The keys to homes for new residents will be handed over on the start date of the rental period during the opening hours of the lock shop. Please check the contact information of the lock shop in the appendix to the rental agreement. If you want to receive the keys to your new home earlier, the start date of the contract must be changed. If the apartment is already empty, you can contact the existing tenant to agree in writing to change the start date of the contract.

When your moving day falls on a weekend or public holiday 
If the moving day falls on a weekend or public holiday, we will provide the contact information of the departing resident to the new resident. The old and new residents will agree on the exact time for handing over the keys and fill out a written key handover form (The form is in Finnish only at the moment). The old resident will return the handover document to the locksmith to be released from responsibility for the returned keys. In these situations, we will also provide both parties with more detailed instructions regarding the key handover.

To request a name change for your own front door, you need to make a so-called maintenance request to the maintenance company. You can make a maintenance request using an electronic form. In the open text field of the form, enter "Name change" and also indicate which name you want to add to the door. 

Electricity is not included in your rent. Whenever moving in, the tenant must enter into a contract for electricity for the new apartment through an electricity company of their choice.

Yes, Avara's homes must be covered by extensive home insurance. 

The statutory notification of the move must be made no earlier than one month before the date of the move and no later than one week after the date of the move. You can use the same electronic form to notify the Post Office and the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (Digi- und väestötietovirasto) of your move. You can also make the notification for your family members who are moving at the same time.

Please contact your dedicated Avara employees, who will help you take care of everyday matters. If they are unable to resolve your issues, they will refer the matter to a property manager. The property manager will respond to your request as soon as possible. You can contact our customer service by e-mail on avara@avara.fi tor by calling 020 611 4400.

In addition to Avara employees, your home is taken care of by various property management professionals. You can find more detailed contact information for them on the notice board of your stairwell. You can contact our customer service by e-mail on avara@avara.fi or by phone on 020 611 4400. Below you can see when you should contact maintenance repairs and when you should contact Avara employees.

Contact your property management company in the following circumstances:

• in all cases of urgency, such as water damage
• in matters relating to the change of name
• With sauna shift reservations
• if you have locked yourself out
• if your apartment has indoor air or temperature problems
• if you notice a fault in a home appliance
• if you notice defects or deficiencies in the common areas or equipment of the house or in the care of the outdoor areas.

Contact Avara employees if:

• if there are problems with the operation of the maintenance company
• housing disorders or nuisance
• in matters of the Residents' Committee and the Residents' Administration (ARA homes)
• in matters related to inspections and repairs of apartments
• if you suspect a serious fault such as moisture damage in your home

You can find contact details for Avara employees on avara.fi/asukkaille and clicking on your property under the customer service tab.

You can report a fault to your homes property maintenance company. Contact information for the maintenance company for your home can be found in the notice board in the stairwell for your building. See also avara.fi/asukkaille - for contact information for your home by selecting it from the drop-down menu.

You can book a sauna shift with the maintenance company for your home. The maintenance company also maintains laundry room reservations. Contact information for the maintenance company can be found in the stairwell of your building or on avara.fi/asukkaille by selecting your address from the drop-down menu.

If your building has a digital screen display and the  application for residents called PNT®mobile, you can book sauna shifts and a laundry room in the application. Instructions for downloading and using the application can be found in OmaAvara and in the folder for residents which is found in the apartment. More help for residents' problems can be found at:

https://www.one4all.fi/fi/tuki/asukkaalle 

The most flexible way to book a parking spot is to download Taskuparkki app, which makes it easy to book a spot and pay through the app. For instructions on setting up the app, see here. The parking spot can also be reserved from Aimo Park's customer service, in which case invoicing is handled by paper invoice.

Aimo Park's contact details are:

Phone 020 781 2480
Mon-Fri 9.00–16
asukaspysakointi@aimopark.fi

The due date for a one-off rent payment can be agreed upon by contacting Lowell’s rent control. However, the actual due date of the contract cannot be changed.

Lowell Oy contact details are:

oma.lowell.fi
Phone 02 2700 390
Mon-Fri 8.00-20.00, la 10.00-15.00
laskutus@lowell.com

If there is nuisance or disorder, you can report it here. If your property has been damaged due to vandalism, contact your insurance company if necessary. If your property has been damaged or stolen, you must also file a criminal report.

You can order more keys from Avara employees. The local locksmith will notify you when the key is available. You can contact Avara employees by e-mail on avara@avara.fi or by phone on 020 611 4400.

When your home appliance breaks down, please contact our customer service. You can contact our customer service by e-mail on avara@avara.fi or by phone on 020 611 4400. Our customer service employees will ask you for additional information needed to replace your appliance.

You can submit a complaint to Avara employees. If our they are unable to resolve the matter, they will make further inquiries for you. You can contact Avara employees by e-mail on avara@avara.fi or by phone on 020 611 4400.

Experiencing the temperature of a home is subjective, and people experience the appropriate temperature differently. The recommended temperature in the living room is between 20-21 degrees and 18-20 degrees in the bedrooms. The temperature must be measured from a height of more than a meter, and not near the outer wall or windows. If the temperature is lower than it should be, please notify the property maintenance company. Contact information for the maintenance company can be found in the stairwell of your property.

The walls of Avara rental homes cannot be wallpapered. However, you can undertake modest decoration and painting of the walls of your apartment. If you have any questions about  decorating, you can contact Avara employees. You can us by e-mail on avara@avara.fi or by phone on 020 611 4400.

Yes, and the resident is always responsible for the installation whether the installer is a professional or not. The resident is responsible for possible damage caused to his property by installation, and thus for the costs caused by the leakage from the washing machine, for example. Leakage damage can be significant, so taking out home insurance against damage is recommended.

A dishwasher should only be installed by a professional, as an improperly installed dishwasher can cause major water damage.

You can find more detailed instructions for obtaining an internet connection in OmaAvara in the appendix to your contract. The housing assosiation has Telia or DNA broadband at a basic speed of 10M. Telia's connection can be checked and used from Telia's customer service or address telia.fi

You can check whether you are up to date in OmaLowell.

The basic terms of rent review are stated in your contract and its terms have been agreed upon signing the contract. The amount of rent is affected, among other thing, by property maintenance costs and the average market rent levels. Rent adjustments are affected by equipment/level differences per apartment, floor and views, as well as regional rental levels.

The rental contract includes the main principles of rent reviews, such as the basis and time of the rent increase. You can check why and when your rent is increased in your contract. Most Avara non-subsidized properties have a rent review annually by a maximum of a certain percentage. This generally varies between 4-7%, depending on when the contract is signed. In practice, this allows for a possible increase in rent by any percentage between 0% and max%.

In ARA rental homes, Avara will present a proposal for next year's budget to the building's residents' committee in November, which will also include a proposal for next year's rent levels. The landlord has the right to increase the rent for ARA homes so that the rent can cover all the landlord's expenses, such as the care and maintenance of the properties. If the rented home or building is exempted from ARA restrictions during contract, the rent can be increased as per by the free market. Usually, the rental contracts include terms to state what percentage increase will be used in connection with the review after the contract has been released.

When calculating rent increases, the general development of property management, maintenance costs and the change in purchasing power and cost level, ie. inflation, are taken into account. Inflation is measured, for example, by the consumer price index, for example, if the price level has risen by 3% during the period under review, then inflation is 3%. The rental market is cyclically sensitive, as is any housing market, and the definition of the rent levels is thus affected by the regional balance between supply and demand. Avara collects information on regional rental levels and monitors the development of market rents using various methods and the information we use to determine the rent for our apartments according to the prevailing market situation. It is not uncommon for an increase in supply to decrease rent amounts for new contracts. As the prices of homes for sale change as market conditions change, similarly, rent levels may rise if demand increases or as the area develops. In addition to changes in the market, rent levels are affected by the location of the home, the development of public services and transport connections in the area, equipment in the home, etc.

The main principles of rent increases for all homes in a building are the same, but the initial rent of the contract and the level of equipment in the apartment may be different and the maximum % increase varies depending on the practice agreed at the time of signing the contract. The rent for apartments of similar size may increase by € 10 for one tenant and € 15 for another so that they can be adjusted to be on the same market level. The initial rent level has been determined by all other factors. Rent reviews will take place when it is possible for the landlord to harmonize rents of similar homes on the same property.

Without the landlord's permission, you can sublet up to half of your home to another person. This presupposes that the subletting does not cause any inconvenience or disturbance to the landlord. It is not possible to sublet a studio. Contractual liability always remains with the main tenant alone.

Through marriage, cohabitation or a registered partnership, your partner has the right to move to your home without the need for them to enter into a rental contract with the landlord. It is enough to simply report the move to the property maintenance company.

If it is necessary for the partner to have a rental contract, for example in order to obtain housing allowance, Avara must receive the same information from the partner that is required from all other residents. The information must be provided with the housing application (also the required attachments for ARA apartments) and Avara's contract negotiator will make a change to the original contract based on the information provided. A request to change the rental contract  to a joint contract between the partners can be made to Avara employees by email to avara@avara.fi  or by phone to +358 20 611 4400.

Check the rules for your building, which you can find in OmaAvara or on the notice board in the stairwell of your building. If for some reason you cannot find the rules, check with Avara employees on avara@avara.fi or by phone on 020 611 4400.

If the circumstances allow, we can be flexible with a 1-month notice period if you move from one Avara home to another.

The security deposit is per home/contract and the same obligations apply to its return as in general. The security deposit will be returned after an inspection of the previous home's approved relocation, the payment of rent and the return of the keys, provided that all of the above are in order.

Yes, so we know that you want to exchange your home for a new one. Applying for a home is easy in OmaAvara rental portal. In your application, tick the box "I live in an Avara home and am applying to swap my home to a new one".

You can find a form for ending your contract on OmaAvara.

If the contract has more than one name, an electronic signature is required from both residents.

The notice period for an Avara home is 1 month. The contract can be ended on the 15th or the last day of the month, except for contracts commenced on or after June 1, 2020, which may be terminated by the end of the month.

Ending a contract on behalf of the another person is possible with a power of attorney. Ending a contract for another person is not possible through Avara's website unless the person who ends the contract is authorized to use the residents bank ID's. To end a contract on behalf of another person, you can request a separate termination form and return it signed and scanned to Avara's customer service by e-mail to avara@avara.fi.

If the termination happens after the death of a resident, a death certificate for the deceased and a document showing who can make a termination on behalf of the deceased (such as a will) is required.