefore nothing to catch in a checklist built on due dates.

Two questions go a long way: has it been measured, and when? If it has never been measured in a portfolio with ground contact, that is a known, unpriced item. If it was measured fifteen years ago and the building has had new windows since, the measurement is effectively out of date. See radon measurement for what a usable measurement contains.

The measuring season makes it worse: a measurement ordered in May yields results only after the turn of the year. The decision will be made on old information whatever you do — the only thing you control is whether you know it.

Day one after completion

What works is not treating inspection status as a separate project but folding it into the same tracking as everything else, immediately:

1. One row per building, not per property.
2. Last date and next due date per inspection.
3. Open remarks from the most recent report, with an owner.
4. The gaps — buildings where an inspection has never been done — as their own list, because they have no due date to sort on and otherwise disappear.

Point four is what separates a portfolio that is in control from one that looks like it is.

That is the picture regulatory compliance in Emphyx builds: we read the energy certificates, link them to the right building, and show coverage, expiry and gaps per building rather than per property. We carry out no inspections and perform no valuation.