In February 2021, the Tartu city government sent a letter to the Ministry of Economic Affairs stating that since 2015, users of the building register had drawn the state's attention to the fact that some of the information contained there should be partially concealed as it includes personal data.

The city government also pointed to a contradictory situation in which the same information is subject to access restrictions under the law in the municipality's document register, yet is freely accessible in the building register. In the memorandum, the city proposed bringing the building register into compliance with the law.

Ivo Jaanisoo, who at the time headed the ministry's construction and housing department, replied that there were plans to change the system governing access to data in the building register. He also acknowledged that although people's contact details were to be hidden, they could in some cases remain visible. Notably, Jaanisoo wrote that it is not possible to impose access restrictions on individual files within the building register. "At the same time, concealing all documents on the grounds that one document contains personal data would certainly be a disproportionate measure."

Yet five years later, following a report by "Pealtnägija," virtually the entire building register was closed to the public. The ERR investigative program reported in early February how the building register includes hundreds of often detailed photos of the exteriors and interiors of people's homes, raising privacy and data protection concerns.

Tartu City Secretary Jüri Mölder told ERR that over the years state representatives either failed to acknowledge the problem or said the register's technical solution did not allow for access restrictions. There was also talk of a lack of funding.

"We were taken by surprise in the 'Pealtnägija' coverage when representatives of the central government indicated that the entire situation had come as a great surprise to them. We were even more astonished by the solution reached by the Ministry of Climate and the Land and Spatial Development Board — namely, imposing a blanket restriction on all documents. We cannot consider such conduct and the sharing of such information to be correct or in compliance with the laws in force in Estonia," Mölder said.

Liisi Pajuste, head of construction policy at the Ministry of Climate, now in charge of the register, clarified that access was temporarily restricted only to supplementary documents related to notices of use, applications for occupancy permits, occupancy permits and precepts, such as covered works reports, connection agreements, photographs and audits.

Thousands of files need to be checked

A few days before the "Pealtnägija" report aired, the Ministry of Climate and the Land and Spatial Development Board informed local governments that, as a temporary precaution starting January 30, public access in the building register would be closed to certain documents that may contain protected data. The same letter asked municipalities to review all building register proceedings processed since 2016 and assess which documents may be public and which should have restricted access.

In total, access to 2.2 million files has been closed in the building register. The Ministry of Climate has determined that, based on data categories, 800,000 files could be reopened automatically. However, the ministry wants to discuss the matter with the Data Protection Inspectorate before doing so, Pajuste said.

In Tartu, the building permit application for one commercial building included 98 files, while the occupancy permit application already contained 811 files. Liisi Pajuste of the Ministry of Climate said it is extremely rare for a proceeding to include that many files. Based on Tartu's example, however, such rare cases occur at least once a year. For example, the occupancy permit application for an apartment building completed in 2024 includes nearly 3,000 files, while the occupancy permit for a single-family home completed in 2023 contains more than 1,000 files. The building permit proceedings for the Siuru cultural center alone already include more than 300 files. According to Pajuste, all of these would need to be reviewed.

"Of course, case handlers also have a certain sense of which files are typically submitted to them or which files they have requested in addition. Based on that sense, they can likely make a preliminary assessment of what they do not need to download or open separately," Pajuste said.

For Tartu, this means reviewing tens of thousands of proceedings and hundreds of thousands of files, the city secretary said. To do so, dozens of people would have to be hired.

"Instead of responding in a timely manner to problems that had already been known, the central government has now chosen a solution that does not comply with current law and is not feasible for local governments to implement," Jüri Mölder said.

Asked why the state did not respond when the Tartu city government sent its memorandum five years ago, Pajuste said she could not answer as she is not familiar with the contents of the inquiry or the response.

"But I can tell you that 200,000 documents are entered into the building register every month. To exercise oversight over them, we would have to create a new agency, which we do not consider reasonable. Any additional development requires a budget, often a public procurement process and project managers who already have fairly full schedules," Pajuste said.

Responsibility passed around like a hot potato

Local governments may find some reassurance in the Ministry of Climate's plan to propose to the Data Protection Inspectorate that documents and files already in the building register would not have to be reviewed immediately.

"Rather, local governments could review them calmly when a query arises about a particular building. Or when some action is taken regarding that building, for example when a building permit is sought for reconstruction. Then the earlier files would be reviewed," Pajuste explained. In addition, the ministry plans to prepare guidelines for municipalities to help them assess whether a file may be public or not.

Mölder, however, stressed that resolving the situation retroactively is problematic for both the state and local governments.

"Over all these years, a very large number of documents have accumulated in the register in Estonia. If this issue had been addressed in a timely manner from the outset, when attention was first drawn to it, and if the necessary functionality had been created in the building register early on to allow access restrictions to be imposed, we would not have reached such a situation," the Tartu city secretary said.

Liisi Pajuste placed responsibility on local governments, noting that municipalities have already had the ability to impose access restrictions themselves.

"However, this option has often either not been used or was somewhat inconvenient to use at the time. As a result, in some cases access restrictions may not have been set and perhaps the level of awareness was not what it is today," she said.

Pajuste also emphasized that legislation has not required all data found in the building register to be uploaded. In her view, the volume of material reflects the diligence of municipalities and permit applicants.

"The surplus of information is likely related to the fact that case handlers have been very thorough and, to be on the safe side, have checked every possible angle to ensure a building is safe. On the other hand, applicants may not be certain what needs to be submitted and, just in case, provide a larger package of documents in order to obtain the permit more quickly," Pajuste said.

Tartu not happy with the legal side

The City of Tartu plans to submit another memorandum regarding the decisions of the Ministry of Climate and the Land and Spatial Development Board. Mölder argues that the blanket access restriction imposed on documents in the building register is contrary to current law. In his view, there is no legal basis for imposing such restrictions.

The city also maintains that it is not responsible for the data concerning Tartu that have been entered into the building register and therefore cannot reopen the documents that have been closed.

"With regard to documentation on buildings and structures located in Tartu, they (the Ministry of Climate — ed.) have designated the City of Tartu as the holder of the information, which we are not. Under current law, the City of Tartu has no legal basis whatsoever to remove access restrictions unjustifiably imposed by the state," the city secretary said.

Document restrictions getting in the way of real estate transactions

The Estonian Association of Real Estate Companies also contacted the Ministry of Climate last week, expressing concern that documents in the building register have been hidden. In its letter, the association wrote that when preparing real estate transactions, market participants are required to verify a building's legal and technical status, including the existence of building and occupancy permits, compliance of projects, intended use, precepts and data on technical systems. "Without access to the data and documents in the building register, it is not possible to adequately verify these circumstances," the appeal states.

Liisi Pajuste, head of construction policy at the Ministry of Climate, said access has been restricted only to supplementary documents and that the existence of occupancy permits remains visible. "They also have access to all construction projects submitted with the occupancy permit," she added.

Ingvar Allekand, a member of the management board of Domus Kinnisvara, told ERR that residential real estate transactions are mainly financed by banks, which require a valuation report prepared by an independent expert.

"An appraiser cannot prepare that valuation report if they do not have access to the data in the building register and cannot review the documentation," he explained.

Allekand believes that closing the entire dataset is not a proportionate measure. "No one looks up an individual's data in the building register; they look at the data of the building," he said, adding that a compromise could involve submitting fewer materials to the register that may contain personal information, while technically important documents — drawings, explanatory notes and information on technical systems — remain accessible.

In his view, local governments have also gone too far in the amount of data they require.

"Because there is a certain conflict here in which the private sector at times tends to attack officials and officials therefore feel they must protect themselves from every angle and demand as much as possible from the private sector, too much has been required and, in fact, those requirements should be reduced," Allekand said.

The Ministry of Climate hopes to present proposals and solutions during March that would ensure the protection of personal data while at the same time restoring functional access to the building register's data.

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