We’ve certainly been busy with Housing English this autumn. Last week Gary Watson and I had two lively days in Solna doing training sessions with the staff of the Signalisten municipal housing company. And today he’s in Lund with LKF. Here he is in the penthouse of the Park Hotel enjoying a birdseye view of Solna.

We’ve compiled an English- Swedish dictionary of housing words for our trainees. One word that has given us some interesting translation problems is “bovärd”. These are often the first point of contact with the municipal landlord. They are also the ones who carry out small repairs with plumbing and electrical matters.

The British word caretaker and the American janitor are a reasonable translations but don’t really cover the level of responsibility that a “bovärd” has. In addition to maintenance they are also responsible for liaising with contractors, ordering work and then assessing that it has been done correctly. We recommend the term “house caretaker.”

A house caretaker is also the eyes, ears and even nose of the landlord. By talking to tenants and being observant, they can soon detect is anything is amiss or suspicious. One of our Signalisten trainees told the group about how she had noticed an unusually high number of people visiting one particular apartment block in her area. Some of them seemed to be under the influence of something. Some nifty detective work enabled her to find out which flat they were visiting.

The police were informed, they did a stakeout and within a short time there was a raid. The lodger in the flat had been dealing drugs. He is now behind bars.

That house caretaker was a real Sherlock Holmes. I was just waiting for her to turn to Gary and say “Elementary, my dear Watson!”