Outdoor seating area permit

A drawing of the seating area’s location on a map on a scale of 1:500. Map templates are available from Helsinki Map Service(Link leads to external service).

A floor plan of the seating area on a scale of 1:50 or 1:100. Include the seating area’s dimensions (length and width), the placement of fixtures and furniture, access routes, entrances and the width of the free pavement area. An outdoor seating area may only take up to half of the width of the pavement.

Please note that you must always leave free space in the street area that is at least 150 cm in width and 220 cm in height.

Also note that the dimension rules for outdoor seating areas are different in the central pedestrian zone (PDF, 5MB, in Finnish)
and Keskuskatu (PDF, in Finnish).

The building owner’s (usually a housing company) permission to use a public area outside of business premises for serving food and drinks outside. You can use e.g. the property owner’s consent form (PDF, in Finnish) to request permission.

A trade register extract for the applicant company, which you can request from the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland(Link leads to external service). The document may not be more than three months old.

Photographs of the street area and the wall in front of which the seating area is planned. Please also attach photographs of the traffic signs and street drains in the area to your parklet application.

Photographs or drawings of all the fixtures, furniture and structures to be placed in the seating area.

In addition, a certificate of a valid liability insurance policy must be attached to a parklet application.

If an agent is used to apply for a permit on behalf of the actual applicant, you will also require a power of attorney.

You will need a permit from the building control services if your outdoor seating area or its structures

• will be attached to the ground or a building next to the seating area.
• will be covered with a roof, canopy, awning or similar.
• will include fixed walls.
• will be built on a raised deck due to sloping ground and the falling height off the deck will exceed 50 cm at any point.
• will include a serving station whose dimensions exceed 250 x 150 x 220 cm.
• will include sheds or other similar closed or semi-closed structures inside which customers will be.
• will have a lavatory, a stage or a similar structure.
• will include adverts larger than 60 x 60 cm on each wall, or other sales or
• advertising equipment.
• So-called dining pods, which resemble greenhouses and have glass or plastic windows, are treated as conservatories, and therefore they require a permit from the building control services. Dining pods may only be used in outdoor seating areas during the summer season of 1 April – 31 October.

A permit from the building control services is not required for

• parasols and awnings that are not attached to the ground.
• straight awnings that are open on the sides and attached to the building facade.
• small-scale equipment that contain a restaurant’s name or usual information about the prices and opening hours.

If you are planning to set up an outdoor seating area that will be located in the street area but not directly in front of your café or restaurant, its location will determine where you will need to send your application to. 

Outdoor seating area permits for beaches, sports fields and parks are granted by the Culture and Leisure Division, while permits for marketplaces and Torikorttelit are granted by Helsingin Kaupunkitilat Oy (in Finnish)(Link leads to external service).

If you are planning to set up an outdoor seating area in a private area or property (e.g. in a shopping centre), you must discuss it with the owner or occupant of the area. 

If you want to set up an outdoor seating area on a square near your café or restaurant, contact the inspectors of the Land Use and Monitoring unit at ulkoilma@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program), and we will assess the viability of your plans.

The time it takes to process an application depends on the plan for an outdoor seating area, which is why you should allocate ample time for the process. A permit may be granted within a week or two if demand is low and the seating area does not require a permit from the building control services or food control authorities. 

If you are planning to include structures that require a building permit or you need a permit from the food control authorities to set up your seating area, the permit process may take six to eight weeks. 

Before submitting your application, you should make sure that your plans comply with the outdoor seating area guidelines and that you have included all the required appendices. 

You must also follow the terrace instructions (PDF) if your seating area is not in the street area directly outside of your place of business. 

If you want to have both an outdoor seating area and a parklet outside of your place of business, you will need separate applications and contracts for both. For more detailed instructions, see the terrace instructions (PDF).

Apply for a licence to serve alcohol from the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland(Link leads to external service).

You can terminate your contract by submitting a written termination notification (PDF, in Finnish) to the inspectors of the Land Use and Monitoring unit via email at ulkoilma@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program).