Housing company costs: where money goes without anyone noticing
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A housing company’s costs rarely grow because of one big renovation or a sudden incident of damage. More often they rise gradually: each year the board approves slightly higher expenditure, shareholders pay a slightly higher charge, and only years later does anyone notice how much upkeep really costs. Some costs do not appear on invoices under their own name, and these are exactly the ones the board and shareholders should tackle.
The aim is not to save on everything. Good maintenance, inspections and repairs cost money, and they are justified costs. What matters is that the board knows where the money goes and why.
Costs are made up of many small items
Pipe, facade and roof renovations are usually seen as the biggest costs. But a significant share of annual expenditure comes from ongoing upkeep and small repairs, such as:
- maintenance company services and call-outs
- electrical, plumbing and heating repairs
- lock and door repairs
- yard and ventilation maintenance
- first response to water damage
- repeated repairs of the same faults.
A single €100 invoice attracts no attention. If the same invoice arrives ten times a year, the annual cost is a thousand euros, and over five years the sum is many times that. That is why costs should be looked at as a whole and by building component, not one invoice at a time. Going through invoices is covered in the article on checking a housing company’s invoices.
A recurring fault points to a cause
The most common hidden cost arises when symptoms are repaired instead of causes. If drains are unblocked, doors adjusted and plumbing fixtures repaired in the same building year after year, there may be a structural problem, the wrong repair method, wear or a particular pattern of use behind it. Repairing the surface does not solve a moisture problem, and a single unblocking does not tell you why a drain keeps clogging.
The maintenance company sees things in the building that the board does not: recurring faults, worn structures, unusual moisture and equipment that does not work. When you ask the maintenance company not only about prices but also about what its observations say about the building’s condition, that information can be put to use. Assessing the maintenance contract is covered in more detail in the article on housing company maintenance costs.
Energy and water
Heating, electricity and water are among a housing company’s largest running costs. According to the Finnish Real Estate Federation’s (Kiinteistöliitto) Indeksitalo 2026 comparison, municipal property costs rose in 2026 in 55 of 59 municipalities, and water costs have risen by about 26 per cent in the 2020s (Kiinteistöliitto press release, STT Info, in Finnish (opens in a new tab)).
In monitoring consumption, the most important thing is to notice deviations. If water consumption rises for no obvious reason, a leaking toilet or a hidden leak may be behind it. A change in energy consumption may indicate a problem with the settings, ventilation or heat distribution.
A small leak is the most expensive
A water leak can be almost unnoticeable at first and continue for a long time. Its cost is not the wasted water but the damage to the structures, which can become considerable. In terms of cost, what matters most is how quickly the anomaly is noticed.
Residents are often the first to notice unusual smells, signs of moisture, strange noises in the pipes and ventilation problems. Under chapter 4, section 8 of the Limited Liability Housing Companies Act (asunto-osakeyhtiölaki, 1599/2009), a shareholder must notify the company without delay of a fault or defect in their apartment that the company is responsible for repairing. The easier it is to report, the sooner leaks are found. Read more about making use of residents’ observations.
Lost information and unclear contracts
If information on the building’s history, earlier repairs or technical solutions cannot be found, the same things are investigated again every time the board, property manager or maintenance company changes. Observations, inspections and repairs, along with the reasons for them, should be recorded so that the next board understands what has been done and why.
A housing company has several contracts: maintenance, cleaning, property management, waste management and energy. Money is wasted if nobody knows exactly what a service includes, or if services overlap. The board does not need to monitor every working hour, but it should know what the key contracts contain.
Haste and the cheapest solution
When a problem is noticed in time, there are more options and the work can be tendered without haste. When the same problem turns into urgent damage, the options narrow and the price goes up. Not every observation has to be repaired immediately, but the board should know which things can wait and which cannot.
The law does not require the cheapest option to be chosen every time. The board must act diligently in the company’s interest, and a repair that has to be redone or a material with a short service life is not in the company’s interest. Options should be compared on quality, service life, risks and total cost. Tendering is useful, but postponing necessary repairs often ends up expensive. More on this in the article on preventive maintenance in a housing company.
Questions for the board
- What are the largest cost items, and how have they developed compared with previous years?
- Which faults cause repeated maintenance visits?
- Which costs have changed unusually?
- Which problems are known but not yet resolved?
- Which costs could be avoided by acting early?
The longer-term question is which things could increase the company’s costs over the next five years. The maintenance needs report (kunnossapitotarveselvitys) that the board presents to the general meeting is a good basis for the answer.
The shareholder’s perspective
All costs ultimately end up being paid by the shareholders as maintenance or financing charges. For a shareholder, what matters is not that the company spends as little money as possible, but that the money is spent sensibly. By reporting observations straight away and asking about cost trends at the general meeting, a shareholder influences what the charges are used for. The reasons for rising charges are covered in the article on why the maintenance charge goes up.
This article provides general information and does not replace case-specific legal or technical advice.
