Rented bedroom 2.6 square meters:

From street level the address looks good and cosy.

The residential property with its charming brick facade is located opposite the Cathedral School in the center of Bergen, a few hundred meters from Bryggen.

Watching TV 2 helps you loop Moldy rental market On TV 2 Play as we reveal horrific living conditions in Bergen.

But behind the facade, some smart choices have been made in a 70 square meter apartment on the second floor.

The apartment has a kitchen, bathroom, living room and three bedrooms.

One bedroom is literally ‘a bit of a room’. This room has an area of 2.6 square metres.

See the response from the owner at the bottom of the case.

The room is 206.5 cm long and 126.5 cm wide, according to the Tenants Association of Norway, which took pictures of the house. Tipped TV 2 helps you.

Pay 5500 per month

A former renter confirms that TV 2 helped you speak to confirm that when you left the apartment in August 2021, the layout was identical to the photos in this case.

The smallest bedroom in Norway?: The room measured 206.5 cm long and 126.5 cm wide. Photo: Frank Uthaug / Lieboerforeningen i Norge

The 24-year-old woman does not want to appear in the media, but says she paid NOK 5,500 a month for the tiny room.

She admits that it may seem “not well thought out” that she voluntarily moved into such a small room.

At the same time, she lists a number of circumstances that played a role, including the fact that she had little time to find a place to live.

There were three people who shared the apartment. They must have divided the rent between them by 18,800.

– There was a one-year confinement period, so we couldn’t get out of the contract, because no one wanted to sublet because of that room, says the 24-year-old.

– Does that mean you lived there for a year?

– Both yes and no. She only paid for the year as no one wanted to take over, so I then moved to her room, but that was only by chance.

– I slept in that room for five or six months, but it was my room the whole time and I paid for it.

owner pays

The 24-year-old also highlights a dispute with the owner over the “thermal breakage” of two windows.

The former tenant believes she has “nothing at fault” for the violations, and that it was unreasonable for her landlord to pay her NOK 6,800 for the damage.

Mountain Bedroom: TV2 helps you interview a young woman who has slept in this room for about half a year. Photo: Frank Uthaug / Lieboerforeningen i Norge

Bedroom 1: One of the three bedrooms in the house. This room received an elegant geometric solution by the window so that the bed would fit. Photo: Frank Uthaug / Lieboerforeningen i Norge — Mountain Bedroom: TV2 helps you interview a young woman who has slept in this room for about half a year. Photo: Frank Uthaug / Lieboerforeningen i Norge

A crack in the window due to the shade from the outside or the temperature. This happened on two windows that were on the same wall.

The Bergen man who owns the apartment assures TV 2 helps that he has rented the house to Vin, and that the 2.6 square meter room is rented out as one of three bedrooms.

We have chosen to anonymize the owner.

The landlord does not agree with the tenant’s claim that thermal breakage in the windows has occurred due to fluctuations in temperature or shade.

“There are objects stacked next to both windows which most likely caused a heat outage. We ourselves made the same mistake.”

After a series of questions from TV 2, the owner chooses to help you pay NOK 6800 to the woman who rented the tiny room. He says he’s paying to “end this case.”

I’ve never heard of such a small bedroom

Attorney Ola Fæhn has worked at Forbrukeradvokaten with housing disputes for more than 20 years.

Fæhn says TV 2 helps that he’s never heard of such a small bedroom.

– If it is rented as a full bedroom, I think it does not meet the regulations. When advertising a house with such a small room, I believe that it cannot legally be marketed as a bedroom.

Expert in housing disputes: Attorney Ola Vaughn at Consumer Advocate. Photo: Moment Studio

– In my opinion, the municipality must conclude here that this small room does not meet the requirements for permanent residence.

However, there is no legal minimum space for bedrooms.

– In 1997, there was a clear requirement that rooms for permanent residence should have a minimum requirement of 15 cubic meters. In 2010, this was changed to one recommendation About 7 square meters at least.

– Requirements have been changed to be able to provide more flexibility, but that does not mean that there are no minimum requirements.

When a bedroom is as small as 2.6 square metres, I think it is no longer suitable for the function of a bedroom, says Fæhn.

– We take this into account, renting the apartment in the future will not facilitate the use of the room as a bedroom, reads the response from the owner.

The apartment that was before it was heated: Kong Oscars 25 B gate, Scheme 2. The apartment is highlighted in grey. A lightweight wall was later created in the area on the bottom right, and on the top left. The 2.6 square meter room was created at the top left. Photo: Bergen municipality

“Design adapted to function”

TV 2 helps you submit bedroom photos of the Kong Oscars 25 B Gateway to the Planning and Building Agency in Bergen.

Communications advisor Maja Vedå replies that the agency has not received a report of potential illegal conditions on this property.

– The bedrooms(s) must be of a design compatible with their function and of sufficient size (see requirements in TEK 17, Chapter 12). The height of the room should be at least 2.40, according to Veda.

The assessment should be based on a concrete assessment of whether the room is suitable for a bedroom.

Old floor plans however reveal that the house is another example of what is called humidification.

By comparing Leieboerforeningen i Norge photos of the apartment with the floor plans from 2006, you can see that lightweight walls were introduced, meaning the apartment was changed from one to three bedrooms.

Minister of State: – He may be right for some

TV 2 helps you ask the local government and counties if they think there should be a reaction from the municipality to the homeowner.

– The municipality is the building authority and must assess if there is a reason to proceed, answers Secretary of State Nancy Borsanger Ante (Sp) in an email.

Playing the ball to the municipality: Nani Borsanger Ante (Sp) is State Secretary at the Ministry of Municipalities and Provinces. Photo: Trond Isaksen

– Should there be a legal requirement for a minimum number of square meters in permanent residence rooms?

Not everyone has the same needs, and it is not the number of square meters alone that determines whether a room is good enough. The size of the single room should be considered, among other things, in relation to the rest of the house.

For some, a bed the size of a bedroom may be appropriate because you have enough space in the other rooms. So the state doesn’t have to say you have to build bigger, writes Nancy Borsanger Antey.

However, she adds: “This is a bad bedroom.”