Copenhagen Housing Foundation’s mistake renders students homeless

64 International students received a mail from the Copenhagen Housing Foundation in the beginning of July telling them they had to move out of their apartments within weeks, making them homeless, writes Politiken.dk.

The students were living at Tranehavegård in Copenhagen. The Copenhagen Housing Foundation said that the reason the incident occurred was because the foundation were renting the apartments and the owner had recently informed them that the lease was about to expire.

Læs mere:

Students forced to live on building site

According to the Director of the Copenhagen Housing Foundation, Charlotte Simonsen, the foundation had rented out the apartments to students, believing that they would be able to extend the leasing agreement they had with municipality.

”We had received an indication that the agreement could be extended. It is an unfortunate situation and it is us who are to blame for the mistake. But we have done everything we can to help those who were renting the apartments, she told Politiken.

The foundation’s actions could be illegal

The Copenhagen Housing Foundation did not have the right to rent the apartments beyond 1 August 2016, according to the leasing agreement between the foundation and Copenhagen Municipality.

According to experts in tenancy law, the actions of the foundation are not in accordance with requirements of the law, because you are not allowed to rent a residence to others if you do not have the right of disposal.

The Tenants’ Association (LLO) in Copenhagen has been very critical of the Copenhagen Housing Foundation.

Læs mere:

Media: Students can’t register address at Krimsvej dorm

“If the foundation had been renting residences to Danes they would not have been able to continue what they have been doing. Either the foundation is purposely taking advantage of international students lack of knowledge about the law or they are merely incompetent,” Claus Højte, the director of LLO in Copenhagen told Politiken.

Read the articles on the Danish news site Politiken.dk here and here