To live in a condominium

The tenant-owner association Tallen is an economic association whose main purpose is to lease tenant-owned apartments to its members indefinitely.

What is meant by condominium?
The term condominium refers to the apartment you have. When you buy a condominium, you do not buy a physical apartment, but you buy a right to use a certain apartment.
The right you have to use a certain apartment gives you an opportunity to design your home almost the way you want it, you can renovate, change wallpapers, change floors, etc. and you have this again if you one day sell.
More about what you can and cannot do inside and outside the apartment can be read under the tab, "who is responsible for what" and "build and renovate"
Together with all your neighbors in the association Tallen, you are members of the economic association, which in turn owns the property Tallkronan 1, as our area is called.
You are involved and own everything from the apartments to the common areas as well as the courtyards to the apartments and the other common areas outdoors.

What does it mean to live in a tenant-owner association?
Living in a tenant-owner association means that you, together with others, have the opportunity to develop your housing and the surrounding environment in the best way. With the help of suggestions and ideas from all members, you can shape the association in your own way.
As a member of a tenant-owner association, you not only have a responsibility for your apartment and to keep it and your yard in good condition. Together, in a tenant-owner association, you also have a responsibility to be helped to take care of the area, keep it clean and tidy and follow our jointly adopted rules.

Membership
When you buy a condominium, you must apply for membership in the condominium association and it is the board that approves new members. A transfer becomes valid only when membership has been granted. If the board does not approve a membership, the matter can be tried in the rent tribunal. The board can’t deny membership without having very good reasons for it.

Who owns the tenant-owner association?
A tenant-owner association is thus jointly owned by its members. A misconception that sometimes prevails is that someone else (eg HSB) owns the association. This is not the case, but we are members of tenant-owner association Tallen who own the association jointly and are responsible for its functioning.
Tenant-owner association Tallen is in turn a member of HSB North and in that way benefits from belonging to a large nationwide association that works for its members' interests in housing policy issues, joint agreements, discounts and more.

Why pay a monthly fee?
Since you are a member of an association, you are not a tenant of your apartment and therefore do not pay any rent. Instead, you pay a fee, which is usually called a monthly fee, which is there to cover the common costs the association has. It can be, for example, roof replacement, windows and door replacement, painting of the facade, arranging new playgrounds, etc.
The board follows a so-called maintenance plan where all major renovations are included, but in addition to that, there are also other minor renovations that everyone is involved in requesting.

Why a gradual increase in the Monthly Fee?
Tenant-owner association Tallen has chosen to work with a successive fee increase, a so-called annual increase of 1%, instead of having periodic rent increases that can give an increase of 5-10% in the shock before renovations.
Tenant-owner association Tallen tries to work both strategically and long-term with the tenant-owner association's finances and we want to create security for all members. With a gradual fee increase, not only can the members plan their finances in the future, but also the board can plan the finances for future renovations. This means that the board gets a good overview of our budget and can then before a renovation plan how much money to set aside from their own coffers and how much they need to borrow.
There will be many advantages to choosing an annual increase over a periodic increase, not only that we can all plan our finances but also the bank sees it as a great advantage that we as an association have a good economy. The Board's long-term work and foresight with the maintenance plan has meant that we have a high credit rating with the bank, which gives us low interest rates on loans and therefore more money back to us. We at tenant-owner association Tallen would rather see that the money goes to maintenance and renovations than that a larger part goes to paying interest rates at the bank.

Each tenant-owner association has a board
The board is a group of members who have been elected by other members at the Annual General Meeting, and thereby taken on the responsibility of managing the association's day-to-day administration.
The board has the task of ensuring that the tenant-owner association is managed in the best way, but it is important to remember that all members are jointly responsible for the housing functioning well.
HSB North handles our administration, and performs some other services that the association has agreed on. They also provide support in the form of training and information to the board members, so the board can do a good job.

The members decide jointly via the Annual General Meeting
All members of a tenant-owner association have the right to vote at the Annual General Meeting, which is held once a year. At the Annual General Meeting, decisions are made jointly on matters concerning the association, it is therefore very important that all members participate in the Annual General Meeting and actively participate in joint decisions.
Be active, write e.g. motions to the meeting and attended the meeting. Please note that decisions can only be made on issues that have come to the meeting via motion, so you can’t raise an unannounced issue and expect a decision at the same meeting.
It is everyone together who decides in the association and decides together at the meeting.