Press "Enter" to skip to content

Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of Oct. 8, 2019

0 0
Read Time:1 Minute, 32 Second

Court: ‘Hidden defects’ mean owners of condemned Gamle Sykehuset flat can get refund

The owners of an apartment at Gamle Sykehuset, which city officials condemned in 2016 due to massive damage caused by thawing permafrost, are entitled to cancel their purchase and receive a refund of the 1.5 million kroner purchase price due to “substantial hidden defects,” according to an appeals court ruling. Anika Paust and Vide Brandt purchased the apartment “as is” in 2013, but the Hålogaland Court of Appeals ruled that because it was declared uninhabitable only three years later it was in “substantially inferior condition than the buyer had reason to expect.” The seller, Arne Oddvar Bergdal, must refund the purchase price, but is not being held legally negligent in the matter. The damage occurred at least in part because a cooling system under the building was not present or functioning due to the action of previous owners of the building. A total of 30 residents were forced to abandon 16 apartments in the building, with insurers refusing to cover the loss. Multiple legal challenges have been filed by the tenants forced to move, including by Paust and Brandt, although until now none were successful.

Restaurants get non-mandatory visit from food safety officials; mum’s how they fared

Businesses serving food in Longyearbyen and Barentsburg got a visit during the past week from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, even though the agency’s mandates and approval stickers in force on the mainland don’t apply to Svalbard. But that doesn’t mean locals weren’t told to fix their faults. Ulf Kjelleberg, who operates a food truck on weekends, said he feels the inspectors are a plus, even though one admonished him for storing contains with food on the floor rather than an elevated space. The results of the inspections are not known at present.

 

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %

Average Rating

5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%