Oslo forgot it owned a villa – for nearly 40 years

An unusual 1980s agreement led Oslo to lose track of a property it owned for decades. The rediscovered villa has now been found to have serious fire safety deficiencies.

A villa in Kjelsås in Oslo slipped off the city’s radar for several decades. Now the municipality has discovered serious fire safety deficiencies in the more than 130-year-old building.

The case came to light in autumn 2025, when keys belonging to a deceased resident revealed that the city had lost track of the property at Kjelsåsveien 143D, Nordre Aker Budstikke reports.

The oversight stems from an unusual agreement dating back to the mid-1980s, in which housing cooperative Borettslaget Frysja II was granted the right to use the building free of charge in exchange for covering maintenance and operating costs.

No similar arrangements are known to exist for other municipal properties.

When the city investigated, it found that fire safety in the old timber villa was inadequate. The building lacked separation into individual fire compartments, increasing the risk in the event of a fire.

An automatic fire alarm system has since been installed, but the city has yet to determine what further improvements are needed or who will pay for them.

The villa currently houses four households. Three residents are linked to the original 1985 agreement. The fourth is the surviving spouse of a resident who died 25 years ago. What will happen to the property when the current residents are no longer there has not yet been decided.