Several changes were made to the building permit application process at the beginning of the year, streamlining and speeding up the application process. For example, fewer mandatory attachments are required during the building permit application phase and all materials are at the main drawing level. The deadline set for the permit processing will significantly improve the predictability of the process.
Three new sections of the Building Act (RakL) came into force at the turn of the year: the preparation of a climate study (Sections 38 and 38a), applying for a building permit using a building information model or information in machine-readable form (Section 61), and the deadline for processing a building permit application (Section 68a). All of these, especially the latter two, have an impact on applying for a building permit.
Applying for a building permit and necessary attachments
A building permit is applied for with material at the level of a master plan. This has been a statutory requirement since the time of the Land Use and Building Act. However, over the years this has slipped towards more detailed plans, even if there were no grounds for presenting these.
The section on obtaining permission (RakL § 61) was changed from the previous one so that The only mandatory attachments to the permit application are:
- main drawings (position drawing, floor plan, section drawing and facade drawing)
- a plan model corresponding to the building plans OR information in machine-readable format
- a statement that the applicant controls the construction site
All other possible annexes may be required for a justified reason, but still at the main drawing level. Therefore, for example, special plans are not sent to the building control during the permit application stage. Instead, the permit decision lists the necessary special plans with justified reasons, which are then sent to the building control before work on the plan begins.
The starting point for the attachments to a permit application is that they must be essential for the decision on the permit application. In addition to the Construction Act, the attachment requirements for a permit application may come from zoning or the municipal building regulations.
Data model or machine-readable data
Regarding the planning model and information in machine-readable format, the Ministry of the Environment published its own regulation just before Christmas. The annexes to the regulation describe the information content of the necessary information.
One big challenge, at least for now, is that the design model must be in the latest possible IFC file format (4.3.2), and building inspectorates do not yet have a verification program with which they can verify the information provided. Therefore, at least for now, we recommend providing the necessary information in machine-readable format directly to the permit system, where a separate tab has been built for this information. The information content is very general project information, which must be updated to reflect the completed object by the final review of the project.
You can of course submit the IFC file to the building inspectorate, even if you do not apply for a permit using a plan template. However, this is not mandatory. It is worth remembering that when applying for a permit, the plan template only includes the building plan in accordance with Section 61 of the Finnish Building and Construction Act – sending other plans is optional. And no matter which method you use, the main drawings must be submitted to the building inspectorate in any case.
Climate report building product list
For projects subject to the climate assessment requirement, a list of construction products must be sent to the building control when applying for a permit. The requirement therefore applies to practically all new construction projects, excluding detached and semi-detached houses.
Regarding the list, it is worth noting that the content of the list of construction products to be sent in connection with the permit application has been specified in the Climate Assessment Decree so that it includes “known construction products” (YmA 1027/2024, Section 25). Therefore, it is sufficient for the list to include construction products that have already been purchased at the main drawing level. The necessary construction components are listed in the annex to the same decree. The list of construction products must be updated to correspond to the completed project by the final review, and the carbon footprint and handprint of the project in question are also calculated on this basis.
Deadline for processing a building permit application
Perhaps the biggest impact on the building permit application process is the third new issue, namely the processing time for building permit applications. The permit application must be processed within three or six months of its submission, depending on the complexity of the project.
The prerequisite for the processing period to start is that the permit application contains the necessary attachments to process the permit application. If the deadline is exceeded, the municipality must voluntarily refund 20 percent of the construction permit fee for each month of delay, unless the delay is caused by the applicant.
The easiest way to ensure that the necessary attachments to the permit application are included is to hold a preliminary negotiation with the building inspectorate. The negotiation will determine the level of complexity of the project, the design and supervision tasks, and the necessary attachments to the permit application, with justified reasons. It is definitely worth making a memorandum of the negotiations to ensure a common understanding of the decisions made.
However, prior consultation is not a mandatory procedure. The applicant can submit a permit application based on their own assumptions, to which the building inspectorate will then respond with the necessary changes. The prior consultation procedure is a recommended procedure to ensure a smooth process, but is not essential.
The explanatory memorandum to the section on the deadline goes into great detail about what the deadline covers. For example, all processes owned by the building control authority are completed within the deadline, such as the statements of the municipal urban landscape and technical institutions. Similarly, the submission of statements from rescue services and ELY centres is part of the tasks that must be completed within the deadline. This can be of great importance compared to previous practices, when in some cities a permit application could not even be submitted before a statement from the urban landscape institution existed.
New methods are now being learned regarding the calculation of processing time, and there will certainly be changes at least in the number of attachments required for a permit application. As a result, the permit decision will list the necessary studies and plans that will be carried out during the project, with justified reasons.
The guidelines for defining delays due to the applicant will also be clarified, as building inspectorates will receive more processing time for them. According to the explanatory memorandum, a delay due to the applicant refers to a situation where there is such a fundamental deficiency in the application that the building inspectorate has not been able to continue processing the permit application in any way. It is also worth remembering that the burden of proof for a delay due to the applicant lies with the building inspectorates.
When it comes to calculating the processing time, we will quickly encounter two different interpretations, for which the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities gave its own instructions to municipalities:
- According to the Association of Local Authorities, the complexity of a construction project is determined by the most demanding design task. In other words, even if the acoustic plan is very demanding, the processing time is 6 months. This is very special, because the acoustic plan is not processed during the permit application phase, but only the construction plan. Therefore, RT's view is that the complexity of the project in terms of the permit processing deadline corresponds to the complexity class of the construction plan, not any other design task.
- According to the Construction Act, 20 percent of the permit fee is refunded for each month of delay, but the law does not specify whether this refers to starting or full months. The Association of Local and Regional Authorities has stated that the refund will be made according to full months. RT's view is that the refund will be made according to starting months. The law states that the deadlines are 3 or 6 months, not 4 or 7 months.
And finally: although the Construction Act now streamlines the process of applying for a building permit, it is ultimately a matter of operating methods and cultures. When things are done together and with good understanding, the best benefits from the legal reform will certainly be achieved, both for individual projects and for the construction industry as a whole.
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Jani Kemppainen
Manager, Technical Regulations and Legislation and Quality
jani.kemppainen@rt.fi + 358 40 541 8090Building Construction Industry Association