The Housing Transactions Act, which has already reached middle age and entered into force in 1995, is in the process of being amended. This is normal, as every law is updated from time to time.
There are going to be a lot of quantitative changes to the law, although many of the basic principles will remain the same.
A construction supervisor is becoming mandatory for all RS properties, and the supervisor will be selected before the start of sales. The supervisor's duties will be specified, as they will be regulated by a separate regulation.
New sections have been written into the annual inspection. In practice, the process largely corresponds to the current procedure, where error lists are requested from buyers and the company, error reports are checked, and errors are corrected.
A completely new regulation is the post-inspection. After the annual inspection, a post-inspection report must be prepared and a post-inspection meeting must be arranged with the housing company, where the status of correction of errors is noted.
There will be no changes to the amount of collateral or new collateral requirements. Instead, changes will be made to the release. After the minimum validity period, collateral may only be retained in the amount of justified requirements. The automatic release of collateral can only take place after a post-clearance inspection, and on the other hand, the automatic release can only be prevented after that.
The calculation criteria for the deductible of the insolvency insurance will be clarified so that the deductible is not deducted for every error, but all costs meet the deductible pool, after which damages will be compensated from the security if the other criteria are met.
The starting point of the 10-year liability is recorded in the law and is the company's transfer of administration meeting.
The standard compensation for cancellation of a transaction will now be 5 percent of the debt-free price, in addition to which the buyer must pay for additional work and modifications that do not increase the value of the apartment in the resale. The seller also has the opportunity to receive compensation for actual damage from cancellation.
In the view of the Construction Industry Association (RT), the bill contains a lot of good things. Many things are clarified and consumer protection is increased in a good way. The downside is that the law is and will continue to be complicated, containing many details and deadlines.
There is still room for improvement. We proposed during the preparation phase of the amendments that the free right of cancellation of a housing transaction should be abolished or limited to special situations, such as unemployment experienced by the buyer after the transaction. We will continue to propose this during the statement phase.
An unlimited right of cancellation may sound like a good option from the perspective of an individual buyer, but for the buyers as a collective, the seller, the builders and the bank financing the project, it is neither an advantage nor a factor that promotes construction. According to our study, for example, there is no similar right of cancellation in Sweden.
Anyone has the opportunity to comment on the proposals to the Ministry of Justice. The comment phase will last until 27 April 2026. The proposed sections may still change. The legal amendments are expected to come into force in autumn 2027, so there is no need to know the new sections right away. The request for comment and proposed changes can be found in the Opinion Service.
The article was originally published in Rakennuslehti's Näkökulma column.
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Kirsi Palviainen
TRT CEO, RT Deputy CEO
kirsi.palviainen@rt.fi +358 50 548 1678Building Construction Industry Association
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