KI Housing FAQ
Here you can get answers to frequently asked questions about KI Housing.
Application process
Who your contact person is depends on what kind of student/researcher you are:
Exchange students get an invitation letter from one of the student coordinators at KI and it is the name of the student coordinator that should be stated in the housing application.
Fee-paying bachelor and master students receive an admission letter from the University Admissions in Sweden first and after a while they are contacted by KI. If you have doubts regarding who your contact person is, please see this link or send an email to study-guidance@ki.se
Other students or researchers can be invited by a supervisor or a member of the research team at KI for research, traineeships or studies at a department at KI. The name of this person should be stated in the application.
The acceptance letter should confirm that you are admitted to KI and eligible to apply for accommodation from KI Housing.
Upload the Admission Letter or a signed letter of invitation from your contact person at KI. In our Important information before applying you can see the information that should be stated in the letter. If you have not yet received the supporting document, you can still apply for housing and add the document later, but as soon as possible, thus, your application will not be processed without the supporting documentation.
For example, if you have applied for accommodation from October, you will be contacted no earlier than August since we process applications approximately two months before the requested starting date. The availability of accommodation may change quickly as our tenants have a notice time of one month to ask for an earlier termination of their contracts.
Please note that we only contact those who we can offer accommodation. If we are not able to offer you accommodation, you will not get a personal notification about this.
If the applicant has not received an accommodation offer and the requested starting date in the housing application has passed, the application will not be processed. It is the responsibility of the applicant to update the requested starting date in the housing application. If the applicant wishes to remain in the queue for accommodation, the requested starting date must be changed to a date in the future.
KI Housing has a number of family apartments located in KI Residence Flemingsberg and a few townhouses at Berzelius väg 2 in Solna.
Families with children have priority for family apartments and townhouses.
It is important that the information given in the application is correct when submitting the application. It is also important that you have uploaded the correct supportive documentation, otherwise your application will not be processed.
When you apply, add as many accommodation areas as possible to your preference list to increase your chances of getting a housing offer. However, it is important that you have read all information about the accommodation areas so that you only add the alternatives to your preference list that you can afford and that you are willing to accept.
You can apply for a studio or a family apartment if you are bringing your partner, but you will not have priority for this kind of accommodation.
Exchange students and fee-paying masters are prioritized for single rooms and those are intended for single occupancy only.
You cannot be certain to be offered a room in your preferred area. Make sure to apply for a single room in several areas, such as Strix, Pax, KI Residence Flemingsberg and KI Residence Solna.
Accommodation offer
We always check your preference list when booking and if you do not receive an offer for your first preference, it means that there is no availability for the preferred type of accommodation during the requested period.
Please send an email to housingoffice@ki.se to see if it is possible to change the date before the expiry date of the accommodation offer.
Failure to respond is interpreted as a “no”, and your application will be cancelled.
To avoid that you miss an accommodation offer we ask you to check your email and spam filter, on a regular basis. We recommend you to add housingoffice@ki.se to your trusted senders list in your email account.
If you are not interested in the accommodation that has been offered to you, we appreciate if you log into the customer portal and decline the offer as soon as possible, in order for the offer to be sent to the next applicant in the queue.
Please note that your application will be cancelled if you decline the offer, and also if you do not reply to the offer.
All our studios and non-shared apartments have private bathrooms. Our dorm rooms in Strix and Pax have private bathrooms as well.
In KI Residence Solna, the bathrooms are shared with other tenants if you are staying in a shared apartment. For further information, please see this link.
In KI Residence Flemingsberg, the bathrooms are shared with other tenants if you are staying in a shared apartment. For further information, please see this link.
Arrival
All kitchens are equipped with pots, pans, plates, glasses, bowls, cups and cutlery etcetera.
Detailed inventory lists for KI Residence Flemingsberg and KI Residence Solna can be downloaded at this link.
An inspection of your room/apartment has been made before your arrival. We ask you to check the condition of your room/apartment and to submit a moving-in checklist upon arrival. The moving-in checklist is available in the customer portal within a few days after your arrival and it must be completed within 10 days from the starting date of your contract. In this checklist, you can report any damages or remarks in the accommodation. If your arrival has been postponed and you cannot complete the checklist within 10 days, we ask you to send an email to housingservice@ki.se.
If you have not subscribed for home insurance, we recommend that you do so immediately since you are fully responsible for your home. If anything is stolen from your room/apartment, or if any property is damaged or lost during your rental period, you are responsible for covering the repair or replacement costs. For more information about home insurance, please see this link.
There is no problem for you to arrive later than the starting date of your contract but please send us an email and let us know that you will be delayed. The keys will be in the key box until you pick them up.
Please note that rent will always be charged from the starting date of your contract.
Your keys are to be picked up from a coded key box and are usually available from 2 pm on the starting date of your contract. You will receive important arrival information with codes etcetera, 1-2 weeks before your arrival. If you have not received this information a few working days before your arrival date, please send an email to housingservice@ki.se.
For further information about the key pick up procedure etcetera, please see this link.
Sometimes there might be a chance for you to change the starting date of your contract to an earlier date. Please send an email to housingoffice@ki.se to see if it is possible.
Contract
The tenant has a notice time of one month for terminating a contract during the time of lease. This means that you are obliged to pay rent for one month from the day when your request for terminating your contract was sent. Termination of your rental contract is made in the customer portal in the Contract section. Your termination of contract is valid when you have got a confirmation from KI Housing by email stating that we have received your notice of termination.
You can temporarily have over-night visitors in your room as long as it does not disturb other tenants. However, you are not allowed to have guests staying in your room on a regular basis.
If you are staying in a shared apartment in areas KI Residence Flemingsberg or KI Residence Solna, you need to ask your neighbor(s) whether it is fine to have an over-night visitor or not, since the bathroom is shared. Your flat mate(s) have the right to say no.
If you are staying in an apartment with private kitchen, you are welcome to have over-night visitors.
Guest studio apartments are provided in KI Residence Solna for our tenants staying in this area.
No, the tenant is not allowed to sublease the room/apartment. Failure in following this rule will result in termination of the contract.
The rental time is limited to one year, as our accommodation is intended to be a first place to stay when an international guest researcher/student arrives. If you need accommodation for a longer period than one year, you may apply for a contract extension for up to an additional nine months. You need to email your request for an extension to housingoffice@ki.se not later than two months before the ending date of your contract. There is no guarantee that your request can be granted.
Our dorm rooms and single rooms are intended for single occupancy only and you are not allowed to share the room with anyone.
A tenant can postpone the starting date of his/her contract for a maximum of two weeks, for more information regarding the terms and conditions, see our contract rules. It is not possible to postpone the starting date of a contract for more than two weeks from the original starting date. If you are unsure about how long it will take before your VISA/residence permit is processed you have two alternatives:
- You can keep your contract and pick up your keys later. Please note that you will have to pay rent from the starting date of your contract.
- You can choose to cancel your contract before its starting date. For cancellations made at least one month before the starting date of the contract no charges will apply. If you cancel the contract less than one month before the starting date, there will be a late cancellation fee equal to one week’s rent. You will have to log in to your existing account in the customer portal and submit a new application in order to be placed in the queue for accommodation at a later date.
A request for a relocation can be sent to housingoffice@ki.se. You will be registered on a waiting list for relocation. You will be contacted when there is a possibility to relocate. If a relocation offer is accepted, a SEK 1000 relocation fee is charged.
Rent and payment
The notification about the invoice shown in the portal only shows the total amount and due date. To see a specification of what you are charged for, you can download the invoice as a PDF-file. Click ”Download invoice” in the invoice section and follow the steps.
The procedure for the payment to go through all systems involved will take several days (from 3-10 days). During this time, the invoice will still appear as ”not paid” in the customer portal. When KI Housing has received and registered your payment, the status of the invoice will be changed to ”paid”. As long as you pay on time, your invoice will not be considered as overdue even if the payment is registered a few days after the due date.
This error message usually means that you have interrupted the payment yourself. It is important that you always finish the payment process once you have started it. Make sure that you choose ”pay” and not ”cancel” when paying the rent online.
If you have paid a deposit upon arrival, the deposit will be refunded to you after departure if the keys are returned on time and the final inspection is approved.
Please note that your deposit will not be returned automatically. You need to submit the online deposit reclaim form at this link within two months after the day of your departure.
When we have received the correct information, your deposit will be returned within six weeks.
For further information about the deposit return, we refer to the information at this link.
Tenants who fail to pay the rent in time will be contacted by email and be charged a reminder fee of SEK 60. Tenants who repeatedly fail to observe the due dates will face consequences such as the debt being managed by a debt collection agency which will incur additional fees or eviction.
When the payment has gone through all systems involved, the status of the invoice will be changed to ”paid”. You will also receive a confirmation by email.
It is your obligation as a tenant to ensure that the rent is paid on time.
If you, for some reason, cannot pay the invoice in the customer portal, you can still pay the invoice on time by using another payment method.
The first rental invoice that includes the refundable deposit will be due on the starting date of your contract. You will receive an email from us when you have an invoice to pay in the customer portal.
During the rest of your stay, the rent is to be paid in advance for the following month. The rental invoices are issued around the 20th of each month and can be found in the customer portal. The due date is clearly stated on the invoice.
KI Housing provides several payment methods – for more information about those, see this link.
If the keys are returned on time and the departure inspection is approved, you will be able to get your full deposit back. If keys are not returned in time and/or the departure inspection is not approved, this results in additional costs for KI Housing that will be deducted from the deposit. If these costs are less than the deposit, you will get back the remaining amount.
Please follow the instructions at this link in order to get your deposit back.
The deposit is charged on the first rental invoice which is usually due on the contract’s starting date.
1-2 weeks before the starting date of your contract, you will find your first rental invoice (that will include the refundable deposit) in the customer portal. You will be notified by email that there is an invoice to pay in the customer portal.
The due date will be clearly stated on the invoice.
A security deposit of SEK 2000 is always charged for stays longer than two months. If there would be any damages or if the room/apartment is not left in a satisfactory condition, a part of the deposit (or the total amount) will be used to cover the costs for cleaning and repair. If everything is in order, the full deposit will be repaid to you.
In case the accommodation is not left in a satisfactory condition and/or the tenant has caused damages and the cost for repair or cleaning exceeds the amount of the deposit, the difference will be invoiced to the tenant.
The rent includes water, heating and electricity. However, if the cost for electricity and water exceeds the cost of normal consumption, this will be charged to the tenant. We therefore recommend you not to use additional radiators as these tend to affect the cost for electricity.
Please note that home insurance is not included in the rent. It is therefore important that you sign up for home insurance before moving in. For more information about home insurance, please see this link.