Smoking bans in housing communities

A housing community, i.e. the owner of a building, can apply for a smoking ban in the balconies, yards and indoor areas of dwellings. The ban is applied for by sending an application to the City of Helsinki Environmental Services. The housing community can, however, prohibit smoking in the common outdoor areas of the housing company. Individual residents cannot apply for a smoking ban.

The Environmental Health Unit gives advice on issues related to applying and it processes and makes decisions on the smoking ban applications. The processing of the application is subject to a processing fee.

Applying for a smoking ban

You will find the application form and more information on Valvira's website.

Submit your smoking ban application to the City of Helsinki Registry Office electronically to helsinki.kirjaamo@hel.fi or by post to P.O. Box 10, FI-00099 City of Helsinki.

In questions related to smoking ban applications, you can contact us in the Environmental Health Unit by e-mail or by calling us.

Processing time

We process applications in the order in which they are received. The processing time is 4 months from the date of receipt of the complete application to the date of the decision.

Additional information

In questions related to smoking ban applications, you can contact us in the Environmental Health Unit.

Fill in a form

Apply for a smoking ban

Smoking ban application (pdf, in Finnish)

Instructions for applying for a smoking ban

  1. A resident/shareholder or the housing company’s board of directors can take the initiative to apply for a smoking ban.
  2. All holders of the premises will be heard at least two weeks prior to the general meeting discussing the smoking ban application.
  3. The general meeting or other quorate party shall make a decision on whether to apply for a smoking ban.
  4. The applicant shall order a certificate of finality from the District Court after a statutory time limit for avoidance of 3 months.
  5. The applicant shall compile the application and its annexes   
  6. Send the smoking ban application to the City of Helsinki Registry Office to helsinki.kirjaamo@hel.fi or by post to P.O. Box 10, FI-00099 City of Helsinki. 

Documents required to the smoking ban application

  • Smoking ban application – make sure that all information in the application is correct and that you have the authority to sign it
  • Decision of the general meeting – specify balconies, terraces, yards of dwellings and other possible outdoor areas in use of the dwelling
  • Certificate of finality from the District Court
  • List of residents/shares, information on possible non-disclosures
  • Description of the ventilation and an assessment of the transfer of tobacco smoke
  • Photos or building drawings – showing the location of the balconies and replacement/supply air valves
  • Hearing letter sent by the company to the holders of the premises, showing where and when the hearing has taken place (all the premises, such as balconies, terraces, yards of dwellings, etc., to which the applied ban applies shall be mentioned in the hearing and the decision of the general meeting)
  • Responses to the hearing organised by the company

The application documents are mostly public, but some of them can be partially or entirely confidential. Documentation confidentiality is decided on a case-by-case basis.

If the ban is applied for indoor areas, further details are needed. You can find more information on these matters on Valvira's website.