AYY’s apartments are the residents’ homes and AYY wants to reflect this in the way that the residents can make the apartments suitable for them.
Hanging of pictures/paintings, etc.
Nail holes and other picture hooks are part of the normal wear and tear in rental apartments, so you can hang pictures on the walls in AYY’s apartments within reasonable limits. If you do larger operations in the apartment, such as bolt the wall mount of the screen tv with huge props, you have to make sure that the wall is restored to the same condition when you leave the apartment.
Painting of apartments
Residents are allowed to paint AYY’s apartments as they like. If you want to paint AYY’s apartment, please contact the housing office. You receive a form which you can use to get paints for the apartment at the expense of AYY (the maximum amount is €300 for shared apartments and studios, €500 for larger apartments). If you want to paint an accent wall, please contact the housing office, get the paint and express yourself! If you are not satisfied with the previous resident’s accent wall and prefer off-white, please contact the housing office, get the paint and calm down the room.
However, there are some conditions for painting:
- It is prohibited to paint the floor and the ceiling.
- It is prohibited to paint radiators, sockets or floor moldings.
- It is prohibited to paint doors and window frames.
- Use only reasonable paints. No using some poisonous peculiar paints, that are impossible to remove or paint over.
This is due to the fact that old doors, for example, can be irreversibly ruined if you paint them with a wrong type of paint. However, if you want to paint a cabinet door in a poor condition, for example, and you know what you are doing, please contact AYY’s real estate section (kiinteistotoimi@ayy.fi), which can provide instructions and give a permission to carry out special projects.
Although we give the permission to paint, please be kind and avoid causing any unpleasant surprises for the next resident. AYY will hire professionals to re-paint apartments if necessary.
Flooring: laminate
Flooring is limited to AYY. Therefore, it is not possible to install laminates in AYY’s apartments. If the floor is in a particularly poor condition, please contact AYY’s real estate section (kiinteistotoimi@ayy.fi) and we will see what we can do about it.
Dishwasher
You can usually install a dishwasher in AYY’s apartment. However, the installation must be carried out by a professional. Dishwashers cause so many cases of water damage that it is very important for the resident that the installation is carried out correctly. Otherwise, all potentially enormous damage caused by the dishwasher may have to be paid by the resident. If you remove a kitchen cabinet in order to install a dishwasher, you must put the cabinet back in its place and have the kitchen in the same condition when you move out of the apartment. Only if the next resident agrees to take the dishwasher, you can leave the kitchen as it is.
Furniture
Please note that all AYY apartments are unfurnished. This means that there are no furniture in the apartment. No bed, no table, no lights. All AYY apartments have a kitchen with a stove and a fridge, though.
You can get furniture cheaply or even for free from recycling centers. Reuse & Rescue center in Otaniemi consists of Otaniemi recycling center and Viako Oy, where you can get free furniture and home decor, rent dishes, kitchenware and home textiles, buy small appliances or donate your own homeware. Reuse & Rescue is open to students as well as everyone else, and is located at Servin Maijan tie 6 D in Otaniemi. Reuse and Rescue Otaniemi is a circular economy experiment that aims to make sustainable consuming easier in Otaniemi, prolong the lifecycle of homeware and reduce the carbon footprint of temporary student housing.
You can also rent furniture from for example a company called Furent. Furent is a company that specialises in services related to furnished apartments. Their main service is furniture rental and they can provide anything from a fully furnished house to single handpicked items. For more information and prices, please contact info@furent.fi