The properties in central Ställdalen have stood empty for many years, according to municipal officials. They have become a phenomenon on social media and attract people who come to the site and vandalize, officials said. Ljusnarsberg Municipality has decided that the houses should be demolished, though the exact timeline and cost estimate remain unclear given the owner's history of non-cooperation. The village now attracts tourists from across the country who come here and destroy, according to major media reports.
Municipal council chairman Natalie Hart (S) does not believe it will be a quick process because the property owner has been difficult to serve previous decisions. If the municipality itself were to demolish the houses and clean up the area, it would involve multi-million sums, Hart said. The municipality has waged a long-standing battle to get the owner to do something about the houses, according to major media reports. Who exactly owns the abandoned properties in Ställdalen and why they have been unresponsive to municipal decisions has not been publicly detailed.
Politician Magdalena Andersson has argued that the municipality cannot solve this on its own; a different legislation from the Swedish Parliament is required. What specific legislative changes are being proposed to address situations where property owners abandon buildings remains unspecified. Andersson noted that apparently, the legislation has not anticipated that property owners can be this irresponsible.
Four residential buildings and a hotel stand and decay in the center after the owner abandoned them, according to major media reports. In 2015, the refugee crisis functioned as a form of artificial respiration for the area, with 481 asylum seekers welcomed in a municipality with 4,933 inhabitants. An entrepreneur made substantial money by leasing asylum accommodations to the Migration Agency. Reports of mismanagement soon began to pour in, with the landlord not paying electricity bills. The refugee accommodation closed in 2017 when the Migration Agency moved all residents after alarms about mismanagement, electricity being cut off, and black mold in the properties. In 2017, the Migration Agency moved all refugees from the scandal houses in Ställdalen. The properties were bought and became rental housing, but with many unrented apartments, the decay worsened.
The owner has been appointed Sweden's worst landlord by the magazine Hem och Hyra, according to major media reports. An infamous slum landlord, appointed one of the country's worst by Hem & Hyra, bought the properties.
For two and a half years, people have been coming here to look at the houses and engage in vandalism tourism, according to major media reports. Rumors in the village say that the vandals are organized, with trips to Ställdalen being arranged. How organized the vandalism tourism is, and whether there are any ongoing police investigations into the vandals, has not been confirmed.
The population has steadily decreased since the 1970s when the Ställberg mine closed, according to major media reports.