The digitalisation of share certificates makes property trade and lending smoother
Moving to a digital system and abandoning the use of paper certificates makes the lives of many operators easier. Apartment owners no longer have to think about where they can store their share certificates safely.
An electronic ownership note in the Residential and Commercial Property Information System increases the reliability of apartment information and ownership notes in addition to making them more available. The electronic ownership note replaces the use of a paper share certificate in connection to property trade and as collateral for a loan.
The digitalisation of share certificates in practice
The certificate of shares in a housing company will be converted into an electronic format in two stages. In the first stage, the housing companies must digitalise their share register by the end of 2023. The housing company’s board of directors must decide on transferring the share register to an electronic system, and they must notify the shareholders. The property manager, the chair of the housing company’s board of directors or a person authorised by the board’s meeting can transfer the share register.
NOTE! The housing company is responsible for the information transferred to the Residential and Commercial Property Information System of the National Land Survey of Finland.
Read more about transferring the share register
Digitalisation of the share certificate of a housing company shareholder
After the transfer of the list of shares, the owners of housing company shares then have ten years to digitalise the share certificate for their home. There is no hurry to do so, in other words.
Read the instructions for home owners regarding the digitalisation of housing company share certificates
If the owner of the home changes and the share certificate has not yet been digitalised the new owner will have two months to digitalise the certificate.
Read more about digitalising the share certificate when buying a home