The operations of the housing foundation are regulated by the Act on Residential Leases, other acts and degrees concerning housing, construction and leasing, Finnish government’s and apartment fund’s instructions about the tenant selection and maintenance of state-subsidised rental buildings, the city’s rules of conduct, the community’s internal guidelines and the rules below.
Rules of the foundation
Rules for the Turku Student Village Foundation
Section 1
The foundation’s name is Turun Ylioppilaskyläsäätiö – Studentbystifelsen i Åbo sr. – Turku Student Village Foundation. The foundation’s domicile is the City of Turku.
Section 2
The foundation’s main duty is to provide rental housing to students studying or continuing their studies in post-comprehensive schools in the Turku region.
In addition, the foundation aims to provide rental housing and right of residence apartments to graduated students and other young people and to foreign exchange students and researchers. To carry out its purpose, the foundation acquires and constructs, within its means, properties and apartments, with all required extra spaces, that are reasonably priced and in suitable locations.
The foundation’s purpose is also to support and independently carry out research that, in one way or the other, serves to improve social and financial opportunities for students and other young people.
Section 3
To carry out its purpose, the foundation constructs student housing and, as required, other buildings, within its sphere of activity; owns shares in housing companies and property; handles reserving land areas for the activity’s target group future needs; maintains administrative facilities for the student organisations that have joined the foundation’s sphere of activity and facilities intended for students’ spare time activities; develops forms of service required by housing comfort in the area; and works in other ways to improve the social and financial opportunities for persons within the foundation’s sphere of activity.
During times of school vacation, the foundation can use its apartments for accommodation and related service purposes.
Student organisations that have joined the foundation’s sphere of activity refer to the matriculated persons’ and students’ unions in post-comprehensive education schools in the Turku region. The domiciles for these unions must be municipalities where Turku Student Village Foundation maintains student housing, and the unions must be accepted as student organisations that have joined the foundation’s sphere of activity by the board of Turku Student Village Foundation.
Section 4
The foundation’s basic capital is formed by the sum of 10,000 Finnish marks paid by the Turku University’s students’ union by using a charter of foundation signed on September 1, 1966. Additionally, the foundation may have other funds, and what has been separately agreed on shall apply to their handling.
Section 5
The foundation aims to carry out its purpose by keeping the collected rents and other payments to a level that is as minimal as can be permitted by the costs of good-quality property maintenance and renovations and the administrative costs for the foundation. No rent shall be collected for premises that reside in buildings that the students’ union has conveyed to the foundation and are in personal use by the Turku University’s students’ union.
Section 6
The foundation has the right to accept donations, testaments, and financial support, and to accumulate wealth by any other legal means.
Section 7
The foundation’s bodies comprise the board and the managing director.
Section 8
The foundation is represented and its matters handled by a 13-person board that includes seven members selected by the City of Turku; two members selected by the Turku University’s students’ union; one member selected by Åbo Akademis Studentkår together with Studerandekåren Noviumin; and one member selected by the Turku University of Applied Sciences’ students’ union TUO. In addition, the board shall appoint – from candidates nominated in tenant meetings held in compliance with the foundation’s tenant cooperation model – two (2) members.
The board members are appointed for three years at a time. Among the members they have selected, the City of Turku shall appoint one board member as the chairperson. From the members of the board, the City of Turku shall also appoint the first vice-chairperson for the board, and the board shall appoint the second vice-chairperson.
The active duty period for the chairperson and vice-chairperson is three years.
The board has quorum when the chairperson or either vice-chairperson and at least six other members are present. The members of the board can be paid a fee that does not exceed the group administration regulations of the City of Turku.
The parties mentioned in the first paragraph may dismiss a board member they have appointed. However, the board can dismiss a member selected from candidates nominated in tenant meetings held in compliance with the foundation’s tenant cooperation model only following a motion from the tenant committee advisory board. To replace a board member that was dismissed or decided to leave, the institution or community who appointed them shall select a new board member for the duration of the board’s current active duty period.
Section 9
The board shall approve, no later than April:
1) the board’s annual report
2) the financial statements.
The board shall handle the audit report no later than June. The board shall approve, no later than November:
1) the budget proposal for the following year
2) operational plan for the following year.
The board shall appoint, no later than November:
1) when required, the board’s second vice-chairperson for a three-year period
2) when required, two (2) members to the board for a three-year period from candidates nominated in tenant meetings held in compliance with the foundation’s tenant cooperation model
3) one or two audit firms to audit the foundation’s administration and accounts.
Section 10
The board makes their decisions with simple majority of votes unless otherwise decreed by the Foundations Act or these rules. In the event of a tie, the chairperson has the casting vote; in the case of an election, the decision will be made by lot.
Section 11
The foundation has a managing director. The board shall select the managing director.
Section 12
In addition to what is stated in the Foundations Act, the foundation is represented by the board’s chairperson and managing director both on their own, or two board members together.
The foundation’s board may authorise a foundation functionary or other person to represent the foundation alone or together with a board member or another person authorised to represent the foundation.
Section 13
The foundation’s accounting period is one calendar year. The financial statements and annual report must be finalised by March 31 and auditors must submit their audit reports by April 30.
Section 14
Each year within six months from the end of the financial period, copies of the financial statements, annual report, and audit report must be submitted to the National Board of Patents and Registration and to the board of each student union that has joined the foundation’s sphere of activity.
Section 15
Revisions to these rules shall be decided by the board with a majority vote of ¾ of the number of all board members. The same decision-making rules shall be applied to placing the foundation in liquidation.
Section 16
If the foundation is dissolved, half of its funds must be paid to the City of Turku to be used for purposes resembling those of the foundation.
The other half must be released to be paid, proportionate to the number of members, for the use of the student unions that have joined the foundation’s sphere of activity according to the decisions made by their respective decision-making bodies for purposes resembling those of the foundation, excluding lot no. 20 in the City of Turku district I/quarter 9 and the buildings on said lot, as well as assets received in lieu of housing corporation Kaskenkatu 3 shares nos. 252-351, which shall be returned to the Turku University’s students’ union, and lot no. 3 in the City of Turku’s Nummi district/108th quarter and buildings on said lot, that is, construction stage I of Turku Student Village, and lot no. 1 in the City of Turku’s Nummi district/109th quarter and buildings on said lot, as well as the so-called social service centre building residing in lot no. 3 of the same quarter and the two-family house and the parcel of land pertaining to these buildings as designated in the ground plan included in the building permits, that is, construction stage II of Turku Student Village, which must be released to be paid, proportionate to the number of members, for the use of the student unions that have joined the foundation’s activities according to the decisions made by their respective decision-making bodies for purposes resembling those of the foundation.
