Study title

Limited Liability Housing Companies Act's Functionality and Impact 2013: Board Members

Dataset ID Number

FSD2938

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2938
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd2938

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Ministry of Justice

Other Identification/Acknowledgements

• Finnish Real Estate Federation
• Finnish Real Estate Management Federation
• Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies

Abstract

The survey investigated how the new Limited Liability Housing Companies Act 2010 (Asunto-osakeyhtiölaki) functioned in Finland, what its impact had been and how it had been implemented. Separate surveys were conducted for shareholders of limited liability housing companies, members of governing boards, property managers and estate agents. This dataset contains the responses of board members.

The respondents were first asked basic information about the company, such as the types of buildings belonging to the company, number of apartments, and business premises belonging to the company.

Relating to management of the company, the respondents were asked about the number of members in the governing board, number of meetings in 2012, average time spent on a meeting, change in the time spent on meetings after 2010, division of labour within the board, documents drawn up to guide the work of the board, composition of the board, remuneration received by board members, and increase in the workload of the board. Further questions probed, for instance, the ease of attracting new members to join the board, interest shown by shareholders in the activities of the company, and effects of the new Act on the activities of the company.

With regards to property management, the questions surveyed whether the company had a property manager, who was responsible for property management, where the duties of the property manager had been set out, changes in property management services and their costs after 2010, and the need for allowing a property management company to assume the tasks of a property manager.

Concerning auditing, topics included person/people responsible for financial/performance audit in the company, differences in opinions about the duties of a performance auditor, and benefit of the performance audit to the company.

Views were charted on information and communication by the company, for instance, by asking whether invitations to meetings were sent out early enough, whether board members and chair answered shareholders' questions in the meetings, and whether shareholders were notified early enough about important decisions and plans made by the board. Further questions charting communication probed improvement/decline in communication by the board and property manager after 2010, issues the board and/or property manager should notify the shareholders about (e.g. the company's financial situation, renovating and maintenance instructions), and whether an Act should be in place that lays down provisions on communication between the company and shareholders during the fiscal year.

Concerning building maintenance, views were charted on the board's and property manager's knowledge of the law and regulations relating to responsibilities of the company and the shareholder in maintenance issues, and disputes between the company and shareholders about the division of maintenance costs. Relating to the maintenance needs report (which is required by law in cases when planned maintenance significantly affects the use of an apartment, company charges, or other costs incurred by the use of an apartment), questions charted, among others, discussion about the report in the company meeting, shareholders' opportunities to go over the report before the meeting, things included in the report (e.g. cost estimate, maintenance schedule), perceptions on the usefulness of the report, and the frequency of updating the report. Plans of building lifts in the buildings owned by the company were surveyed as well as the division of costs of building them. Further questions studied reimbursements awarded to shareholders for making the renovations planned by the company by themselves, and the equal distribution of maintenance costs.

Relating to renovations done by shareholders, questions examined rules set out for renovation notices by the company, number of notices filed per year, shareholders' neglect to file notices, need to add information to filed notices, and expert help hired by the company to assess renovation notices. Further questions about renovations investigated disputes resulting from the neglect to file a notice, processing fees for renovation notices, processing time of renovation notices, and supervision of and conditions set for the renovation by the company.

Perceptions of disputes and dispute resolution were surveyed. Disputes among shareholders, and increase or decrease in disputes between the company and shareholders after 2010 were studied as well as primary actor in resolving disputes, and the need for an independent third party to settle disputes and conflicts between the shareholders and the company.

Background variables included, among others, the respondent's gender, age, work experience in the governing board, and position in the board as well as the location or size of the municipality where the limited liability housing company operated, and the decade when its buildings had been constructed.

Keywords

alternative dispute resolution; building maintenance; companies; conflict resolution; governing boards (organizations); home ownership; housing; maintenance; real property law

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Housing (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Legislation and legal systems (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (A) openly available for all users without registration (CC BY 4.0).

Data Collector

• Ministry of Justice

Time Period Covered

2013

Collection Dates

2013-11-01 – 2013-12-18

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Organization/Institution

Event/Process/Activity

Universe

Board members of limited liability housing companies

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Non-probability: Availability

The data were collected through an online survey which was available on the otakantaa.fi website - a forum for citizens provided by the Ministry of Justice. Link to the survey was also distributed by the organisations participating in conducting the survey, that is, the Finnish Real Estate Federation, the Finnish Real Estate Management Federation and the Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies. The organisations notified their clients about the survey by email, on websites and in publications for members. In total, 3,683 board members responded to the survey.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

1.0

Related Datasets

FSD2937 Limited Liability Housing Companies Act's Functionality and Impact 2013: Shareholders

FSD2939 Limited Liability Housing Companies Act's Functionality and Impact 2013: Property Managers

FSD2940 Limited Liability Housing Companies Act's Functionality and Impact 2013: Estate Agents

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Ministry of Justice: Limited Liability Housing Companies Act's Functionality and Impact 2013: Board Members [dataset]. Data version 1.0 (2014-05-21). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd2938; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2938

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Materials

Tervonen, Markus (2014). Vuoden 2010 asunto-osakeyhtiölain toimivuus, vaikutukset ja muutostarve: Yhteenveto syksyn 2013 kyselyiden palautteesta. Helsinki: Oikeusministeriö. Oikeusministeriön julkaisuja 20/2014. urn:isbn:978-952-259-371-9

Related Publications

Tervonen, Markus (2014). Vuoden 2010 asunto-osakeyhtiölain toimivuus, vaikutukset ja muutostarve: Yhteenveto syksyn 2013 kyselyiden palautteesta. Helsinki: Oikeusministeriö. Oikeusministeriön julkaisuja 20/2014. urn:isbn:978-952-259-371-9