Safekeeping documents

Regional State Administrative Agencies may store specific documents belonging to construction sites for safekeeping.

A founding member or joint building consultant may request the Regional State Administrative Agency to store their safekeeping documents.

The bank will store a company’s safekeeping documents when the company takes out a loan for the purposes of its construction project. If the company does not take out a loan, the Regional State Administrative Agencies can store these documents instead. 

The documents are stored in either a bank or Regional State Administrative Agency to protect the interests of people who own shares in the housing company during construction. 

Storage is controlled by the Housing Transactions Act and the Act on joint building (Ryhmärakennuttamislaki).

The safekeeping documents must be provided for storage during the construction phase and before shares are put up for sale.  

Contact the Regional State Administrative Agency with jurisdiction over the location where the housing association is being built. A link to the contact information of Regional State Administrative Agencies’ registries is provided at the bottom of this page. 

Send us a written free-form request by mail. The documents cannot all be delivered by email, as the law requires some of the originals to be provided.

The storing party must

  • ensure that the developer has made the necessary amendments to the Articles of Association using the Finnish Patent and Registration Office’s service and that changes have been entered into the Trade Register (before the beginning of the RS process) (the information is transferred directly into the Residential and Commercial Property Information System); 
  • inspect the documents and store them;
  • store securities and monitor the amounts of securities;
  • notify of the RS restriction entry in the Residential and Commercial Property Information System (new housing cooperatives no longer have paper share certificates); and
  • maintain a list of owners, pledges and foreclosures during the construction phase.

When the RS process ends the Regional State Administrative Agency will notify

  • you of the removal of the RS restriction on groups of shares, and
  • the Residential and Commercial Property Information System of new owners and any pledges.

Founding members will remain the owners of unsold housing units. If the sale was made after the RS process ended, the new owner must apply to be registered.

The Regional State Administrative Agency charges a fee of at least EUR 1,850 + 24% VAT for the storage of the safekeeping documents. The fee amount is decided on a case-by-case basis. Further information is available from the Regional State Administrative Agency that has jurisdiction over the location where the housing association is being built.

Information on the documents that need to be provided to the Regional State Administrative Agency for safekeeping can be found in the following statutes:

Contact information of Regional State Administrative Agencies’ registries

Links to legal texts