Borettslag

''Borettslag'' is the

legal entity In law, a legal person is any person or legal entity that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, lawsuit, sue and be sued, ownership, own property, and so on. The reason for the term "''le ...

for

housing cooperative A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity which owns real estate consisting of one or more residential buildings. The entity is usually a cooperative or a corporation and constitutes a form of housing tenure. Typically hou ...

s in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The company is owned by those who live in the cooperative, the partholders. Each part gives the right to live in the cooperative, and thus in a particular apartment or house. A partholder is free to sell their part, but the cooperative

statute A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...

can give internal

first refusal Right of first refusal (ROFR or RFR) is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transaction ...

. The ''borettslag'' owns the buildings and ground the buildings are on. The highest authority in the cooperative is the

annual general meeting An annual general meeting (AGM, also known as the annual meeting) is a meeting of the general membership of an organization. These organizations include membership associations and companies with shareholders. These meetings may be required ...

that elects the

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

, who are responsible for daily operations. Usually a large share of the construction costs of the property is financed through common

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money Loan, borrowed or otherwise withheld from another party, the creditor. Debt may be owed by a sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. Co ...

, that is issued to the cooperative, and not to the individuals. This debt, along with the costs to cover running the grounds, is charged to the owners as rent. Some cooperatives are members of a

housing association In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, Non-profit organization, non-profit organisations that provide low-cost "Public housing in the United Kingdom, social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surpl ...

, which again are members of the Norwegian Federation of Co-operative Housing Associations. Previously only housing associations could create cooperatives, but now this right is also granted to commercial developers, who often create smaller cooperatives. {{Norwegian type of company Types of companies of Norway Housing cooperatives in Norway no:Borettslag nn:Bustadsamvirket