Mid Sweden University

Homeowners are facing worse personal finances with inflation and increasing interest rates. New groupsare at risk of overindebtedness and foreclosure. The entire household are affected by worse health andwell-being. This leads to large societal costs. Hence, it is imperative to break the negative cycle ofoverindebtedness for these households. Foreclosure is enforced by Kronofogden and aims to pay thedebts. However, an unintended consequence may be that foreclosure is perceived as repressive. Thedegree of repression depends on how Kronofogden handles the proceedings. This research projectcontributes with knowledge about these mechanisms and how they may make it more difficult to breaksocial and economic exclusion by answering the research question: How repressive are the foreclosureproceedings at Kronofogden?

We answer the research question by surveying and interviewing homeowners who have been subject toforeclosure about repression. Repression is a multi-facetted concept that may be employed to study bothopen displays of state violence as well as “soft” exercises of public authority through, for example,stigmatization. We are inspired by this latter understanding and We take advantage of a randomizedcontrolled trial (RCT) in which Kronofogden randomized foreclosure sales to auction or brokered sale inan effort to investigate which sales form resulted in higher payment. While auction sales arecharacterized by coercion, no interactions with the homeowner, and no possibility for the homeowner toaffect the outcomes through personal involvement, the success of brokered sales depends oncollaboration with the homeowner, participation on behalf of, and involvement from the homeowner.Given these different characteristics, the RCT provides an opportunity for us to examine whether whichsales form – auction or broker – was employed had an impact on the level of repression as measured byperceived fairness and institutional trust. Due to its characteristics, we hypothesize that brokered saleresults in a lower level of repression. This hypothesis is tested with a survey that targets the foreclosedhomeowners that were included in Kronofogden’s RCT. We also interview homeowners about theirexperiences and group interviews with homeowners to ask them about whether they consider theforeclosure proceedings to be repressive.