Published · 7 min read
Count the dates backwards
Put moving day in the calendar and work backwards from it. Several Finnish deadlines are tied to the calendar month rather than to your moving date, so "a month before" does not mean what you would assume.
The same goes for choosing the day itself. Tenancies here mostly begin and end at the turn of the month, which makes the last days of one month and the first days of the next the busiest in the Helsinki capital region, busiest in the stairwell and at the roadside as well. If your calendar has any give in it, a Wednesday mid-month is a different job entirely from Friday the 31st.
Two months ahead: the contracts
Give notice on your tenancy in writing
On an open-ended residential tenancy (toistaiseksi voimassa oleva vuokrasopimus, the standard contract type) the tenant's notice period is one month. It does not run from the day you give notice. It runs from the last day of the calendar month in which you gave it. Tell your landlord on 3 September and the tenancy ends on 31 October, not on 3 October.
Notice has to be given in writing, and you need to be able to prove you gave it. Email works, provided you ask the landlord to confirm receipt in writing. A fixed-term tenancy (määräaikainen sopimus) has no notice period at all. You get out of one only by agreement with the landlord.
Agree the inspection and the key handover
Ask the landlord or the property manager now, not in the final week, when the apartment will be inspected and where the keys go back. The rental deposit (vuokravakuus) is normally returned only after that inspection, so it is worth pinning the final cleaning and the inspection to your moving date rather than leaving both open.
Buying or selling instead? Write down the date and the time that possession transfers. Two households moving through the same stairwell on the same day is completely ordinary here, and they compete for the same lift.
One month ahead: the housing company, the lift and parking
If you have not lived in Finland before, this is the part that has no equivalent in most countries. Nearly every apartment sits inside a taloyhtiö, a housing company that owns the building itself and sets the house rules for everyone in it. It is administered by an isännöitsijä (property manager) and the practical work of locks, cleaning and protective materials is handled by a huoltoyhtiö (maintenance company). You deal with them whether you own your apartment or rent it, and their rules apply to you on moving day.
Tell both housing companies
Notify the property manager or maintenance company at the old address and the new one. In many buildings the lift can be reserved for the duration of a move, and its walls usually have to be protected with cardboard or protective matting first. The maintenance company will tell you where that protection is collected from and who takes it down afterwards.
Ask three things at the same time:
- Can the street door be wedged open while you carry?
- Until what time of day may you move? House rules normally restrict noise at night.
- Will a van physically fit into the yard?
Then put a note about your moving day on the stairwell noticeboard. It costs nothing and removes most of the friction with neighbours before it starts.
Reserve a space for the van
If the van cannot get into the yard, temporary use of the street needs a permit from the city. Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa each run their own application. The space is marked with rented traffic signs, and they have to be in place for the advance warning period stated in your permit before the move begins. Apply early. The distance from the van to the door is what quietly consumes the hours.
If there is no lift
A fourth-floor apartment with no lift, common in older inner-city buildings, is a different job from a ground-floor one. Decide at this stage whether you need an external moving hoist working through a balcony or window, and ask the housing company whether one may be set up in the yard.
One month ahead: electricity, water and internet
Electricity in Finland is two separate contracts, which catches out almost everyone arriving from abroad. The distribution contract is with the grid company for that address, and you cannot shop around for it. It is fixed by where you live. The supply contract, for the electricity itself, you choose freely, and many suppliers want to be told roughly two weeks before your moving date. Set up both in good time and end the old contract in the same conversation.
In an apartment building, water is usually included in the maintenance charge or the rent, so there is no separate contract to arrange. In a detached house you sign a water supply contract yourself. Either way, photograph the meter readings in both homes on moving day. A photo settles a billing dispute in about a minute.
Check what broadband already exists before you order anything. Many housing companies have a building-wide connection included, which makes a private contract pointless. Where you do need one, delivery of a new connection can take weeks, so ask for the delivery date before you plan around it.
Go through your home insurance while you are at it. The address has to be updated, and the terms covering damage during a move differ from insurer to insurer. Read yours rather than assuming.
Two weeks ahead: change of address
The official notification of move (muuttoilmoitus) goes to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV) and to Posti, the national postal operator. One submission covers both. You may file it at the earliest one month before the move and at the latest one week after it.
Public authorities pick your new address up from the Population Information System automatically. Your bank, your insurer, your employer, magazine subscriptions and online shops do not. Those are yours to update one by one. Posti's mail forwarding service is ordered separately if you want post still sent to the old address to follow you.
Moving only for a while, for an exchange term or a fixed posting? File a temporary change of address instead of a permanent one.
One week ahead: cut down, then deal with what is left
Everything you do not take is something you carried for no reason. Cutting down changes the size of the load more than any packing technique does, and it has to happen before you pack, not on the floor of the new apartment.
Bulky waste in the capital region goes to an HSY Sortti station. HSY is the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority, which runs waste management for the area; the Sortti stations are its drop-off sites. For example, that means Kivikko or Konala in Helsinki, Ruskeasanta in Vantaa and Ämmässuo in Espoo. Electrical appliances and hazardous waste such as paints and solvents are accepted from households free of charge; other loads are charged for. Check opening hours and prices on HSY's site before you drive out there.
Do not leave the sofa in the housing company's waste shelter. It does not belong there, and the cost of taking it away is eventually paid by every resident in the building, including you.
Anything still usable is worth recycling properly. Recycling centres, flea markets and local reuse groups take furniture that still works, and some of them collect larger loads.
Moving day
- Protect the lift and the stairwell before the first box moves.
- Keep keys, contracts, medication and chargers on you, not in the load.
- Photograph the meter readings and the empty apartment.
- Walk every room with the cupboards open before you lock the door.
- Hand the keys back as agreed and ask for written confirmation.
Your first week in the new home
Unpack the bed, the bathroom and the basic kitchen things first. The rest can wait. Check that the electricity and water bills are coming in the right name, and register your arrival with the housing company if they ask for it. Test the smoke alarm, and write down anything that was already broken when you arrived.
If you are considering having part of the work done for you, you can request a quote. Include the floor, the lift and the carrying distance at both ends. Those are the details the workload is actually estimated from.