Finland: rental market overview

Finnish residential leases are governed by the Act on Residential Leases (laki asuinhuoneiston vuokrauksesta 481/1995, AHVL). Most of it is dispositive law — the parties can agree otherwise unless the Act itself says no — but a handful of tenant-protective provisions are one-sidedly mandatory and can't be validly waived to the tenant's disadvantage.

A lease is either fixed-term or indefinite (§ 4). A fixed-term lease simply ends at expiry, with no notice needed — but there's a built-in anti-circumvention rule: if the same landlord and tenant agree more than twice in a row on a fixed term of three months or less, the lease is deemed indefinite regardless of what the paperwork says.

• A tenant may sublet or otherwise pass on residential use of up to half the flat to another person without asking the landlord — going beyond half needs consent, and breaching that is a ground for termination (§§ 17, 61).
• Finland runs no rent control and no points-based system: rent is freely agreed under § 27, unusual among the markets with stricter tenant-protection regimes.

A confirmed reform (HE/GP 33/2026), signed into law by the President on 16 June 2026, takes effect on 1 October 2026. Until then the current rules below apply in full; from that date, the landlord's notice periods, the deposit-return timeline, rent-increase notice and the default smoking rule all change — flagged throughout this guide.

The deposit (vakuus) is capped at three months' rent for the tenant's own undertaking (§ 8) — a term for anything larger is void outright. Unlike Switzerland, Finnish law doesn't require a dedicated blocked account: cash, a bank guarantee, or another agreed form all work.

• Today, settlement and release of the deposit happens within a reasonable time after the lease ends, the flat is returned and the handover report is signed, minus the landlord's legitimate counterclaims.
• From 1 October 2026, the reform adds a hard deadline: the landlord must return the deposit, or give written notice of what's being withheld and why, within 14 days of the lease ending and the flat being handed back.

No interest is paid on the deposit unless the parties agree otherwise.

On an indefinite lease, the tenant's notice is always one month — that never changes, reform or no reform. Today, the landlord's notice period is six months once the tenancy has run continuously for at least a year at the point notice is given, otherwise three months; a clause that shortens the landlord's period or lengthens the tenant's is void (§ 52).

From 1 October 2026, the reform replaces those figures: the landlord's notice becomes three months for a tenancy of up to two years, and four months for anything longer.

• A landlord's termination can be struck down as ineffective if it concerns an unreasonable rent adjustment, or is otherwise unreasonable given the tenant's circumstances and lacks a justified cause (§ 56) — an open standard, not Austria's closed catalogue of grounds.
• If a termination goes against good rental-relationship practice, the tenant can claim moving costs, the cost of finding a new home, and up to three months' rent in compensation for the disruption (§ 57).
• Material, non-minor rent arrears let the landlord rescind (purkaa) the lease with immediate effect and no notice period at all — no prior written warning is needed for non-payment specifically, though the rescission notice itself must be delivered in writing and provably (§§ 61-62).

The AHVL imposes no statutory duty to produce a written handover report, but it's standard Finnish market practice — and the parties' main piece of evidence when it comes to condition. The luovutuspöytäkirja records the meter readings, the flat's condition and its fittings, signed in two identical copies at the point the keys change hands.

It matters most when the vakuus is settled: without it, a landlord has little beyond their own word to justify withholding part of the deposit for damage found on move-out.

Neither version is filed anywhere official, but a signed copy on both sides removes the single biggest source of moving-out disputes: disagreement about what was already broken or worn before the tenant ever got the keys.

The flat must stay in a condition the tenant can reasonably expect given its age and the local housing stock, unless agreed otherwise (§ 20). The tenant needs the landlord's consent for repair or alteration work — except to fix a § 20 defect — but can always act to prevent or limit imminent damage without asking first.

• The tenant handles the small cleaning and touch-ups that ordinary care would keep the flat in shape, and must promptly report anything beyond that.
• The landlord can carry out unavoidable work immediately, and other non-disruptive work with 14 days' notice (§ 21).
• Today, smoking bans are a matter of contract — this agreement includes one by default. From 1 October 2026, the reform flips the default at law: smoking is prohibited unless the landlord expressly consents, and this extends to leases already running.
• Pets need the landlord's prior consent.