Certification of purchase

If you are buying, selling, giving as a gift or exchanging immovable property, you will need the services of a public purchase witness, an attesting notary.

If you are buying, selling, giving as a gift or exchanging immovable property, such as a plot, you will need the services of a public purchase witness, an attesting notary. The attesting notary will certify the transfer of the property.

In some situations, you can sign a deed of sale in the electronic service of the National Land Survey of Finland instead of using an attesting notary.

When the property is transferred, both parties and the attesting notary must be present at the same time. The attesting notary will verify the identity of the parties and confirm that the deed of transfer is formally correct. The parties will then sign the deed of transfer in at least three copies.

Do the following

  1. Digital and Population Data Services Agency always ensures certification of purchase at their location

    You can also search for a public purchase witness in the National Land Survey's (in Finnish and Swedish) purchase witness search for purchases taking place elsewhere.

  2. Make an appointment with the attesting notary in advance

    • by email: Use the secure mail of the agency to send the email so that your data remains encrypted. Select [email protected] as the recipient in the secure mail. Send the email as a secure email. 
    • by phone: Ask for a purchase witness at 0295 536 000 (DVV switchboard).

  3. Both parties have to be present when the certification of the purchase takes place or a person authorised to represent a party must present a special power of attorney

    • The attesting notary will verify the identity of the parties and confirm that the deed of transfer is formally correct.
    • After this, the parties sign the deed of transfer in at least three copies.

Checklist

  • check the valid real estate unit identifier from the most recent decision on real estate tax

  • draw the deed of sale or have it drawn up in at least 3 copies.

  • if the seller is the estate of a deceased person and the title to the real estate has not been registered to the shareholders of the estate, bring with you the estate inventory deed, including the reports of family relationships, and the extracts from the population register of all of the shareholders of the estate.

  • if one of the parties is a company, you must present the company extract from the trade register and the possible decision on selling the real estate, made by one of the company’s decision-making bodies.

Price

The certification of a purchase costs EUR 138.

Processing time

The certification of a purchase takes between 15 and 30 minutes.

Key terms

Immovable property i.e. real property

A built or unbuilt area of land or water. In the Finnish system, everything that is not immovable property is movable property.

Registration of title to property

The proprietary right to real estate is registered by applying for the registration of title to the property.

Special power of attorney

Not a general power of attorney, but one in which the authorisation is specified in detail.

Links to laws related to the matter

Code of Real Estate
Act on Public Purchase Witnesses (in Finnish)

Frequently asked questions

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