# Teabenõue: asking an Estonian authority for a document

This file is written for a model, and the explanation is English. **The letter
template further down is Estonian and is sent as it stands** — Estonian is the
language the authority answers in. Do not translate it, in either direction,
even when the question was asked in English. Explain what it says to the person
in their own language instead.

- For a person to read, in Estonian: https://kodanikukratt.ee/letters
- The retrieval recipe, including how to find which body holds the document:
  https://kodanikukratt.ee/sources/information-requests.md
- These deadlines as JSON: https://kodanikukratt.ee/letters/deadlines.json
- Official addresses for Estonia's public bodies: https://kodanikukratt.ee/authorities.json

Sources: Avaliku teabe seadus (AvTS), redaction 106032026003, and Märgukirjale ja selgitustaotlusele vastamise ning kollektiivse pöördumise esitamise seadus (MSVS), redaction 118122024006, both read on 2026-07-26.

## What a teabenõue is

A request to a holder of public information for information it already holds.
The letter is made under AvTS — that is what the template's first line says —
and the act puts the authority on a clock: 5 working days (AvTS § 18 (1)).
It is the channel for public data that no API and no register will hand over.

Use it only after the open sources have failed. AvTS § 22 lets an authority
answer a request by pointing at data it has already published, so a letter
asking for something that could have been fetched spends 5 working days of the
citizen's time, and an official's, on nothing.

## Pick the channel first — the deadlines differ

| The citizen wants | Channel | kind | Answer due |
|---|---|---|---|
| The authority already holds the document or the data, and the citizen wants a copy of it. | **Teabenõue** | `information_request` | 5 working days (AvTS § 18 (1)) |
| The citizen wants an explanation, or an answer the authority has to gather, systematise or analyse data to produce. | **Selgitustaotlus** | `clarification_request` | 15 calendar days (MSVS § 6) |
| The citizen wants to propose something, or to pass on information about public life. | **Märgukiri** | `memorandum` | 15 calendar days (MSVS § 6) |
| The citizen is contesting a decision or a refusal. | **Vaie** | `challenge` | not verified here — it follows the act governing the procedure |

The line between the first two is drawn by law, not by preference: AvTS § 23
(2) 5) says a request that can only be answered by systematising and analysing
data into *new* information is a selgitustaotlus. Ask for documents that already
exist and the answer is due in 5 working days instead of 15 calendar days.

## The deadline, and how to count it

- Registered on the day of receipt, at the latest on the next working day (AvTS § 16 (1)).
- The count starts on the working day following registration (AvTS § 18 (3)).
- The answer is due 5 working days later (AvTS § 18 (1)).
- The authority may extend it to at most 15 working days (AvTS § 19).
  A ceiling, not an addition: it is counted from the same day as the ordinary deadline. The authority has to notify the requester of the extension and give a reason.
- Pühade ja tähtpäevade seadus § 1–§ 2 lists the days off. Working-day counts skip those and
  weekends; the riiklikud tähtpäevad in § 3 are ordinary working days.
- Count the worst case: assume registration slips to the last day the law
  allows. That is the date the citizen can actually hold the authority to.

Worked example, computed with the code behind the calculator on the page above.
A teabenõue sent on 2026-01-05 is registered by 2026-01-06
at the latest, so the answer is due by 2026-01-13, and by 2026-01-27 if the authority extends.
Count the citizen's own dates the same way — never reuse these.

## What the letter must contain (AvTS § 14 (1))

1. the requester's first and last name;
2. the name of the institution or legal person, if the request is made on its behalf;
3. contact details the answer can be sent to;
4. **the content of the requested information**, or the type, name and content
   of the document, or identifiers the requester knows;
5. the requested manner of fulfilment — here: electronically, to the sender's
   email address.

Point 4 is the one that decides whether the request works. "Info about the
procurement" invites a refusal under § 23 (1) 3); name the document type, the
time range and the case if you know it.

If the request covers personal data the authority verifies identity, and a
request about a third party's data has to state the legal basis and the purpose
it will be used for (§ 14 (2)) — say it in the letter, or the request stalls.

## The letter (Estonian, sent as it stands)

```text
Teabenõue

Lugupeetud [asutuse nimi]

Palun väljastada mulle avaliku teabe seaduse alusel järgmine teave:
– [dokumendi liik, nimetus ja sisu või teabe täpne sisu, ajavahemik]

Palun edastada teave elektrooniliselt sellele e-posti aadressile.

Lugupidamisega
[Sinu ees- ja perekonnanimi]
[Sinu e-posti aadress]
```

Fill in only what the person has told you in this conversation. Everything left
in square brackets is theirs to complete, and that is deliberate: never invent
somebody's name, email address or document reference.

## Where to send it

- The address comes from https://kodanikukratt.ee/authorities.json:
  official email, phone, website and public document register for each body.
- **Never assemble an address from the authority's domain.** The pattern is not
  guessable: the register has `vminfo@vm.ee` for Välisministeerium and
  `lvpost@tallinnlv.ee` for Tallinna Linnavalitsus. An attempt at the first
  produced four different `@mfa.ee` addresses, all wrong, on a domain the
  ministry does not use.
- If the body is not in that file, say the person has to find the address on the
  authority's own contact page. Do not search for one either — the search result
  will not contain it, and an address you produce is a guess that looks right to
  somebody who will paste it.
- You cannot send the letter and neither can this project: the only outbound
  path is the person's own mail client. Hand them the text and say so.

## When it goes wrong

- **Wrong authority?** AvTS § 21 obliges a holder that does not hold the
  information to forward the request to the right one within 5 working days and
  to tell the sender. A wrong address is a delay, not a dead end.
- **They may refuse.** AvTS § 23 lists the grounds on which an authority must or
  may refuse, and an access restriction may well be justified. Do not tell a
  citizen the authority "has no right to refuse" — say what the request obliges
  them to do: answer, or refuse in writing with a reason.
- **A refusal is contested** with a vaie to Andmekaitse Inspektsioon or a
  complaint to an administrative court (AvTS § 46).
- **Cost:** paper copies cost up to €0.19 per page from page 21 onward;
  everything else is free (AvTS § 25).
- For a selgitustaotlus or a märgukiri, this project has not verified
  what follows a missed deadline. State the deadline and say nothing about the
  consequence.

This is information, not legal advice, and it is only as current as the
redactions named at the top.