§ 1-7. Personal injury is not covered by the Tenancy Act
If you are injured in your rented home (bolig) — for example because the stairs were rotten or the roof leaked — it is not the compensation (erstatning) rules in the Tenancy Act (husleieloven) that apply, but the general rules on compensation. This means you may be entitled to compensation, but the basis for the claim is somewhat different.
Machine-translated from Norwegian. The Norwegian text is the one that applies. Read the original in Norwegian.Norsk English العربية Polski Українська
The text of the law (unofficial translation)
Loss resulting from personal injury falls outside the provisions on liability for compensation in this Act. For such loss and for loss that is not the result of breach of the tenancy agreement (mislighold), the general rules on compensation apply.
What does this mean?
The Tenancy Act has its own rules on compensation — for example if you can claim compensation because the home had defects (mangler), or because the landlord (utleier) did not carry out maintenance (vedlikehold).
But these rules only cover damage to property and financial loss. If you are injured because of conditions in the home, other legislation takes over.
This does not mean you have no rights. It means you must show that the landlord was negligent (that the landlord knew or should have known about the fault and did nothing about it), and that this caused your injury.
If you are injured during a tenancy (leieforhold), you should document everything and contact a lawyer or NAV (the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration), depending on the situation.
Example
Kari slips on an icy staircase in the stairwell, which the landlord is responsible for gritting. She breaks her wrist. The compensation rules in the Tenancy Act do not apply directly, but Kari may be entitled to compensation under the general rules on culpa (fault) — if she can show that the landlord should have gritted the stairs.
Common mistakes
- Believing that personal injury cannot give a right to compensation from the landlord. Wrong — it can. It is only the basis for the claim that is different.
What should you do?
Have you been injured because of something wrong in the home? Document the injury, photograph the location, and find out what the landlord knew. Contact your insurance company and consider getting legal help.