Housing Companies Act Amendment 2026: What Buyers Need to Know

The Housing Companies Act changed on 1 October 2026. This is not a single provision, but dozens of amendments across different parts of the Act. Some are technical, but many directly affect what you are buying when you purchase apartment shares. We reviewed the legislative text adopted by Parliament and extracted the changes most relevant to home buyers.

In brief: what changed

• A housing company may take possession of an apartment on more grounds than before, including due to costs and harm caused by short-term rental.
• The warning and decision on taking possession may now also be served electronically.
• Windows are now the housing company’s maintenance responsibility unless the articles of association provide otherwise.
• A shareholder who rents out the apartment must know who is using it and inform the company if requested.
• Controlled winding-up and bankruptcy of a housing company now proceed under clearer rules.
• A default rule was introduced for allocating the costs of electric-vehicle charging points.

Taking possession: new grounds and faster procedure

Taking the apartment into the company’s possession is the housing company’s only real means of intervening when a shareholder neglects their obligations. The shareholders’ meeting may decide to take an apartment into the company’s possession for up to three years. Alongside the old grounds, such as unpaid maintenance charges, poor upkeep of the apartment, and disruptive living, new grounds were added.

• Short-term rental: taking possession is possible if short-term rental of the apartment causes the company or other shareholders additional costs or harm that differ from ordinary residential use.
• Health and order: a ground now also exists if the occupant fails to comply with what is necessary to maintain health or order. According to the Finnish Real Estate Federation, for example, violating a smoking ban imposed by authorities may in future lead to taking possession.
• Very serious reason: the Act now also includes a more general ground comparable to disruptive living. The Real Estate Federation’s example is continuous disturbance in the stairwell by visitors to the apartment.

The threshold has not been lowered, however. A warning must first be given, and the disturbances must be significant. The procedure is faster, though: the warning may be sent to the email address provided by the shareholder, with a prompt sent simultaneously via another channel. The shareholders’ meeting decision must be served without delay, no longer within 60 days.

For a buyer, this means two things. If you are moving into a home, the housing company has better tools than before to address disturbances. If, however, you are buying an apartment as an investment and intend to rent it out short-term, the risk has increased. Also read what investor ownership in a housing company can mean for a buyer, and how smoking bans in housing companies are changing.

Short-term rental: no ban, but duty to provide information

The Act does not prohibit short-term rental. Instead, a shareholder who allows someone else to use their apartment now has a duty to make sure they have the necessary information about the person using it. The information must be provided to the company if the company requests it for a justified reason. This makes it easier, for example, to identify the party responsible for damage.

Parliament required the Government to monitor the effectiveness of short-term rental regulation and report on it by the end of 2029. The matter may therefore be revisited.

Maintenance responsibility: windows to the housing company

Under the Act, the company’s maintenance responsibility now includes the structures, insulation, and windows of apartments. Previously, windows usually followed a division in which the shareholder was responsible for the inside and the company for the outside. Sinks located in the apartment are not the company’s responsibility.

At the same time, the shareholder’s responsibility was extended: you must also carefully maintain the company’s premises or areas that you use without a right of possession based on the articles of association or a lease agreement, for example, a yard to which you have a right of use. In addition, the Act now states directly that the shareholder is responsible for maintaining any alteration work they have carried out.

Most important point: the articles of association may still deviate from the Act. If the articles of association provide that the shareholder is responsible for their windows, that remains the case going forward. We reviewed the division of responsibility in more detail in the article maintenance responsibility in a housing company.

Shareholders’ meeting and shareholder’s right to information

A person registered as a shareholder in the share register or the share-apartment register on the day before the meeting may participate in the shareholders’ meeting. The meeting notice is sent to the postal or email address in the share-apartment register, and the shareholder may provide their email address to the register themselves.

In practice, the new owner should still apply for registration of ownership immediately after the sale. We reported on registration backlogs in the article Residential and Commercial Property Information System severely congested.

A shareholder now also has the right to receive without delay a copy of any document held by the company that concerns their apartment and affects, for example, the apartment’s maintenance or costs. The company may charge a reasonable fee for this. As a buyer, you can therefore ask the seller to obtain such documents before the sale.

Redemption clause

If the articles of association contain a redemption clause, the board of directors must notify those entitled to redemption of the transfer of the share within two weeks of receiving notice of the transfer and the necessary information from the buyer. The buyer must provide this information to the board without delay. There is no right of redemption, for example, when the share is acquired by a close relative, spouse, or beneficiary under a will.

A redemption clause is rare, but if one exists, the sale may remain open for a while. Check this in the articles of association before making an offer.

Controlled winding-up and bankruptcy

A housing company may still decide on liquidation and transfer of the property if four-fifths of the votes cast and shares represented at the meeting support it and maintenance would cause the shareholders significant harm. The procedure has been lightened: the proposal must be accompanied by an independent expert’s assessment of the fair values of the apartments and the maintenance needs for at least ten years. After the decision, maintenance is limited to what is essential for habitation.

In bankruptcy, the shareholder’s right to possess the apartment and obligation to pay maintenance charges cease one month after the bankruptcy trustee has notified the shareholder of the bankruptcy. At the same time, the lease agreement between the shareholder and their tenant also ends without termination.

These situations primarily concern housing companies whose repairs have been postponed too long or whose area has seen a decline in apartment values. We discussed risk identification in more detail in the article housing company bankruptcy.

Other changes in brief

• Electric-vehicle charging points: unless the articles of association provide otherwise, significant costs arising from charging points and their maintenance are divided equally among the apartments that benefit from the improvement.
• Access to the apartment: if a suitable visit time cannot be agreed due to a reason attributable to the shareholder, the company may notify the shareholder of the visit in advance and enter the apartment after a reasonable time has passed.
• Abandoned property: the Act now states what the company may do with property left in an apartment taken into possession or in common areas.

What a Buyer Should Check Now

• Articles of association: does the maintenance responsibility for windows deviate from the Act, and is there a redemption clause in the articles of association?
• Minutes: have warnings, taking possession, or disturbances been discussed at shareholders’ meetings or board meetings?
• Short-term rental: ask the property manager whether there are short-term rental apartments in the housing company and whether they have caused costs.
• Finances and maintenance needs: read the financial statements and the long-term maintenance plan, especially if apartment values in the area have declined.
• After the sale: apply for registration of ownership immediately and provide your email address to the share-apartment register so that you receive meeting notices.

The legislative amendment improves the framework, but the situation of an individual housing company can only be determined from its own housing company documents.

Sources: Parliament’s response EV 65/2026 vp, Government Bill HE 34/2026 vp, and Finnish Real Estate Federation press release 29 September 2026.