How to protect the residents’ and the private house owners’

[SergeyS]

One year ago we bought a house in Finland, since there is a job contract in place. Initial intent was to buy it in Tampere, because kids study there in the International school. However, after more than a year search we found the house of the suitable size in the nice place in town Ylöjärvi (somewhat 10 km from Tampere) close to the lake Keijärvi and number of parks nearby. The lake is quite (even the usage of motor boats is prohibited), rather small for Finland, however, it provides the nice recreational area for a vast number of people since the private house residential areas are around the lake. Our house is located within the private house residential area on the 200 m long quite street. Our house is the second from the water line and we do not have the direct access to the water, like our neighbours do, nevertheless, we enjoy the great lake view from our terrassa and windows. The unspoiled lake view was one of the important aspects for the purchasing decision, since we had to pay more compared to the similar house located not on the lake side.

As a Christmas gift we have got recently the notification from the local administration about the forthcoming construction projects (osayleiskaavan muutos). According to the available papers, there is a project under consideration featuring the construction of the many-storied apartment buildings near the beginning of our street, the construction of the floating houses at the end of the street on the lake and replacement of all parks nearby with residential areas. The floating houses are planned to be located in several dozens of meters in front of neighbours’ and our houses, in the place where we use to swim across the lake starting from the tiny private beach, which belongs to all residents of our street. The road to the floating houses goes by the lake and completely surrounds the waterline of our residential area.

Bearing in mind that the land parcellation took place in year 2002, it looks like the local administration does not intend to give people a long time to enjoy peacefully their freshly build residences.

As far as we know the project is not approved yet, the official presentation takes place on 22.1.2014 and the feedbacks should by submitted in written by 10.2.2014. So there will be less than three weeks in between.

From our perspective the mature and responsible analysis of the potential consequences of the project implementation has to take place.

A naked unprofessional eye sees at once at least three important areas for the analysis focus: the threat to the lake ecology since the scale of the project is of the similar order of magnitude as the lake size; the dramatic decline of the living level of the existing residents due to sharp increase of the number of inhabitants and abolishment of the recreational areas; the drop of the existing private houses prices. Most likely a specialist features more areas for expertise.

Nowadays we have to dive into the maze of the foreign laws in order to protect our interests. We have a great hope that this Forum will help us to figure out the answers to the following questions:
1.Do residents have the right to ask local administration for certain types of expertise before the project approval (ecological, influence on the living standards, etc.)?
2.For making up our feedback we will need some additional information (for example, who will pay for the construction of the floating road to the floating houses: town (meaning from taxes) or a developer, etc.), which, most likely will not be provided at the presentation. In what shape of format can we request this information from the administration in order to get it reasonably before the deadline of the feedback submission?
3.There will be less than 3 weeks between the official presentation of the project and the feedback submission deadline. Is this compressed timeframe for this scale of the projects in line with the law?
4.What kind of form is used for submitting the feedback? What is more effective in Finland: to submit the group feedback or the number of personal opinions/claims from every landlord (all the neighbours we talked with about the project are shocked)?
5.Are there laws in Finland, any state authority or public organisation, which protect the interests of the real estate owners?
6.We’ve heard that it is forbidden by law to build houses closer than 15 meters to the water. What is the reason for this? What are the regulations on the house construction on the water?
7.How a secure purchase of a house near a lake can be made in Finland nowadays? I.e. now it seems that buying a house with own beach does not mean that anybody come tomorrow and build another house in front of yours right on the water.

On the top of the clues on the law base we will appreciate very much the references to the known precedents.

The project picture is available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/skozrydarsbnu ... erPlan.png

[betelgeuse]

Here's a starting point for law though the unofficial translations is missing amendments from the last decade:

http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset ... 990132.pdf

[rinso]

Fighting (a sanctioned) project development is difficult and costly. You'll need specialized help and even then it might not be enough to put a stop to it.
Joint action seems the way to go.

The devaluation of your house is not a valid argument to stop the project. Especially if area zoning already allowed expansion of the residential area when you bought your house.
(you could have checked and know what to expect)
The best time to protest was when the zoning was changed from "nature" to "residential". And my guess is that happened many years ago.

[SergeyS]

Fighting (a sanctioned) project development is difficult and costly. You'll need specialized help and even then it might not be enough to put a stop to it.
Joint action seems the way to go.

The devaluation of your house is not a valid argument to stop the project. Especially if area zoning already allowed expansion of the residential area when you bought your house.
(you could have checked and know what to expect)
The best time to protest was when the zoning was changed from "nature" to "residential". And my guess is that happened many years ago.

We bought when the year 2002 area zoning was valid. Now a new area zoning draft is proposed by the local administration and we still have chance to react. What are the residents' rights to influence the decision?

[atas]

Have you contacted your neighbors about this? It makes sense to address it as a collective effort, rather than on your own. In general, if the status of an area changes, is compensation foreseen for the owners? I think devaluation of the house is a valid point to protest about, by having the legal grounds for this.

[rinso]

What are the residents' rights to influence the decision?

Everybody who has an interest in the matter can file a complain (don't know the details of the procedure).
An expected devaluation of your property can be an argument, but the extension of a residential area has much less weight than for instance the development of an industrial/business area.
If a significant value loss is expected, you might get compensated.

[SergeyS]

Have you contacted your neighbors about this? It makes sense to address it as a collective effort, rather than on your own. In general, if the status of an area changes, is compensation foreseen for the owners? I think devaluation of the house is a valid point to protest about, by having the legal grounds for this.

Neighbours are not happy, of course, and we are going to write a collective letter to the local authority.

But there is a big difference between just dislike of the plan and the references to Laws that are violated by this plan.

I have just studied http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset ... 990132.pdf

There a lot of common sense and general postulations in this document, but there is no information what should happen if the residents have objections against the draft.

For example the law says:
"Section 117
Requirements concerning construction

A building must fit into the built environment and landscape, and must fulfil the requirements of beauty and
proportion."

From the point of view of current residents the floating houses and road on the water to them do not fit in the environment and landscape. But what is the ground to judge do they "fit" or not? Is any regulation in place on building houses ON THE WATER (not on the land close to water)?

[betelgeuse]

What are the residents' rights to influence the decision?

Everybody who has an interest in the matter can file a complain (don't know the details of the procedure).

http://www.kunnat.net/fi/asiantuntijapa ... minen.aspx

When the municipality makes a decision to approve the new zoning, residents have a window to ask municipality to change the decision or take the issue to administrative court. Then the new zone does not come into effect until the appeals have been handled. Ideally of course now when the plan is in preparation it would result in one that everyone approves.

[betelgeuse]

6.We’ve heard that it is forbidden by law to build houses closer than 15 meters to the water. What is the reason for this? What are the regulations on the house construction on the water?

http://www.suomirakentaa.fi/lomarakenta ... kentamista

Each municipality sets their own limits so they have their own justifications too.

7.How a secure purchase of a house near a lake can be made in Finland nowadays? I.e. now it seems that buying a house with own beach does not mean that anybody come tomorrow and build another house in front of yours right on the water.

If you want to secure the beach, you should buy the land so that you own the beach too.

[riku2]

If you want to secure the beach, you should buy the land so that you own the beach too.

But if you look at the photo that was uploaded then a new road and land is being build offshore, so cutting off existing houses with beaches and lake views and putting them behind a new causeway and line of new houses. I have never heard of that kind of development in finland before, it seems more suitable for Dubai!

From the photo, it's not like houses have 100m of land between them and the lake and someone is building on the land and the complaint is that empty land is being built on.

[SergeyS]

But if you look at the photo that was uploaded then a new road and land is being build offshore, so cutting off existing houses with beaches and lake views and putting them behind a new causeway and line of new houses. I have never heard of that kind of development in finland before, it seems more suitable for Dubai!

From the photo, it's not like houses have 100m of land between them and the lake and someone is building on the land and the complaint is that empty land is being built on.

Exactly , It is the point. several houses have private beaches , others have joint( semi-private ) beach.

re: I have never heard of that kind of development in finland before, it seems more suitable for Dubai!

Even in Dubai they usually build such offshore houses from primary master plan. So there is not risk that somebody in 5-10 years will build offshore house and block Lake/See view , the access to open water( if you bought House in first line early ).
Seems Finland wants to be leader in such " Innovation "

[Tiwaz]

Have you contacted your neighbors about this? It makes sense to address it as a collective effort, rather than on your own. In general, if the status of an area changes, is compensation foreseen for the owners? I think devaluation of the house is a valid point to protest about, by having the legal grounds for this.

Neighbours are not happy, of course, and we are going to write a collective letter to the local authority.

But there is a big difference between just dislike of the plan and the references to Laws that are violated by this plan.

I have just studied http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset ... 990132.pdf

There a lot of common sense and general postulations in this document, but there is no information what should happen if the residents have objections against the draft.

Because there is, and on general level never should be, some kind of automated veto right for residents. It would be used every single time if it existed.
Your objections have to be made, then they are reviewed case by case.

For example the law says:
"Section 117
Requirements concerning construction

A building must fit into the built environment and landscape, and must fulfil the requirements of beauty and
proportion."

From the point of view of current residents the floating houses and road on the water to them do not fit in the environment and landscape. But what is the ground to judge do they "fit" or not? Is any regulation in place on building houses ON THE WATER (not on the land close to water)?

Judge will have specialist of some sort state if it is ok or not and makes decision based on that. What you and other residents feel about it is not really relevant. Sorry, but that's the way it is. But you can make objection. Then it is reviewed and specialists are consulted. Though odds are bit low on success... Those making houses tend to know these things too so they have already done the legwork to have all sorted out.

[rinso]

Judge will have specialist of some sort state if it is ok or not and makes decision based on that. What you and other residents feel about it is not really relevant. Sorry, but that's the way it is. But you can make objection. Then it is reviewed and specialists are consulted. Though odds are bit low on success... Those making houses tend to know these things too so they have already done the legwork to have all sorted out.

When a judge gets involved it often is already to late. I agree with Tiwaz that the project developer already closed all the holes And the city counsel already approved the plan.
A judge only test the "technical" aspects, not the political motivation.
Better is to try to get the politics involved before the final decision is made. Officially you can do that by complaining on the draft. But often the counsel decides on a summary of all the complains which can easily be manipulated. (the big picture; extra income for the municipality) Try to speak to counsel members in person and convince them of the negative development.

[SergeyS]

Judge will have specialist of some sort state if it is ok or not and makes decision based on that. What you and other residents feel about it is not really relevant. Sorry, but that's the way it is. But you can make objection. Then it is reviewed and specialists are consulted. Though odds are bit low on success... Those making houses tend to know these things too so they have already done the legwork to have all sorted out.

Who select the specialist for such judgement ?

re:Those making houses tend to know these things too so they have already done the legwork to have all sorted out.

There is any decision possible without opponents.
I do not believe that developers and/or local administrations are always right and follow all rules .

[rinso]

Who select the specialist for such judgement ?

When you're appealing a decision of the city counsel, you can bring your own witnesses.
The city/developers will bring theirs.
It is up to the judge to weight the different opinions.

In an appeal case you should present good arguments (proof, experts and so on). Just stating "I don't like it" has little impact.