According to the Finnish act on residential leases, the tenant does not have the right to make any repairs or alterations to the apartment without the lessor’s permission (§21). If an inspector sees the apartment’s condition and decides that it needs some repairs or other maintenance work the inspector will order the necessary work to be done. If a work order hasn’t been made it means that the apartment is in the sort of condition that the tenant may reasonably excpect, taking into consideration the age of the apartment, the local housing stock and other local conditions (§20).
You cannot accept any structural changes to the apartment that were made without Hoas’ consent. Such a change may be for example laminate flooring that the previous tenant has installed. The problem in these cases will be maintenance and responsibility for repairs, as well as any warranties the changes may have. In case of incomplete installation the new tenant is responsible for the changes if they have accepted the changes or not notified Hoas about them.
If there are painted accent walls in the apartment when you move in, contact Hoas to check if they should be there.
You cannot hand over structural changes that you have made to the apartment without Hoas’ permission to the new tenant. Structural changes are for example laminate flooring. If you have put up a shelf or mounted a TV on the wall, remove them and spackle the marks carefully.
Painting
Hoas does not recommend painting the apartment by yourself. If you end up painting the walls at your own cost, please consider the following to avoid any further cost.
If we see that repainting the walls is not necessary and you decide to paint them yourself anyway, all the costs of the work will be on you. You must oversee that the painting work is decent i.e. baseboards, the ceiling, light switches and power sockets need to be covered properly during the work. If the inspector deems the quality of the work not good enough, they will order new painting work and costs will be charged from the tenant.
Most of our apartments are painted the colour painter-white (half dim/matte). In some of the apartments there are specific walls which are painted a different colour to the rest (for effect), these are not allowed to be re-painted white or have their shades change in any way. Also, it is forbidden to paint the walls in any colour other than what they originally were/are. Information about each apartment (such as paint colours) is noted in the floor plans and the tenant can not diverge or make any changes.
Peephole, security lock and security chain
Hoas does not install nor maintain peepholes, security locks or chains in the apartment. You may install peephole or security chain on the front door at your own cost. However, these must be left on the door when you move out.
Hoas will not accept security lock keys. If you install the lock, please note that you cannot order a door opening service from Securitas if the security lock is on. The security lock must be left open for maintenance and inspection visits. When you move out you must remove the security lock, fix and cover the holes left by the lock in a safe and sustainable manner. If the security lock has not been removed when your tenancy agreement ends, Hoas will charge you for the removal costs according to the tenant charge sheet.
Window blinds
Hoas doesn’t install nor maintain window blinds in the apartments. You can install blinds at your own cost, but you must leave them in the window when you move out. If there are broken window blinds or roller blinds installed by a previous tenant, they can be removed from the apartment. If you wish to get them removed, fill in a fault report.