Requirements to set up a Resident's Association

DrPhilG

Hi folks

I live in a rural area in Donegal. There are a variety of issues facing the locals, lack of infrastructure, lack of grit bins in winter, the usual general stuff that you moan at the council about. We've been advised by a few councillors etc that we should form a Resident's Association in order to qualify for grants and assistance towards some things, and also just to have a more coordinated voice, ie it's better to have a letter to the council from a RA than just from random whinger #1.

The council themselves seem pretty clueless as to requirements so I thought I'd ask here.

• I'm told by the Credit Union that they can open an account for us, provided we have the minutes of a meeting and 2 signatories.

• What membership positions are required? Chairperson, Treasurer, Secretary? Any others, and which of those can be duplicated? I'd suspect that I'll be nominated as both Chair and Secretary. I think from googling that the Chair can't also be the Treasurer so that's grand. Does everyone else attending then need to be confirmed as a member?

• I don't anticipate any financial contribution to be needed. There's no grass to be cut, events to be run etc. We may need to pay for grit bins and then reclaim the costs from the council but we could cross that bridge at the time. Certainly no need for a yearly membership cost etc, or is that normal to have even a nominal payment like a tenner a year just so that there is money in the pot? To pay for a venue for meetings etc I suppose.

• Do we need to have insurance of any variety? Or is that only in the event that the RA would be organising events?

• If there is some cash in the pot, do we need to submit accounts anywhere?

• Do we need a constitution? If so are there templates for such a thing??

• Do the council need to be involved/notified or anything?

Any other suggestions or information would be appreciated.

L1011

Each council usually has a suggested template constitution and list of officers; they would want any association that is looking for grants to meet those requirements. Chair, Secretary and Treasurer and the normal set; with a PRO and assistants to those four making up the numbers if you want a bigger executive.

I don't see a Donegal one, but here's Kildare's

My local council wants you to have PL insurance, but always covers the cost of it in the basic grant we get every year - its ~300 a year for a ~300 unit housing estate and covers the grass cutting fee collection and any social events we have. Grass contractor has their own PL. If you're doing grit bins that is likely enough to bring in the need for PL unfortunately.

You don't need to submit accounts anywhere; my RA gets them checked over by an auditor that lives in the estate and gets him a bottle or two of wine as a gratuity for it.

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122000534#Comment_122000534

Cheers for that.

So the council pay you an annual grant figure just for being in existence basically? Or do you have to claim it based on expected spend?

I need to speak to the local councillor re the grit bins. He told my neighbour that we'd have to buy the bins, then he would allocate funds to be paid into our account afterwards. I'm not sure what the plan is re filling the bins and then spreading it, but yeah presumably the council will supply the grit but we'd have to spread it ourselves, hence the need for insurance.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122000736#Comment_122000736

Claim it based on previous years spend, and the amount has gone from a few hundred to well over a grand and back again, utterly unpredictably.

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122000743#Comment_122000743

Gotcha, thanks.

So we will definitely need to have an annual fee of some sort, to cover the initial costs of the PL insurance.

Sorry to keep up with the endless questions, but when you reclaim the previous year's spend is that for general things like socials, grass etc? I'm just wondering if they'll expect us to wait til next year to claim for the grit bins or if they would be reimbursed right away. They'll be a hefty enough cost I'd imagine.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122000778#Comment_122000778

It isn't a reclaim as such, its a grant towards such costs. Its estate maintenance including the PL; they don't cover the social events (thankfully there's some shops in the estate that are pretty generous so they end up very cheap after their donations of cash or stuff).

But each council is different. There's a chance Donegal won't want PL at all - very unlikely, but not impossible.

DrPhilG

Got a little info from Donegal CoCo. They need the RA to be registered with the Revenue Commissioner, have a tax reference number and tax clearance cert?