Licence for operating a private lost and found office

Before initiating the lost and found office operations, submit a licence application to the AVI Agency. The application can be freely worded, but it must contain the following information:

1. The applicant’s name, municipality of residence and contact information
2. All operating locations of the lost and found office and the contact information thereof
3. Name and personal identification number of the responsible manager of the lost and found office or, if a personal ID is not available, their date of birth.

Attach to the application a written consent for the task from the responsible manager.

Applications should primarily be submitted electronically to the registry of the AVI Agency for Western and Inland Finland. Nevertheless, you can always deliver your application personally or by post to any AVI Agency office. To smoothen the processing, however, we do ask that you deliver the paper applications directly also to the registry of the AVI Agency for Western and Inland Finland.

The AVI Agency will investigate ex-officio the responsible manager’s reliability and the fulfilment of the requirements imposed on the applicant by requesting a statement from the Legal Register Centre and, if necessary, from the police.

Notify the AVI Agency for Western and Inland Finland without delay of changes concerning the operation of the lost and found office (e.g. a new place of business or address) or the responsible manager and of termination of activities.

The AVI Agency can authorise the applicant to operate a lost and found office for property found in public places, if:

1. the applicant has the right to carry out business operations in Finland
2. the applicant has not been declared bankrupt and, if the applicant is a natural person, he or she is an adult whose legal competence has not been restricted
3. the applicant has appointed a responsible manager who fulfils the requirements provided in section 21(2) of the Lost Property Act.

The responsible manager must be an adult and reliable person who has not been declared bankrupt and whose legal competence is not restricted. The responsible manager shall be deemed reliable if they have not, in the last five years, been sentenced to prison or, in the last three years, sentenced to a fine for an intentional offence that can be deemed to proof that they are clearly unfit to act as a responsible manager. The responsible manager shall not be deemed reliable if they have otherwise in the past acted in a way that shows that they are clearly unfit to act as a responsible manager.