Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki on Pexels
A sublet offer for a Stockholm apartment lands in your inbox with a deposit demand attached, and you do not yet hold a personnummer. Before you wire anything, you need to know what a landlord or rental platform can legally ask you to pay, in what order, and how to send that money without a Swedish bank account. Swedish law caps advance rent tightly and treats the deposit as a separate, largely unregulated payment. The two main rental platforms both require a deposit for the same reason: a missing personnummer blocks the credit check they would otherwise run. This guide sets out the legal limits, what Samtrygg and Qasa actually require, and how payment works when you are starting from outside the system.
Subletting Is the Realistic Route Before You Have a Personnummer
A sublet, andrahandsuthyrning, is the practical path into Swedish housing before a personnummer exists, and it always needs the landlord's or the housing association's explicit consent.
A first-hand contract, arranged directly with a property owner, is effectively closed to you at this stage. Landlords overwhelmingly require the personnummer and BankID a first-hand tenancy assumes. A sublet works differently. The first-hand tenant hands over their contract for a fixed period, and the property owner, or the bostadsrättsförening in a cooperative building, must approve that arrangement in writing. Consent is not a formality. Subletting without permission is grounds for the first-hand tenant to lose their own contract, per informationsverige.se (2026). A sublet offer that tries to skip this step is a warning sign, not a shortcut. Passport or national ID, standing in for a personnummer, is accepted on most sublet applications, per likesweden.com (2026).
Read about finding a sublet before you arrive for how to line up a sublet offer with proper consent in place before you land.
One Month's Advance Rent Is the Legal Limit, Not Two or Three
A landlord can require at most one month's rent in advance, under Jordabalken 12 kap 20 §.
That one month falls due on the last business day before the rental period begins, per Riksdagen, Ds 2023:32 "Säkerhetsdeposition vid hyresavtal", which restates 12 kap. 20 § första stycket jordabalken. It is a hard statutory ceiling, separate from the deposit covered next. A landlord who demands two or three months of rent up front is asking for something the law does not permit as advance rent. You may pay several months ahead voluntarily, but no landlord can require it as a condition of the contract. If a platform holds a payment in escrow before move-in, the one-month cap still applies to the landlord's own claim; the platform's own deposit is separate, covered below.
The Deposit Is a Separate Payment, and the Law Sets No Maximum
A security deposit is legally distinct from advance rent and carries no statutory ceiling, though an excessive figure can be challenged.
Private sublets typically ask for one to two months' rent as a deposit, and Hyresgästföreningen says the sum should not correspond to more than a couple of months' rent, per Hyresgästföreningen, "Hyra en lägenhet i andra hand". No statute fixes a number, and Swedish law has no provisions on rental deposits at all, per Riksdagen, Ds 2023:32, so a landlord who asks for four or five months' rent is not automatically breaking the law. You can still challenge a figure that looks unreasonable, oskäligt, at Hyresnämnden, the regional rental tribunal, per vasaadvokat.se (2026). Paying anything beyond the deposit and one month's advance rent simply to secure a contract is a separate, more serious category. That is a black contract, a documented form of illegal payment under Swedish law, per informationsverige.se (2026).
Compare the deposit against first months' costs beyond the deposit before you commit funds, so the payment fits inside your wider moving budget.
Samtrygg and Qasa Require a Deposit Specifically Because a Personnummer Is Missing
Without a personnummer, neither platform can run the credit check a first-hand landlord would normally rely on, so a deposit or a guarantor stands in for it.
Samtrygg asks for a deposit equal to two months' rent, or accepts a guarantor instead, when you lack a personnummer or two years of Swedish income history. That stands in for the credit check Samtrygg cannot otherwise run, per support.samtrygg.se, article 17, "Är det alltid depositionsfritt?" (2026). Qasa runs its deposit through escrow and releases the first month's rent to the landlord roughly one week after move-in, per support.qasa.se, "Paying the rent" and "Get your deposit back" (2026). The reason is the same as Samtrygg's: a missing personnummer means no credit check. Compare their exact terms against your available guarantor, or your ability to front two months' rent, rather than assuming one platform beats the other.
Once your personnummer and BankID come through, later contracts, first-hand or sublet, open up the standard credit-check route instead.
Paying Without a Swedish Bank Account Means an International Transfer
Payment goes to the platform's IBAN by international wire, not to a private landlord's personal account.
Without a Swedish bank account, or a personnummer to open one, you pay Samtrygg or Qasa directly by international transfer to the platform's own IBAN and BIC/SWIFT code. The platform then handles disbursement to the landlord. Sending money to a landlord's personal account instead, outside a platform's escrow, removes that protection and is a common pattern in rental scams. In place of a Swedish payslip, landlords and platforms typically accept an employer certificate plus three to six months of payslips or bank statements, per likesweden.com, "Renting an apartment in Sweden without a Personnummer" (2026). Build in extra time before any due date: an international wire can take several business days to clear, and a late payment can jeopardize the contract even when it was sent on time.
An employer certificate from a confirmed job is often the single document that unlocks this whole set of accepted paperwork.
Getting the Deposit Back Depends on How It Was Held
Whether the deposit was held as a pledge or as a loan determines what protection you have if the landlord becomes insolvent.
Swedish contract principles recognize two structures for a deposit. Held as a pledge, pant, in a separate account, it stays protected even if the landlord runs into financial trouble. Held as a loan, försträckning, the landlord is free to use the money as their own, and no such protection applies, per vasaadvokat.se, "Deposition – lag & hyra" (2026). Which structure applies is rarely stated upfront, so ask before you sign; it is one of the few deposit terms you can negotiate, and it can matter more than the deposit's size. On move-out, a deposit is normally returned once the apartment has been inspected, minus deductions agreed in the contract: unpaid rent, negligent damage, inadequate cleaning, or lock replacement. No statute sets that out; it is contract practice, described the same way by landager.com, "Security Deposits in Sweden" (2026). Normal wear and tear cannot be deducted.
Swedish Law Caps Advance Rent at One Month, Even Without a Personnummer
One month's rent in advance is the legal ceiling a Swedish landlord can impose, personnummer or not. The deposit sits outside that cap, runs one to two months' rent in practice with Hyresgästföreningen putting the ceiling at a couple of months, and can be challenged at Hyresnämnden if the figure looks unreasonable. Samtrygg and Qasa both substitute a deposit, or a guarantor, for the credit check your missing personnummer would otherwise unlock, and both move that deposit through escrow rather than a landlord's personal account. Payment routes through the platform's IBAN by international transfer, planned around extra clearing time rather than a bank account you do not yet have.
Before you wire anything, confirm which stage you are at: still lining up a sublet, or already through the personnummer and BankID process and ready for the standard credit check.
