Operating a construction business in Estonia: notice of economic activities and qualification

A company that builds, designs, supervises or audits buildings in Estonia must, in eight fields, file a notice of economic activities in the Register of Economic Activities before it starts work²¹². In thirteen fields the company must also work through a competent person whose qualification is proven by a professional or competence certificate⁵⁶. This page sets out what the acts say about both duties.

Information as of 11 November 2026. Every numbered statement of this page was checked in the official text named below and re-checked by a second reviewer on 2026-11-11. The page is general information, not legal advice; the authority decides on every application.

What the activity is

The Building Code (ehitusseadustik, EhS) defines construction as erecting, building, installing, demolishing and any other activity relating to a construction works that creates the works or changes its physical properties¹. Around construction the Code regulates related fields of work: preparing building designs, owner's supervision, construction surveys, expert assessment of building designs, building audits, energy performance certificates and energy audits, road maintenance and traffic management designs, among others²⁵.

Not every construction job brings the notice duty. For construction itself, the duty covers only works that need a building permit, and not a company whose competent person does not direct and organise the work of others³. Design is covered only for works that need a building permit². A building audit firm accredited by an accreditation body under Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 does not file a notice for that field⁴. Which works need a building permit is set in Annex 1 to the Code³⁶.

The legal act and the authority

• Building Code (ehitusseadustik), § 21–25 (duties of undertakings, competent person, qualification and notice)²⁵¹⁴.
• General Part of the Economic Activities Code Act (majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus, MSÜS), which governs the notice, its content and the register¹²²⁶.
• Professions Act (kutseseadus), under which the professional certificates referred to in the Building Code are issued⁶.

The Register of Economic Activities (majandustegevuse register, MTR) is the register where the notice shows; its controller is the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (Tarbijakaitse ja Tehnilise Järelevalve Amet, TTJA)¹⁰. TTJA carries out state supervision over the requirements set for undertakings and competent persons¹¹. In road building, the Transport Administration (Transpordiamet) supervises the requirements for undertakings and competent persons¹¹.

Who must apply

An undertaking must submit a notice of economic activities to the MTR before it starts work in any of these fields²¹²:

1. construction of a works that requires a building permit (except where the competent person's work does not include directing and organising the work of others);
2. design of a works that requires a building permit;
3. owner's supervision;
4. construction surveys;
5. expert assessment of building designs;
6. building audits (except an undertaking accredited for building audit activities);
7. maintenance of public roads;
8. preparation of traffic management designs.

A company being founded acquires the notice duty when it acquires legal capacity¹³.

Five further fields require a proven qualification but are not in the notice list: energy performance certificates, energy audits, building and installing solid-fuel heating appliances, chimneys and flues, chimney sweeping, and road safety audits⁵. A legal person that builds a permit-requiring works for itself, or prepares its design itself, is subject to the same requirements as an undertaking, including a qualification proven by a certificate²⁰.

Requirements for the applicant

Qualification. In the thirteen fields listed in § 24(2) of the Code, an undertaking and its competent person may offer services only if the qualification of the competent person acting for the undertaking is proven by a professional certificate under the Professions Act, based on education and work experience, or by another competence certificate under law⁶. A qualification obtained abroad is assessed under the Recognition of Foreign Professional Qualifications Act by TTJA, by the Transport Administration for road building and road safety audits, or by the Rescue Board for chimney and heating-appliance work⁷. For design, an architect qualified in an EEA state or Switzerland under Directive 2005/36/EC is also a competent person⁸. The detailed sub-fields are set by a regulation of the responsible minister⁹.

The competent person. The competent person independently performs, checks or directs the work, is responsible for it, and gives technical opinions in the undertaking's name¹⁷. The undertaking must ensure that a sufficiently qualified person works under its responsibility and that a competent person responsible for each project or site is appointed¹⁴. A competent person may not act for more than three undertakings at a time¹⁸, and may not take on several undertakings or sites if the workload would not let them perform their duties properly¹⁷.

The undertaking's duties and liability. The undertaking must follow the principle of competence, ensure that its regulated activity is properly documented and hand the documents to the competent authority, and meet the requirements of the MSÜS¹⁴. It is liable for the persons acting for it when it uses them to perform its obligations¹⁵. It may not give misleading information about its competence or do work it is not competent for¹⁶. The authority that issues building permits or supervises construction may prohibit or suspend construction until a sufficiently qualified person directs it, where the lack of competence would create a danger³⁴.

Independence. The person carrying out owner's supervision may not be involved in other business activity relating to the same works or be connected with the persons supervised²². A building auditor must be competent and independent of the owner, user, designer, builder and product suppliers of the audited building²¹. Expert assessment of a design is done by a competent person independent of the design's author³⁵.

Documentation. Construction must always be documented when a building permit is required; the builder documents it²³. Construction documents (as-built drawings, the construction log, covered-works certificates, meeting minutes) are handed over to the building register or another competent authority²³. Failing to keep construction documents, survey data, design-check data or audit documentation for at least seven years, where this substantially hinders assessing the safety of the works, is a misdemeanour; the fine for a legal person is up to 100,000 euros²⁴.

Whether other requirements, such as capital, liability insurance or anti-money-laundering rules, apply is specified for the client's situation.

Documents filed with the application

The notice of economic activities contains²⁶²⁵²⁷:

• Company data: name and registry code, contact details, the field of activity by its statutory name and its classification code, the start date if different from the filing date, and the name and contact details of the signatory with the basis of representation.
• Sub-field: the sub-field of activity under the minister's regulation.
• Competent person: name and personal identification code, contact details, and education data, including the profession and level on the professional certificate, the awarding body, the certificate number, date and validity.

The notice counts as submitted only when the MTR holds the competent person's confirmation of their legal relationship with the undertaking¹⁸. If the notice is not filed through the state portal (Eesti teabevärav, eesti.ee), it is submitted with the competent person's confirmation to TTJA, which enters it in the register²⁸.

After registration, the undertaking must report changes in the general data within five working days²⁹ and confirm with its annual report that it has met its notice duties³⁰. If the competent person withdraws the confirmation and was the only one for that sub-field, the notice duty is considered unmet¹⁹.

State fee and processing time

Whether a state fee applies is specified for the client's situation.

The registrar enters the data of a notice submitted to it in the register no later than the working day after the notice is submitted³². This is the law's time limit for the entry, not a promise: the notice counts as submitted only once the competent person has confirmed it¹⁸.

Breaches have consequences under the acts. The authority may prohibit economic activity in a field for a material breach of the requirements, for one year³³. Knowingly giving false data to the registrar is punishable for a legal person by a fine of up to 3,000 euros³⁸.

What LexorCorp Global OÜ does and how to order

LexorCorp Global OÜ prepares the documents for a notice of economic activities in a construction field and manages the process: the submission to the Register of Economic Activities and the written follow-up of the authority's questions. It gives no legal, tax or audit advice and cannot promise registration, a date or any decision of an authority.

The price is given on request. Request a price for the relevant field in our guide Licensed activities in Estonia, section "Construction".

Sources

1. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 4(1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
2. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 25(1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
3. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 25(1) p 1 — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
4. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 25(1) p 6 — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
5. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 24(2) compared with § 25(1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
6. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 24(1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
7. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 24(3) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
8. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 24(3¹) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
9. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 24(4) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
10. Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (MSÜS) § 8(4) — text in force from 01.09.2025 (valid until 31.12.2026)
11. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 130(3) p 6 and § 130(6) p 1 — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
12. Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (MSÜS) § 14(1) — text in force from 01.09.2025 (valid until 31.12.2026)
13. Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (MSÜS) § 14(4) — text in force from 01.09.2025 (valid until 31.12.2026)
14. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 21(1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
15. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 21(2) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
16. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 22(1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
17. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 23(1),(3) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
18. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 25(3) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
19. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 25(6) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
20. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 19(3) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
21. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 18(3)-(4) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
22. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 20(2) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
23. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 15(1),(3),(4) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
24. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 137 — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
25. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 25(2) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
26. Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (MSÜS) § 15(1) — text in force from 01.09.2025 (valid until 31.12.2026)
27. Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (MSÜS) § 15(2) — text in force from 01.09.2025 (valid until 31.12.2026)
28. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 25(4) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
29. Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (MSÜS) § 30(5) — text in force from 01.09.2025 (valid until 31.12.2026)
30. Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (MSÜS) § 30(6) — text in force from 01.09.2025 (valid until 31.12.2026)
32. Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (MSÜS) § 59(2) — text in force from 01.09.2025 (valid until 31.12.2026)
33. Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (MSÜS) § 36(1),(6) — text in force from 01.09.2025 (valid until 31.12.2026)
34. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 22(4) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
35. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 14(3) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
36. Ehitusseadustik (EhS) § 38(2) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (consolidated text RT I, 11.07.2026, 33)
38. Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (MSÜS) § 75 — text in force from 01.09.2025 (valid until 31.12.2026)

Sources are named in the text, without links. To see which of our services your company needs, open the Business Navigator.