Setting up a a residents association

godtabh

I'm looking to set up a residents association for my estate/aparment complex.

There is a few of us on board and other than setting a time and place for a first meeting we dont know what else to do or what should be done.

Can any help as to what is needed to set up a residents association. Would it have to be set up like a company?

The idea is that the residents association would be a united front the management company which inst doing what its paid to do.

Any comments welcome.

Victor

You will need to decide if you are just a bunch of neighbours doing the same thing (and have little liability to each other or others) or if you want things more formal.

Potentially, what you need to do first is to find out what the common issues are. Send everyone a postcard and get them to return it to you with their top 5 issues, how they want things set up and so on. Leave space for comments. Make a short list and then go about setting up a meeting. I'm sure the local community centre or pub would let you have a meeting room for a modest fee.

godtabh

Victor wrote:

You will need to decide if you are just a bunch of neighbours doing the same thing (and have little liability to each other or others) or if you want things more formal.

Potentially, what you need to do first is to find out what the common issues are. Send everyone a postcard and get them to return it to you with their top 5 issues, how they want things set up and so on. Leave space for comments. Make a short list and then go about setting up a meeting. I'm sure the local community centre or pub would let you have a meeting room for a modest fee.

what do you mean by "liability to each other or others"?

At this stage it seems to be a crusade against the management company but I'm sure there are other issues which hopefully this will come to the fore if this goes ahead?

mikemac

Victor wrote:

I'm sure the local community centre or pub would let you have a meeting room for a modest fee.

Not sure about the community centre but I know that a lot of pubs will give you a meeting room for free if you can guarantee a good number of people (say 50 plus) as most atendees will buy tea/soft drinks/beer or something else. Sure the pub often throws in sandwiches and cocktail sausages.

Getting off topic but bargain hard with the venue of your meeting OP

godtabh

The plan would be to have it in the local pub or in the sports centre across the road if they have rooms. Have to check it out

markpb

kearnsr wrote:

The idea is that the residents association would be a united front the management company which inst doing what its paid to do.

I'm going to ignore your other question because this seems more important (treat the problem, not the symptom and all that).

Assuming you live in a managed estate, the simplest and more reliable way of getting the most from your management company is to contact the directors. Sometimes you'll find there are good reasons why the work isn't being done (in mine it's because of a number of people who won't pay their maintenance).

If you're not having any luck, go to the AGM and get elected onto the board of directors yourself. If you're on the board and are having problems with the management agent, you're now in a position to terminate their contract.

If you're in the unfortunate position where the developers control the management company and won't hold elections at the AGM, you should make contact with them, set down a list of questions & complaints and ring / email them, regularly if necessary. If they're still selling units in the estate, threaten to let prospective buyers know about the problems.

Best of luck!

Victor

kearnsr wrote:

what do you mean by "liability to each other or others"?

If someone goes to expense or starts suing people.

godtabh

The reason we want to set it up is because there are is no other forum for people to voice their concerns.

As I said we are looking for a united front to meet on a regular basis so we can bring our concerns to the management company.

If things were to be more formal what would you need to do (I dont want people suing each other!)

jd

kearnsr wrote:

As I said we are looking for a united front to meet on a regular basis so we can bring our concerns to the management company.

Do you mean the management company or the agents? If you are an owner have you being going to the AGM etc of the management company?

godtabh

jd wrote:

Do you mean the management company or the agents? If you are an owner have you being going to the AGM etc of the management company?

Both really.

I have been trying to get in touch with the management company and the agents and haven't go through to them

An AGM isnt much use for day to day issues and thats why the residents assoication would be formed to meet on a monthly basis (or what ever).

The residents association also allows renters to have an opinion.