Division of responsibilities: who pays when something breaks?

When moisture appears in the bathroom, a tap drips or a window will not close, the shareholder wants to know who pays for the repair. The answer depends on how maintenance responsibility is divided between the company and the shareholder under the Limited Liability Housing Companies Act (asunto-osakeyhtiölaki), and the division partly changed on 1 October 2026.

The law sets out the starting points, but the articles of association can provide otherwise. In addition, maintenance responsibility, the shareholder’s duty of care and liability for damages are separate matters.

The basic principle: the company is responsible for structures, the shareholder for the interior

The company is responsible for maintenance except where it is the shareholder’s responsibility. The company must maintain the apartments’ structures, insulation and windows, as well as the heating, electrical, data transmission, gas, water, drainage, ventilation and other similar main systems. However, the company is not responsible for bathtubs or other basins in the apartments.

The shareholder is responsible for the inner parts of their apartment, such as surface materials and fixtures. They must look after the apartment carefully and carry out their own maintenance work so that the parts the company is responsible for are not damaged. The shareholder is not responsible for normal wear and tear arising from using the premises for their intended purpose.

The responsibilities are linked. If a water pipe that the company is responsible for leaks and soaks a floor tiled by the shareholder, the company also repairs the floor, but to the company’s basic standard. If the shareholder has renovated their bathroom to a clearly higher standard than the basic one, the company does not have to restore the space to the special standard the shareholder chose.

The articles of association can change the starting point

The statutory division of responsibilities is non-mandatory, so the same building element may be the responsibility of different parties in different housing companies. Check your own company’s articles of association and division of responsibilities table before drawing conclusions or ordering a repair at your own expense.

Windows from 1 October 2026

The amendment to the Limited Liability Housing Companies Act (535/2026) entered into force on 1 October 2026. The Act now states explicitly that the company must maintain the apartments’ windows. According to the government proposal (HE 34/2026), the responsibility covers the window as a functional and technical whole: the outer and inner panes, sashes, frames, seals and fittings, ventilation hatches and fixed insect screens.

This is a presumptive provision, so a different provision in the articles of association takes precedence. The shareholder’s responsibility for windows is mainly limited to the duty of care: the apartment must be looked after so that the window is not damaged. The change is described in more detail in the article on the change in responsibility for windows.

At the same time, the shareholder’s duty of care and duty to report defects were extended to company premises and areas that the shareholder uses without a right of possession based on the articles of association or a lease, such as the yard area in front of the apartment or a storage space made available to the shareholder (chapter 4, section 3, subsection 3 and section 8, subsection 2). The shareholder has no maintenance responsibility for these spaces.

Alteration work by shareholders

The shareholder is responsible for maintaining alteration work they have carried out and for any additional maintenance costs it later causes the company. On the other hand, the company is responsible for an installation made or commissioned by the shareholder that is comparable to a measure carried out or approved by the company and whose execution the company has been able to supervise.

Alteration work must therefore be notified to the company in writing in advance, and the work should be carefully documented. More in the article on alteration work by shareholders.

The cause of the fault is decisive

A damp bathroom does not yet tell you who is responsible for the repair. The source of the moisture may be in the pipework, the structure, the waterproofing or a shareholder’s appliance. When something breaks, find out:

1. which building element or appliance broke
2. what caused the breakage
3. whose maintenance responsibility the part falls under according to the law and the articles of association
4. whether the damage involves negligence by the shareholder or someone else.

If, for example, the connection of a shareholder’s dishwasher leaks and water gets into the apartment below, the company repairs the structures it is responsible for and the inner parts of the other apartment to the basic standard. Whether the shareholder caused the damage through negligence, and must therefore compensate the company’s costs, is assessed separately. The role of insurance is covered in the article on housing company insurance and water damage in the article water damage in a housing company.

Liability for damages is a separate matter

A shareholder may have to compensate damage even if the damaged part is the company’s maintenance responsibility. If damage has been caused by breaching the provisions on the shareholder’s maintenance responsibility or on alteration work, the law deems it to have been caused through negligence, unless the shareholder shows they acted with due care.

Damage caused by a tenant does not automatically make the shareholder liable. In its ruling KKO:2016:33, the Supreme Court held that a shareholder acting as landlord was not liable for water damage caused by the tenant, as the company had not shown that the shareholder had themselves neglected their duty of care.

Who pays for investigating a fault

There is no single rule in the law on the costs of investigation. The established starting point is that they are borne by the party found to be responsible for the fault. If a shareholder has good reason to suspect a fault that is the company’s responsibility, investigating it is usually the company’s job. Even so, you should not order investigations yourself on the assumption that the housing company will pay.

Report it first

A shareholder must notify the company without delay of a fault or defect that the company is responsible for repairing. The company cannot repair a fault it does not know about, and delay can make the damage worse.

A shareholder has no right to order services in the company’s name. They may, however, have urgent maintenance work that is the company’s responsibility carried out in their apartment at the company’s expense if it is necessary to prevent further damage. In addition, a shareholder may have work carried out if leaving it undone would cause them more than minor harm and the company has not taken adequate action without delay after receiving a written notice. The company then reimburses the necessary and reasonable costs. This should not be done lightly, and the company must be notified of the work.

What to do when something breaks

1. Prevent further damage if you can do so safely, for example by turning off the water.
2. Report the fault immediately according to the company’s instructions, for example to the maintenance company or the property manager.
3. Take photos and note down your observations.
4. Do not order a major repair before responsibility has been established.
5. Check the provisions on the division of responsibilities in the articles of association.

Common misconceptions

• “Everything inside the apartment belongs to the shareholder.” There are structures and systems inside the apartments that are the company’s responsibility too.
• “The housing company pays for all pipe leaks.” The cause of the fault, the building element and any liability for damages all affect the assessment.
• “I can order a repairer and send the bill to the housing company.” As a rule you cannot, except in the urgent situations provided for by law.
• “A shareholder is always responsible for everything they have renovated.” The execution of the alteration work, the notification and the company’s supervision all affect responsibility.
• “The division of responsibilities is the same in every housing company.” The articles of association can depart from the law.

Frequently asked questions

Who is responsible for the interior surfaces of an apartment?

The shareholder, unless the articles of association provide otherwise. If an interior surface is damaged because of a fault in a structure or system that the company is responsible for, the company repairs it to the basic standard.

Who is responsible for windows?

From 1 October 2026, the statutory starting point is that the company is responsible for windows as a whole, unless the articles of association provide otherwise. The shareholder must look after the apartment so that the window is not damaged.

What if I don’t know whether the fault belongs to the housing company or to me?

Report the fault to the housing company and ask for responsibility to be established. Do not infer responsibility from where in the apartment the fault appears.

Sources: Limited Liability Housing Companies Act 1599/2009, Finlex (opens in a new tab) (chapter 4, sections 1–4 and 8; chapter 5, sections 1 and 2; chapter 24, section 2; amendment 535/2026); HE 34/2026 (opens in a new tab); KKO:2016:33 (opens in a new tab) (all in Finnish).

This article provides general information and does not replace case-specific legal or technical advice.