This article is a translation of the original Finnish article: Mikä rakennus tarvitsee energiatodistuksen? Talotyypit ja poikkeukset selkokielellä
Which buildings need an energy certificate? Building types and exemptions in plain language
Nearly every heated building needs an energy certificate (energiatodistus) at the latest when it is sold or rented out – detached houses, terraced houses, apartment buildings and commercial premises first and foremost. The exempt ones are mainly buildings under 50 m², ordinary summer cottages and a few special categories such as industrial and farm buildings. For a new building, the certificate is needed already when applying for a building permit (rakentamislupa). If you are not sure about your own building, see the table below – and check with our tool whether a certificate already exists for your building, or let us check for you.
When is an energy certificate needed? Three everyday situations
An energy certificate is not a document that every building should have at all times; it is required in certain situations:
- Selling. When you sell a detached house, an apartment in an apartment building or a commercial property, a valid certificate must be available for the buyer to see at the viewing, and it is handed over to the buyer. Already the sales listing must state the building’s energy class (A–G).
- Renting out. The same applies to renting: the certificate is shown to prospective tenants and given to the tenant. The exceptions are a fixed-term tenancy agreement of at most one year and subletting, for which no certificate is needed. So renting out an investment apartment on an open-ended tenancy agreement requires a certificate, but subletting a room in your own home does not.
- New construction. For a new building, the certificate is drawn up based on the plans already when applying for a building permit, and it is updated before the building is taken into use if the details become more precise.
A certificate is not needed either when a building is sold for demolition or when the sale takes place between companies belonging to the same group. A missing certificate does not lead to an automatic fine, but enforcement is real: Varke (the Housing Construction Centre of the Finnish State) can issue a notice and a warning, and ultimately a binding decision that can be reinforced with a conditional fine. The easiest path is to have the certificate in order before the sales listing is published.
Does your building need a certificate? Check the table
| Building | Is an energy certificate needed? | Who obtains it? | More information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached house (omakotitalo) | Yes, when you sell or rent out; for a new house already for the building permit | The owner, i.e. the seller or landlord | Energy certificate for a detached house |
| Semi-detached house | Yes, like a detached house | The owners; in company form, the housing company | Who pays for the energy certificate? |
| Terraced house | Yes | The housing company – one certificate for the whole building | Energy certificate for a terraced house |
| Apartment building / housing company | Yes; a shareholder gets the certificate from the property manager for an apartment sale | The housing company | Energy certificate for an apartment building |
| Holiday home, i.e. summer cottage | Not usually; yes, if used in the accommodation business | The owner | see the exemptions below |
| Garage / outbuilding | Not usually (unheated or under 50 m²) | – | see the answer below |
| Commercial premises / office | Yes, when you sell or rent out | The owner | Building energy classes |
The energy certificate for a detached house, a semi-detached house or another small house is drawn up under the same rules – the differences only appear in the energy class limits, which depend on the building’s size. Note also that an “apartment’s energy certificate” is in practice a certificate for the whole building: in an apartment building or a terraced house, a shareholder does not order a certificate of their own; the apartment’s energy class comes from the certificate of the housing company (taloyhtiö). We have written separately about schools and day-care centres: energy certificates for educational buildings. Buildings providing public services also have a display obligation: in large premises used by the public, the certificate’s classification scale must be kept on display for visitors.
Which buildings are exempt? The exemptions in plain language
The energy certificate obligation is based on the Act on the Energy Certificate of Buildings (50/2013, consolidated text in Finlex, in Finnish). The starting point of the act is simple: the certificate applies to buildings in which energy is used to heat or cool the indoor spaces. The structure of the exemptions was revised on 1 January 2025, when the energy certificate act was linked to the new Building Act – outdated exemption lists still circulate online, but the current exemptions are these:
- Small buildings: buildings with a floor area of less than 50 m².
- Holiday homes: summer cottages and other leisure homes that are not used for carrying on an accommodation business. If a cottage is rented out as part of accommodation activity, a certificate is needed.
- Temporary buildings with a period of use of at most two years.
- Industrial buildings and repair workshops.
- Farm buildings: non-residential farm buildings whose energy demand is low or whose sector is covered by a national energy efficiency agreement.
- Churches and other buildings used for devotion or religious activity.
- Protected buildings – but only to the extent that complying with the energy efficiency requirements would change the building’s character or appearance in a way that cannot be accepted. So protection alone does not automatically exempt a building from the certificate.
- Buildings of the defence administration that involve classified information.
There are no other exemptions: for example, a building’s age or remote location does not exempt it from the certificate. Changes to the rules are on the way, though: in September 2026, a government bill was submitted to Parliament that would implement the EU’s recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and, among other things, expand the situations in which the certificate is used. It is, however, only a bill for now – the rules described in this article are the law in force.
Does a garage or storage building need an energy certificate?
Not usually. The energy certificate only applies to buildings in which energy is used to maintain the indoor climate – so an unheated garage, storage building or other unheated outbuilding needs no certificate at all. Even a heated outbuilding is exempt if its floor area is less than 50 m², which in practice covers nearly all garages, yard saunas and storage buildings. So when a detached house is sold, the certificate is drawn up for the residential building itself, and separate outbuildings under 50 m² do not need certificates of their own.
What about an old house or a sale by an estate?
A building’s age does not exempt it from the obligation: a 1950s house also needs an energy certificate when it is sold or rented out. The act’s transition periods ended years ago – the last to come within the obligation, on 1 July 2017, were houses of at most two apartments approved for use before 1980. We cover the certificate for an old house and the realities of its energy class in more detail in the article energy certificate for a post-war house.
When an estate (perikunta) sells a house, a certificate is needed just as in any other sale. The act does, however, recognise a lightened procedure: if the property is of very low value, or the sale or rental takes place for example between close relatives, a publicly available lightened-procedure certificate can be used without calculations by a qualified assessor. If the lightened procedure is used without its conditions being met, an ordinary certificate must be obtained without delay to replace it – in a borderline case, feel free to ask us for advice.
Does the building already have a certificate? How to check
Since 2015, certificates have been stored in the energy certificate register maintained by Varke. The register’s free public search covers certificates of buildings with more than two apartments – so apartment buildings and most terraced houses can be found there. For data protection reasons, the public search does not show certificates of detached and semi-detached houses, even if a certificate exists. Check the situation with our tool – or let us check for you, which works for a detached house too. Remember that a certificate is valid for at most 10 years, so it pays to confirm the validity of an old certificate before publishing a sales listing.
What does a certificate cost and where do you get one?
An energy certificate may only be drawn up by a qualified energy certificate assessor entered in the assessor register – you cannot make the certificate on your own. The price depends on the building type, its size and the level of the input data; in a housing company, it is in practice the company that obtains and pays for the certificate, as we explain in the article who pays for the energy certificate. A well-made certificate is more than a mandatory document: a high-quality energy certificate also tells you which measures can improve the energy class. We prepare energy certificates for all building types, from detached houses to housing companies and commercial properties – take a look at our energy certificate service and our other services, or submit a request for a quote to get a price and delivery time quickly.