Electronic general meeting

On the General meeting page the board runs the housing company’s general meeting (yhtiökokous) from start to finish — except the actual voting: schedule the meeting, build the agenda, attach materials, send the notice, track RSVPs, record decisions and produce the minutes, which can be signed electronically.

You’ll find the page in the left menu under the Overview group, General meeting. Every member of the association sees the meetings and can RSVP; creating and managing meetings is the board’s right.

1. Create a meeting

Press New meeting and fill in the form:

Meeting type — Ordinary general meeting (held annually) or Extraordinary general meeting.
Title — e.g. Ordinary general meeting 2026.
Date and time — the day and time of the meeting.
Notice period (days) — how many days before the meeting the notice must be sent at the latest. The default is 14 days; always check the correct notice period in your association’s articles of association (Finnish housing company law allows the notice at the earliest two months and at the latest two weeks before the meeting, unless the articles state otherwise).
Location and online link — the physical meeting place and/or the online meeting URL.

When you choose Ordinary general meeting, VAREK pre-creates the standard agenda skeleton (opening, organising, adopting the financial statements, discharge from liability, budget and charges, electing the board, etc.). You can edit the skeleton freely.

2. Build the agenda

Open the meeting from the list. In the Agenda section you can add, edit, reorder and remove items. Each item has a title and an optional description. Save your changes with Save agenda.

3. Attach materials

In the Materials section you can attach the association’s existing documents (e.g. the financial statements, the budget) to the meeting. Search documents by name and sort the list by name, creation date, or category. You can also upload a new file right here — it is saved to Documents with the Shareholders only visibility (visible to shareholders and the board, not tenants) and attached to the meeting. The materials travel with the meeting notice as attachments.

4. Send the notice

In the Notice section press Send notice. VAREK pre-fills the subject and the notice text (time, place and agenda). Choose the recipients — by default Shareholders and Board — and send. The notice goes out through the email module as a single personal message to each recipient, with the selected materials attached.

If there is less time until the meeting than the notice period you set, you’ll see a warning — you can still send the notice, but check that the notice period is sufficient under your articles of association.

5. RSVP

Every member sees the meeting and can RSVP: Yes, Maybe or No. The board sees the number of attendees who have signed up.

6. Record decisions

During or after the meeting, the board records the decision for each agenda item in the Decisions section. When the decisions are saved, the meeting is marked as held.

7. Produce and sign the minutes

Once the meeting has been held, in the Minutes section:

Create and save minutes assembles the minutes PDF (the association’s details, the meeting details, the agenda with decisions, and signature lines) and saves it to the association’s documents for members to see. You can also download the minutes straight to your computer for a preview.
Request signatures sends the minutes for electronic signing — the chair and the minutes checker sign with strong authentication. The signed minutes return to the association’s documents.

Cancelling and deleting a meeting

The board can cancel a meeting at any stage as long as the minutes have not been signed. A meeting in draft or cancelled status also shows a Delete meeting button (displayed in red, next to the other meeting action buttons). Deletion is permanent — the meeting and all its data are removed. A held meeting or one with signed minutes cannot be deleted (they are permanent records); if a notice has already been sent, cancel the meeting first and delete afterwards.

Electronic voting

Agenda items can be voted on electronically in VAREK. The feature follows the defaults of the Finnish housing-company act (AOYL chapter 6), but the voting basis and thresholds are association-specific — always check the correct rules in your articles of association (yhtiöjärjestys).

1. Voting settings (board)

Open the meeting and fill in Voting settings:

Voting basis — By shares (default) or By apartment.
Vote cap (äänileikkuri) — one owner’s maximum share of the votes represented (AOYL 6:13 default 1/5 = 20 %; adjustable or removable per the articles).
Quorum — an optional threshold (informational only — never blocks the meeting).
Total shares — derived from the apartments’ share counts; you can override it.

Mark the agenda items to be voted on as votable and choose each one’s threshold: Simple majority or Qualified majority 2/3.

2. Freeze the voting register

Press Freeze the voting register. VAREK computes each apartment’s vote count from its ownership (co-owners form one indivisible voting unit). The register is frozen for the meeting — later ownership changes do not alter it. The register also shows each apartment’s (share group’s) share count.

VAREK displays the meeting’s record date next to the register — from 1 Oct 2026 the right to attend belongs to whoever is registered as a shareholder in the share list or the share register (osakehuoneistorekisteri) on the day before the meeting (AOYL 6:7). If you freeze the register before the record date, VAREK reminds you to freeze it again on or after that date. When sending the notice, VAREK also reminds you that from 1 Oct 2026 the notice must be delivered to the contact details registered in the share register (AOYL 6:21) — VAREK email reaches only members added to the service.

3. Advance voting (optional)

Before sending the notice, the board can enable advance voting. The votable items are then opened ahead of the meeting, the agenda is locked, and the meeting notice automatically states that advance voting is available. Members can vote in advance; an advance vote can be changed until the meeting starts, after which it is final.

4. Voting

The board presses Start meeting when the meeting begins, opens each item’s vote (optionally secret), and eligible owners cast For / Against / Abstain. The board sees a live tally (no one can see individual secret ballots). When the board closes the vote, the outcome is computed against the threshold — for a qualified majority, both 2/3 of the votes cast AND 2/3 of the shares represented — and written into the decision and the minutes.

5. Proxy (valtakirja)

A member can authorize another member to vote on their behalf for this meeting (Proxies section). The holder votes for the grantor; the grantor can no longer vote until the proxy is revoked. The board sees the active proxies.

6. Quorum and minutes

The Quorum / participation section shows the share of represented shares. The finished minutes include each item’s voting result (for / against / abstain and approved/rejected).

Who sees what

The board (chair and members) creates and manages meetings, sends notices, records decisions and produces the minutes.
Shareholders and other members see the meetings, agenda and materials, receive the notice and can RSVP. The finished minutes appear for them in the association’s documents.