Swedish apartment sold with deceased resident still in it

Buying an abandoned apartment in Sweden brought a macabre surprise to the new owner: the former owner. Not only did the elderly resident appear to have been dead in his home for years, but he was also missed during the assessment and viewings of the apartment.

The Gothenburg home went up for sale in May after the resident failed to pay his bills. The bailiff offered the apartment in the condition it was found in, according to Swedish media full of rubbish and reeking of garbage.

The gang’s body of the previous owner was not discovered until weeks after the purchase in June. The resident, an octogenarian, would have been dead for at least two years, according to the police. His supposedly mummified remains were partly hidden under a bed.

The man’s daughter says she has been estranged from her father for years. Yet she is stunned that the apartment was not properly searched and the bailiff did not contact the family to find out where the former resident had been. She also wants her personal belongings back.

A spokesman for the government curator who sold the flat says that for privacy reasons the property of former residents is not extensively searched and the body was therefore missed. According to her, approaching relatives is not part of the protocol.

She also adds that it’s more common for the previous owner to be found dead in foreclosure sales.