At the NLS, there is significant congestion in apartment ownership registrations, as customers have started to transfer their share certificates to electronic systems in abundance, and the NLS’s additional resources have not yet relieved the situation.

New owner: use a power of attorney to participate in shareholders’ meetings

If an apartment has recently changed hands, the new owner has not yet registered it in the Residential and Commercial Property Information System – either because the new owner has not had time for the registration or the NLS has not yet been able to process the change of ownership due to congestion.

When a real estate agent, seller or buyer requests apartment information from the building management company, it should recommend the parties to prepare a power of attorney if a shareholders’ meeting is approaching.

A power of attorney provided by the previous owner entitles the new owner to participate in and vote at the housing company’s meeting. The deed of sale does not entitle the new owner to participate.

New owner: request the registration of your ownership to be expedited in irregular situations

When an apartment in a housing company is purchased or inherited, the buyer or heir must apply for the registration of apartment ownership within two months.

In irregular situations, the new owner can also request the processing of their application to be expedited if their right to start a renovation or participate in a shareholders’ meeting is at risk. Individual applications for which expedited processing is requested for a justified reason can be processed in a few days at best. The processing order is based on the rights and obligations of different customer groups.

The NLS apologises for the congestion and requests customers to come back later

The NLS has increased and will still increase its ownership registration capacity. Customer volumes took the NLS by surprise at the end of last year.

‘We apologise for any harm and trouble caused by the congestion. Technical development will eventually help the registration situation, but it is still a manual process at present,’ says Director Janne Murtoniemi who is in charge of apartment ownership registrations at the NLS.

The NLS requests apartment owners to postpone the electronic registration of their share certificates by at least several months due to the worsened congestion. Owners have ten years to transfer their share certificates to the electronic system.

Most Finnish owners have their paper share certificates in a bank as collateral for a loan, and they should do nothing at this stage. The NLS, together with banks and legislators, is investigating the opportunity to transfer share certificates kept at banks to the electronic system in larger batches.

‘Our customer satisfaction has remained high despite the long queues and processing times. Customers have been able to use the passing lane when their situation has required an urgent registration of ownership,’ Murtoniemi says.

Housing companies had to transfer their lists of shares to the Residential and Commercial Property Information System by the end of last year when the transfer was still free of charge for housing companies. More than 92 per cent of housing companies are now in the Residential and Commercial Property Information System.

Read more

Anyone waiting for the registration of their ownership: estimated application processing times

New owner and apartment owner: check the best way to handle your situation using the Asiointiapuri service assistant

Housing companies: how to transfer your list of shares

Fees for transferring the list of shares

Further information

Janne Murtoniemi, Director, +358 40 710 8862, firstname.lastname@nls.fi
 

Lisätietoja

Johtaja Janne Murtoniemi, 040 710 8862, etunimi.sukunimi@maanmittauslaitos.fi