Forssa threatens fines as historic workers district falls into disrepair

Forssa city authorities may impose fines of thousands of euros on property owners who fail to repair deteriorating buildings in Kalliomäki, Yle reports.

Kalliomäki, formerly known as Ronttismäki, is a nationally significant built cultural environment and part of a national urban park. The district is valued for its links to Forssa’s cotton mill and the early stages of Finnish industry.

The city plans to begin enforcement measures in the autumn. Owners who remain passive or show gross negligence could face fines and criminal reports for offences related to building protection and construction regulations.

The basic fine could range from 5,000 to 10,000 euros, with an additional running fine of up to 500 euros per month. The enforcement process includes several stages during which owners can correct the situation before the measures are carried out.

According to Jukka Laaksonen, Forssa’s chief building inspector, Kalliomäki has eight abandoned properties and three residential buildings that are seriously damaged. The district contains 164 properties in total.

Owners have previously been urged to maintain their properties, but with limited results. The city says the minimum requirement is that properties should be environmentally suitable for the valuable built environment.

Owners say demolition is not allowed

Property owners have responded to the situation in different ways. Timo Vanha-Sipilä owns a house on Fifth Line that was originally intended to be demolished and replaced with a new building.

“The city will not allow it to be demolished. It is too small and in such poor condition that repairing it would not be worthwhile,” Vanha-Sipilä told Yle.

The house destroyed by fire shortly before midsummer belonged to Sanna Vähä-Pietilä and her relatives. Vähä-Pietilä said the building was found to be beyond repair and that restoring it would have required unreasonable costs.

The owners applied for a demolition permit as early as 2010. Their plan was to build a new home and outbuilding while respecting the area’s history, but the permit process was withdrawn after appeals.

The demolition permit for the burned house has also been delayed because the responsible museum, the Hämeenlinna City Museum, requires detailed documentation drawings. Vähä-Pietilä said the municipality could support property owners by streamlining official bureaucracy.

Fire raised safety concerns

A fire shortly before midsummer destroyed a house that had been targeted by vandalism.

Sirkka-Liisa Ilvonen, a Left Alliance councillor who submitted a motion on derelict properties last December, considers abandoned houses a safety risk in the densely built residential district.

She said emergency services would have had room for only two or three units at a time if the fire had occurred in the district’s narrow lanes. Laaksonen acknowledged that the risk was real.

Janne Lintukorpi, a restoration business owner who has worked in the field for nearly 30 years, is currently renovating one of the two properties he owns in Kalliomäki. He acquired a wooden house built in the early 1900s for his company.

Lintukorpi knows that the cost of restoration is unlikely ever to be reflected fully in the property’s sale price. He has a positive view of the city’s disciplinary measures.