There are three specific tasks related to the management of a Hitas housing company:
- Submission of the house manager’s certificate or Hitas maximum price confirmation form on request to the owner of the home for the purpose of establishing the maximum price of the home
- Reporting ownership changes and delivering the deeds of sale to the Housing Services
- Reporting changes to the Articles of Association to the Residential Plots Team
The tasks are described in more detail below.
Provide the owner of the home or their authorised representative with:
- House manager’s certificate (when there are no new improvements to the apartment or housing company that need to be taken into account) OR
- Hitas maximum price confirmation form (where there are new improvements to the apartment or housing company that need to be taken into account in the calculation). Confirm the information on the form with your signature.
Deliver, in accordance with the Articles of Association and the land lease agreement, the deeds of sale to the Housing Services within two weeks of the notification of the change of ownership of shares. The deeds of sale can also be submitted by a representative of the company’s Board of Directors instead of the housing manager. Add the date when the company was notified of the change of ownership to the message or to the deed of sale submitted to the Housing Services.
According to the Articles of Association, the City of Helsinki has the right to redeem the shares of a Hitas home. The city’s one-month redemption period is calculated from the moment the company received notice of the change of ownership. If the company neglects its duty and the city loses the right of redemption, the city may demand a contractual penalty from the company.
The housing company manager is still required to report ownership changes and deliver the deeds of sale to the Housing Services even after the introduction of the property information system of the National Land Survey of Finland. The National Land Survey of Finland does not have data on the selling prices of Hitas apartments. Therefore, it is important that the deeds of sale are delivered to the Housing Services.
Housing Services must also be provided with other handover documents, such as deeds of partition, estate inventories, gift documents and wills. This enables the owner register of Hitas homes to be kept up to date.
The owner information of a deed of sale and other handover documents are registered in the Hitas information system.
Send the information by secure e-mail(Link leads to external service) to hitas@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program).
Always submit the draft amendment to the Articles of Association in advance for inspection to the City of Helsinki's Residential Plots Team at tontti@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program).
The draft will be checked for the following:
- Hitas clauses have not been removed or changed
- the changes will not otherwise affect Hitas regulation
- the number of shares or their intended use have not been changed (for example, spaces directly controlled by the company have not been converted into share-controlled spaces)
- additional construction situations where the plot rent can be increased (e.g. new housing added for the company).
Other amendments to the Articles of Association of a Hitas I company may be submitted to the general meetings by a representative appointed by the city. On the other hand, the Articles of Association of Hitas II companies can only be amended after an audit by the housing plots team.
Submit the amended and approved Articles of Association and the changed housing information to the Housing Services Unit at hitas@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program).
You can send questions about the lease of plots and conditions to the Plots unit at tontti@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program).
The end of Hitas regulation
Thirty years after the completion of a Hitas company, it may be exempted from price regulation. In this case, the price level of the company and the average price per square metre in the same postal code area are compared with each other, and if the calculated average price of the company or the possibly applicable limit price exceeds the price per square metre of all homes in the same postal code area, the Hitas company will be exempt from price regulation. If the Hitas company was completed before 2011, there will be no changes to the land lease amount.
Companies whose average price per square metre or limit price is lower than the price per square metre of all homes in the same postal code area may choose to apply for exemption. In connection with the application, the plots unit will review the company’s land lease amount, and the increase may be up to 30%. Information about a possible exemption will come to the companies by letter.
In companies that are completed after 2011, the Hitas restrictions will expire 30 years after completion. In this case, the land lease amount will be increased to the same level as the unregulated land lease.
All companies exempted from regulation can be found in the file of exempted companies (pdf in Finnish).