Guarantees and insurance
Feeling secure in your home is absolutely vital. This is why it’s important to choose the right housing cooperative, and also to make sure you have the right insurance in place. Your security is important to us at OBOS, which is why we make guarantees to all our private housing cooperatives.
Construction security insurance
This is also known as completion insurance. It is an insurance to cover costs to complete construction, in the event that we go bankrupt or become insolvent in some other way.
Construction guarantee
Your new home will be inspected by an impartial inspector, on two occasions. The first is on completed construction, and the second is a guarantee inspection two years later. Any faults remarked on by the inspector and for which OBOS is responsible will be remedied by us within the time specified by the inspector.
Latent defects insurance
This is also known as post-completion insurance, and exists because construction-related damage usually only starts appearing seven to eight years after moving in, and is not covered by standard home insurance. Latent defects insurance covers defects due to faults in building work, materials or building design. It is a property insurance, which means it applies to the property for 10 years from the date of final inspection.
Purchase of unsold units
If any tenant-owner property remains unsold when the construction project is completed, OBOS is responsible for any related costs. Should there still be unsold properties six months later, we will buy them and then be liable, as the formal tenant-owner, for these properties’ fees and charges moving forward.
Product guarantees
As the name suggests, this insurance relates to appliances and fixtures in your new home. When we build tenant-owner properties we give a two-year guarantee on all material in the home, and five years on work carried out. If, however, the manufacturer offers a longer guarantee, it is this longer time that applies. This guarantee is held by the housing cooperative.
Insurance for advance payment and investment stake guarantee
These two types of insurance are taken out by OBOS on behalf of the housing cooperative. The advance payment guarantee insurance serves as a safety net if you have paid an advance on your investment stake in a tenant-owner property, in conjunction with signing the preliminary agreement with the cooperative. The investment stake insurance compensates the tenant-owner in the event the tenant-owner is entitled to a refund of their investment, and the cooperative is unable to pay it.
Don’t forget your home insurance
The housing cooperative will insure the building, but you also need to take out home contents insurance specifically designed for tenant-owner homes. Make sure that the upper limit for personal property in your home contents insurance also includes the value of your ‘optional extras’. This is because these are not owned by the housing cooperative; they are yours and must therefore be insured by you.
Trygg BRF/Secure Tenant-Owner Cooperative: for an extra secure purchase
Many of our private housing cooperatives also bear the Trygg BRF seal of quality. This is a seal of quality that makes it easier for you to compare important key figures between different cooperatives. The seal encompasses three different areas: Economy, Long-term approach and Security – all to ensure you can make a purchase you feel safe and happy with. Look for the Trygg BRF symbol on the development project’s own website.