Important information for residents

Excellent that you came to LOAS! Please read some brief tips and facts below on what should be done now and how housing takes place with us. For new residents moving to Finland from abroad, we recommend that you read the Home maintenance in Finland guide to get a comfortable start in your LOAS home.

Lease terms, rent, usage fee and furniture fee 

Read the lease terms attached to your lease agreement in Intra carefully. Fixed term leases cannot be terminated prematurely. For leases that are valid until further notice the period of termination notice from tenant´s side is one (1) month, counted from the last day of the month in which the notice was given. Termination of the lease can easily be done in Intra.

The rent includes a usage fee, which at most of the housing sites covers electricity, water, the use of laudry rooms and common sauna turns. 

The following residential properties are subject to consumption-based billing for water and/or electricity:

• In housing sites LOASin Seppo (Yliopistonkatu 28G) and LOASin Timppa (Laserkatu 1), residents must sign their own electricity contract. Water is billed based on comsumption.  
• Water is billed based on consumption for those living in studios and family apartments in Punkkeririnne (Punkkerikatu 7), Orion I (Korpimetsänkatu 5) and Skinnarila II (Teknologiapuistonkatu 4).
• Water and electricity are billed based on consumption for the residents of the LOAS-Teatteri (Anni Swaninkatu 4) (there is no need to make your own electricity contract).

If you are moving into a furnished apartment, you will be charged for a furniture fee. The furniture includes a bed frame 80 x 200 cm (no mattress), a desk, a work chair, a table lamp, a bookshelf and a drawer; in the kitchen a dining table and chairs. The furniture does not include any utensils like dishes, bed clothes, curtains or cleaning equipment. Exception: the furniture at Korpimetsänkatu 5 includes a kitchen table, kitchen chairs and a diswasher. There´s no furniture in bedrooms.

You will receive the rent invoice by email. The due date is the 5th of each month. You can track the status of your rent and consume based water/electric invoices via intra. Open the contract by clicking the "Functions" button. You can view the invoices by clicking the "Rent invoices" button on the page that opens. Please note that LOAS or local banks in Lappeenranta do not accept cash payments. 
NB! The status of sales invoices resulting from club room reservations or any other invoices cannot be viewed via the intranet.

Instructions for paying LOAS invoices

Payment control is handled by Intrum Oy. Intrum sends out payment reminders and collects any debts on our behalf. Once the overdue invoice has been transferred to Intrum, please contact their customer service:

• My Intrum self-service portal (language selection on top right corner), logged in with your online banking credentials or username and password on the debt collection letter
• Call centre Mon-Fri 7.30-17 tel. +358 9 2291 1954
• Please note, that Intrum is not able to handle any payments coming via international money transfer services like Revolut, Wise etc. All payments to Intrum must be paid via bank transfer using the information provided on their invoice. 

For international residents LOAS offers an online payment option TransferMate. For citizens of EU and EEA countries TransferMate charges a fee for the payments. For citizens outside EU and EEA countries the service is free. However, your bank may charge you for using the service, so please verify this with your bank.

Instructions for using TransferMate

Apartment key and moving day

You receive your key from LOAS housing office at Laserkatu 1 C on the moving day after 12 noon. If the first day of the lease is Saturday/Sunday, a public holiday, Independence Day, first of May, Christmas Eve or Midsummer Eve, the moving day is the first business day after that. You can ask about the key retrieval by sending us a message via Intra. Please contact us if you don´t pick up the key on the day your lease starts.

Take good care of your key. If you lose the key, the costs will be charged from you. If you forget your key inside the apartment, you can borrow a spare key free of charge from the office. During evenings and weekends the security company opens the door for a fee. You find the phone number for the door opening service on each apartment building´s front door. LOAS has a Key Cover insurance for the residents which covers the replacement of keys and locks, as well as expenses for the door opening service. Ask the housing office for more information about the insurance.

If your key is an electronic Abloy Cliq-key, please contact the housing office in the event of possible fault (key shows red light). The Cliq key is programmed to run continuously, which means that residents do not need to update the keys in programming units of apartment buildings.

If you need a second key or want to authorize someone else to get the key for your, contact the housing office via Intra. 

First fill in the apartment checklist 

First it is worth checking the condition of the apartment and any possible faults. Start in the intranet by filling in the apartment checklist and report all the faults and shortcomings that you have observed. Pictures of all defects must be attached. Please also indicate and include a photo if there are hooks, nails, screws or mirrors in the walls. Nothing may be fixed to the walls of apartments except by using fixing strips.

Defects reported on the apartment checklist are evaluated and, if necessary, fault reports are created. 

If, upon moving in, you notice an urgent fault or the apartment is unclean, report it immediately by calling the LOAS office. When LOAS receives information about the apartment's lack of cleanliness or an urgent defect, maintenance will check the situation as soon as possible.

It is important for your sake that the apartment checklist is filled in. The checklist is used to report possible defects already present in the apartment to LOAS and that way they won´t be charged from you when you will move out of the apartment. 

Additional info about residental areas and housing sites

You can find more detailed information about residential areas and housing sites on LOAS website. The basic information of each residential property lists, for example, the location information of storage rooms, a laundry room and resident saunas.

Intra

On Intra you can easily book a parking space, sauna or laundry turns. You can also contact the housing office and create fault reports or send disturbance complaints. At Anni Swanin katu 4, Kalliopellonkatu 10 and Punkkerikatu 7 also the storage rooms are booked on Intra.

Living in a shared apartment

Living in a shared apartment is a great opportunity to make new friends. Agreeing on rules together is a good way to get to know each other. The residents are together responsible for keeping the shared areas clean. Also it is a shared responsibility to make sure, that the common areas (toilet, bathroom, kitchen, hallway, balcony) are clean, when someone is moving out.
You can contact other tenants of your shared apartment before moving. Open the agreement in Intra and you will find the Contact flatmate-function.

Talk with your flatmate at least about these things:

Cleaning
When to clean? Can we agree on cleaning turns? Is it ok to leave dirty dishes for a week in the
kitchen sink? All tenants of the apartment are responsible for cleaning the common areas (kitchen,
hallway, toilet, bathroom and balcony).

Common areas
On which kitchen shelf I can leave my stuff? How about my food in fridge and freezer? Do I buy my
own toilet paper and cleaning agents? Agree on buying something together and mark with
adhesive tape the shelfs for each tenant.

Quiet time
At what time I can still listen to music or have friends in my room? The common quiet time in LOAS
houses is between 23.00‐07.00.

Respect private space and personal belongings
Can I make coffee with my flatmate´s coffee maker? How about using his/her shampoo when my
own is finished? Be polite and don´t use some one else´s belongings without a permission.

Talking can solve many problems
Dirty dishes in the kitchen and a trash bin full of carbage? Even the small annoying things should be
brought up so that living together is pleasant for everyone. Be also ready for compromises as there
is no one right way to live and be.

House rules

It's nice to start your studies and new life in a pleasant home and environment. First you should familiarise with the house rules, of which here are a few: 

• All our apartments are smoke-free - smoking is prohibited in all buildings and balconies. Smoking areas have been marked separately in the yard areas. 
• Silence between 11 pm - 7 am