Bathroom water damage in Sweden: age deductions and your share of the cost

In Sweden, your insurance excess is not necessarily the full amount you will pay when your bathroom suffers water damage. Even if the policy covers the damage, the insurer may apply an age deduction, known as åldersavdrag, to the cost of reinstatement. You then pay part of both the materials and the labour.

The amount depends on which building components need to be reinstated, their age and the policy's limits. In the worked example below, the homeowner pays SEK 53,000 towards reinstatement items totalling SEK 200,000, despite an excess of SEK 4,000. An applicable lower cap on age deductions changes the result.

The difference between an excess and an age deduction

An excess, called självrisk in Swedish, is the portion of an insured loss that the policy requires you to pay yourself. It may be a fixed amount or a percentage of the loss. Special excesses may apply to water damage.

An age deduction is a reduction made when valuing something that needs to be repaired or replaced. When an older building component is replaced with a new one, you may have to pay part of the reinstatement cost under the table in the policy wording.

Both deductions can therefore apply to the same claim. You may also have to pay for work that the insurance does not cover or for more expensive materials you choose yourself. Any reduction in compensation because safety requirements have not been followed is a separate issue again.

Ask for an estimate that separates these items. Confirmation that “the insurance covers the damage” does not, on its own, tell you how much you will be billed.

Which insurance covers the bathroom?

For a house, the buildings cover in a villaförsäkring is the relevant protection for damage to the building itself. It may form part of a combined buildings and home insurance policy, called villahemförsäkring.

For a bostadsrätt, a Swedish form of housing ownership involving membership of a housing association and a right to occupy a particular home, the relevant cover may be bostadsrättsförsäkring. This is often called bostadsrättstillägg: supplementary insurance for parts of the property for which you are responsible. It may be arranged individually or collectively through the association. Your home insurance cover for your belongings is a separate part of the protection.

After water damage in a bostadsrätt, responsibility also needs to be divided between you and the association. This depends partly on what was damaged and how the damage occurred. Report the damage to both your insurer and the association. Konsumenternas explains age deductions for bostadsrätt insurance (in Swedish).

How to read the age-deduction table

Start by finding the correct building component. Tiles with waterproofing, painted surfaces and electric underfloor heating may appear on different lines in the table, even though they are all in the same bathroom.

Then check:

• Age: What date does the policy use as its starting point? In the wording used below, age runs from the date the component was first put into use.
• Years without deductions: How many years pass before an age deduction applies?
• Annual rate: What percentage is deducted after that period?
• Counting years: Does the calculation use completed years or each year started?
• Limits: Is there a percentage cap for the component and an overall monetary cap?

The year the house was built is therefore not enough. A house built in 1960 might have waterproofing installed in 2012 and other components replaced more recently. A new washbasin does not make the rest of the bathroom younger.

The percentage is applied to the reinstatement costs specified by the policy. It is not automatically the old renovation invoice that is reduced for age. That invoice may, however, help establish what was installed and when.

A worked example with different building components

This example uses Folksam Villaförsäkring Bas and the Hem och villa policy wording dated 1 January 2026. The rules appear in the full policy wording, particularly B5–B7 and C37–C42 (in Swedish).

Assume that a pipe leak damages the bathroom in the main house on 1 October 2026. The insurer approves the reinstatement items below. They relate to the resulting damage; the cost of the leaking pipe section itself is excluded from this calculation. Reinstatement takes place within two years, and no other deductions or limitations apply.

The ceramic surfaces, waterproofing and electric underfloor heating were first used on 1 January 2012. Separate painted wall areas were completed on 1 January 2022. The tiles and paint cover different areas. The underfloor heating worked before the leak and needs to be replaced as part of the approved reinstatement of the resulting damage.

The amounts are illustrative assumptions, not a quotation or a statement of market prices. Each line includes materials and the associated labour, including the allocated cost of removal and reinstatement, plus any transport. All amounts include VAT, and no cost appears on two lines.

Calculating the deduction

For the ceramic surfaces, four years and nine months have passed since the end of the ten years without deductions. That amounts to five deduction years started:

5 × 5% = 25%.

Assume that the SEK 120,000 on this line consists of SEK 40,000 for materials and SEK 80,000 for labour. The deduction is:

25% × SEK 120,000 = SEK 30,000.

This is more than a calculation based on materials alone. For the painted surfaces, three deduction years have started after the first two years without deductions, giving a deduction of 30%.

For the underfloor heating, the table calculation exceeds 80%. In this particular example, the deduction is capped at 80% because the heating was functional before the damage caused by the leak. A separate failure of the installation would need to be assessed under different rules.

What does the homeowner pay?

The Bas policy's overall cap of SEK 105,000 does not affect the calculated deductions of SEK 49,000. An excess of SEK 4,000 applies to the assumed leakage damage; we assume that no higher excess has been agreed.

• Insurance compensation: SEK 200,000 − SEK 49,000 − SEK 4,000 = SEK 147,000.
• Your cost for these items: SEK 49,000 + SEK 4,000 = SEK 53,000.

This calculation has a defined scope. If further work is needed, or you choose a more expensive solution, those costs and any compensation available for them must also be taken into account.

Why does the deduction also apply to labour?

An age deduction for a building component may apply to the cost of reinstating it with new materials and new labour. Removal and reinstatement work may therefore be included in the amount subject to the deduction.

That does not mean the highest percentage for the bathroom should be applied to the entire building contract. Konsumenternas distinguishes between surface finishes and underlying materials in its guide to house insurance (in Swedish), including studs and insulation.

The purpose of the work also matters. Repairing a moisture-damaged structure is different from opening an undamaged structure to gain access to an installation. The insurer If has, for example, specific rules on age deductions for locating damage, gaining access and reinstating what was opened up.

Ask for a breakdown separating damaged building components, access work and other measures, such as drying. You can then check both the percentage used and the costs to which it is applied.

A cap on age deductions is not a cap on everything you pay

Two types of limit need to be kept separate: a percentage cap for a building component and a monetary cap on the total age deduction.

Under Folksam Villaförsäkring Stor, the age deduction is capped at SEK 15,000 when the conditions for that limit are met. Using the same approved items as in the example, with none of the exceptions to that limit applying to them, the calculation becomes:

SEK 200,000 − SEK 15,000 − SEK 4,000 = SEK 181,000 in compensation.

Your cost for these items is then SEK 19,000. The excess therefore sits outside the cap on age deductions.

Exceptions can apply to older bathrooms

At Folksam, the SEK 15,000 cap does not apply, for example, to surface finishes and waterproofing more than 30 years old when there is leakage damage. Components that were not functional before the damage are also excluded from that limit.

The rules differ in If's Villaförsäkring policy wording dated December 2025 (in Swedish). There, the SEK 15,000 cap under Stor villaförsäkring does not apply to bathroom surface finishes, including waterproofing, that have been fully written down under the table.

If also has a separate exclusion for costs that would already have been necessary on the day before the damage to renovate a damaged bathroom more than 35 years old in accordance with the applicable rules. That concerns which costs the policy covers, rather than just the size of the deduction.

Check the table, the exceptions to the deduction cap and the rules on which damage is covered. An advertised maximum amount does not answer all three questions.

Record what was actually renovated

Try to find supporting documents for each part of the bathroom. An invoice with a description of the work may show that the waterproofing was replaced. A receipt for a new washbasin does not establish the same thing.

Keep invoices, specifications, quality documents and dated photographs together. Ask the contractor or the previous owner for further information if you know the renovation year but not the extent of the work.

Keep two questions separate: how old the component is and how the work was carried out. Documents can help answer both, but they are not interchangeable. A missing receipt or certificate does not automatically mean compensation will be refused; documentation requirements must be assessed against the particular cover.

Read more about insurance when a wet-room certificate is missing (in Swedish). For receipts and other evidence relating to belongings, see our article on home insurance without a receipt (in Swedish).

Checklist for reviewing a claim calculation

1. Find your insurance schedule and the policy wording that applies to the damage.
2. Ask the insurer to identify which work and building components are covered.
3. Check installation dates, years without deductions and the calculation of years started.
4. Request a breakdown of costs and age deductions for each component, including labour.
5. Check the percentage caps, the overall monetary cap and the exceptions.
6. Add the correct excess and list any costs outside the insurance separately.

If something looks wrong, ask for a written explanation referring to the relevant policy clause. This makes the issue specific: is the disagreement about the age, the costs used in the calculation, the percentage or whether the work is covered at all?

Common questions about bathroom age deductions

Can an age deduction apply to a bathroom that was still working?

Yes. Deductions under the table can apply to functional components when they are replaced after damage. Whether a component was functional before the damage may, however, affect certain limits.

Is the deduction calculated from the year the house was built?

Not automatically. The starting point is the age of the particular building component under the policy wording. A later renovation can therefore be decisive.

Does having the receipt remove the deduction?

No. A receipt may help establish the correct age and extent of the work, but it does not remove an age deduction that applies under the policy.

Does insurance pay for a completely new bathroom?

It depends on the damage and which work is covered. Water damage does not automatically mean that every component needs replacing. Even when substantial reinstatement is covered, you may have to pay age deductions and an excess.

Get an overview of your own policy

Gather your insurance schedule, policy wording and renovation records before trying to estimate the cost. Insuragi helps you organise and understand your insurance information. Use that overview to identify what you need the insurer to explain.

This information is general. Compensation is determined by the applicable policy wording and the circumstances of the damage. Insuragi is not an insurance intermediary and does not make decisions on insurance compensation.