Family hut sharing: how Norway avoids cabin fever
家庭小屋分享：挪威如何避免度假小屋“热”
——如何分配度假别墅小木屋遗产的问题
Mountain cabins and seaside houses are part of the Scandinavian dream. Europeans are right to envy their Nordic compatriots, who can gather with family and friends at a simple house for hiking, skiing, mushrooming, or just relaxing in front of a magnificent landscape.
山间小屋和海景房是斯堪的纳维亚梦的一部分。欧洲人很有理由羡慕他们的北欧同胞——北欧人可以和家人朋友们在一间房子里团聚，出去远足、滑雪、采蘑菇，或者在壮美的风景前悠然沉醉。
About half of all Norwegians have access to a summer house of some kind. The first boom in cabin ownership was in the 1960s, when intrepid Norwegians hiked into the mountains to build themselves a little hideaway. Another boom in the 2000s saw increasingly sophisticated summer houses coming onto the market in many upland areas.
约一半挪威人能享受某种形式的夏日度假屋。第一次小屋抢购潮发生在1960年代，那时，无畏的挪威人跋涉进大山，给自己搭建一个小小的世外桃源。另一次风潮发生在2000年代，那时日益成熟精致的夏日度假屋开始进入高地区域的房产市场。
At this time of year, many Norwegians have already closed up their summer cabins and are back at work, perhaps already looking forward to autumn half-term holidays at the end of September.
每年这个时候【编注：本文发表于10月1日】，挪威人已经锁上了夏日度假屋回去工作了，他们或许已经在期待九月末的秋季假期了。
For some of them though, the future of their cabin might be a little less straightforward than organising a shared calendar. As the first generation of owners leave cabins to their descendants, they often face difficult decisions.
但是，对于他们中的某些人来说，其小木屋的前途可没有安排共同日程那么简单直接。当第一代小木屋的主人想把木屋留给继承人时，他们往往需要面对艰难的决定。
Obscure agreements
模棱两可的条款
The main principle of Norwegian inheritance law is “partible inheritance”. This means that at least two thirds of a couple’s goods are expected to be divided equally between their children.
挪威继承法的主要原则是“遗产分割继承”。这意味着一对夫妇至少三分之二的财产应该被子女平均分配。
When it comes to a family home, inheritors who are already homeowners most commonly sell the house and share the proceeds, but the same does not necessarily apply to a cabin. Cabins are much more likely to stay in the family and be shared in different ways
对于家庭房屋，已拥有住房的继承人们通常会把房子卖掉，分配所得，但是这种原则并不适用于度假小屋。度假小屋更可能被留下，并以不同的方式分享。
One way that cabins can be shared is to split the ownership equally between siblings. This appears straightforward in principle, but if this happens over two or three generations, there may be so many owners that it becomes impossible to manage.
分享小屋的办法之一是，将所有权在子女间均等分割。这看似是最直接的原则，但是如果接连两三代都发生这样的分割，由于共有产权的人太多，小屋将变得无法管理。
As shares in the cabin move through the different branches of the family, and are split between various siblings, people can end up with 3⁄72 or 18⁄60 of a cabin, making ownership complex.
当小屋的所有权在家族不同分支中流传并被不同子女继承时，人们可能最终拥有小屋继承权的3/72或18/60，这就使得所有权状况十分复杂。
A popular option is to give ownership of the cabin to one child (or inheritor) and grant user rights to the others. To avoid disputes, many people add a clause to their will so that the owning inheritor cannot sell the cabin without giving the others the option of buying it first.
常规处理办法是把小屋的所有权给予一名子女（或继承人），然后保证其他人（直系亲属）拥有使用的权利。为了避免争端，许多人会在遗嘱中添加一个条款，规定如果不给其他共有人优先购买权，屋主不能出售小屋。
However, things can get even more complicated. Until the Norwegian government recently abolished inheritance tax, many couples would arrange to sell their cabins to their offspring in advance, still retaining usage rights themselves for up to four weeks a year.
并且，事情还能变得更复杂。在挪威政府近期废除继承税法之前，许多夫妇都已打算提前向其子女出售小屋，并且保留他们自己每年使用小屋四个月的权利。
There were good tax reasons to do this, which have now disappeared, but there are still good moral reasons behind the practice.
从税务的角度看来，这种做法大有裨益，虽然现在税务问题已经消失，但这种做法仍有良好的道德理由。
Parents who want to ensure their children remain on good terms with each other once they are gone, might settle their inheritance well before they are likely to die. This way, if the children are unhappy with the settlement, they can be unhappy with their parents, rather than with each other.
想要让孩子们在他们死后依然保持良好关系的父母，可能在他们去世前很久就安排好自己的财产。这样，如果孩子们对财产的分割不满意，他们可以对父母生气，而不至于亲人反目。
Despite attempts to keep the peace, things do go awry. Summer houses on the coast have become particularly valuable properties, because of the restricted areas where they may be built (despite the long coast, there are limits to coastal building).
尽管父母尝试保持和平，事情依然会弄糟。海滨的夏季度假屋已经成为相当珍贵的财产，因为它们的建造区域有限制（虽然挪威的海岸线很长，但是对海岸小屋的建造也有限制）。
Inheritance tax often priced inheritors out of taking on a cabin that may have been built 40 years ago for next to nothing, but is now a multi-million pound property. That problem has now disappeared.
之前，令人咋舌的继承税经常使继承人们不得不放弃一间40年前建造的，孤零零的临海小屋，它此时已是价值数百万磅的财产。这一问题现已不复存在。
However, issues still exist and there are good reasons why Norwegians often talk about stress and sadness in relation to cabins. “Everyone has a cabin story,” I am often told.
然而，问题依然存在，挪威人仍有很多理由谈论与小屋有关的压力和哀伤。“人人都有一段与度假屋有关的故事”，常有人对我说。
For example, say three siblings inherit a cabin equally and one wants out of the share, that then leaves the other two with a major bill to buy he or she out. This can often cause tension within the whole family.
举个例子，有三兄妹平分了一间小屋的所有权，然后其中一人想要卖掉自己的所有权，这就使得另外两人不得不花一大笔钱买下他或她的所有权。这种事情经常在整个家族内制造紧张气氛。
Worldwide lessons
各国的经验
There are many “blended” families in Norway due to exceptionally high divorce and remarriage rates. However, this doesn’t necessarily make things more complicated, as inheritance can go to direct heirs rather than step-children.
因为居高不下的离婚率和再婚率，挪威有许多重组家庭。然而，这未必会让事情变得更为复杂，因为遗产可以直接传给亲生子女，而不是继子继女。
When marrying, couples can retain property in their personal ownership, not necessarily bringing everything into joint ownership with their new spouse.
在结婚时，夫妇双方可以各自保留自己的财产，而不和新配偶共同拥有所有财产。
For example, if “Britta” owns a cabin that her parents built, she does not have to leave it to her new husband’s children from his previous marriage.
举个例子，如果Britta拥有一间父母建造的小屋，她不必把这间房子留给新丈夫在之前的婚姻中所育子女。
These days, so many families have cabins that there may be several to pass on. Each child might get a different one, and any significant difference in value might be compensated through a cash settlement.
如今，很多家庭都拥有小屋，所以会有很多小屋被传承。每个孩子可能得到不同的一间，并且任何价值上的显著差异都可以通过现金弥补。
By default however, this can also reinforce the difference between “legal” siblings (including birth and adopted siblings) and step-siblings, often quite subconsciously.
但是在默认情况下，这也会强化“法律上的”兄弟姐妹（包括亲生子女和收养子女）以及非同一对父母所生的兄弟姐妹之间的差异，这往往是潜意识地发生的。
Sharing a cabin doesn’t only bring a family together in the holidays, but it can also define what relations the different family members have with each other.
分享一间小屋不仅仅让一个家庭在假期相聚，这也能定义家庭成员之间的亲疏。
Perhaps surprisingly then, given the heightened emotions associated with a family cabin, startlingly few inheritance disputes end up in court.
纵然挪威人都有很深的小屋情结，令人吃惊的是，只有很少的继承争端最终走上法庭。
The abolition of inheritance tax has been seen as a potential threat to the “Equal Society” that the Norwegian welfare state has produced. But whether these changes will have an effect on the method of shared ownership and use of holiday cabins, remains to be seen.
继承税的废除，被视作对挪威这个福利国家之前创造的“平等社会”的威胁。但是这些改变是否能影响使用和分享度假小屋的方式，还得拭目以待。
It is quite likely that Norwegian families will continue to create equality – at least within the family – through sharing-arrangements at cabins. Whether equality can survive beyond the family is a different question.
很可能，挪威家庭将会通过分享小屋的方式继续创造平等——至少是在家庭内部。这种“平等”是否能衍生到家庭以外，就是另外一个问题了。
翻译：Horace Rae(@Sheldon_rae)
校对：龟海海
编辑：辉格@whigzhou