To all you ''Residentent Association'' Types !

leggo · 29-05-2012 01:28AM

I get the OP's problem, to be fair. A lot of the resident association types, I find, are the type who have too much time on their hands and use it to try and tell other's how to run their lives, or using it as an effort to force people to be their friends etc.

There was one who'd constantly hassle us in a local supermarket I worked in about things she was doing with the association. We didn't give a ****, but customer service meant that we couldn't say that to her. I remember her harassing me about a notice for a local meeting, demanding it be put at a key point of one cash desk (that would've had our merchandisers, who actually contributed financially to the store, hit the roof). I told her she could put it on the notice board like everyone else. She hassled my boss, and his boss, and our head office until she got her way. I took it down a day later. She also shook down a manager for €50 one time after 'forgetting her purse'. Terrible woman.

It's one of those things that, if used correctly, can be a great tool. Unfortunately the nature of it seems to attract bored housewives and/or absolute dickheads looking to make themselves feel important with so little else going on for them. I'm not referring to everyone involved in them, by the by, I'm sure there are plenty who do good work. They're just either a quiet majority or (more likely) a very small minority.

The King of Moo · 29-05-2012 01:32AM

Residentent, thanks for the rent.

KKkitty · 29-05-2012 01:38AM

Typical cronies in my area are businessmen, older women whose kids have all grown up and the people who seem to come out of the woodwork when it suits them. I just let them on with it. I'll look after my own patch but I'm not going to be a hypocrite at the same time. I did suggest an idea to get the small kids of the area involved somehow but I know it won't be implemented.

Son Of A Vidic · 29-05-2012 01:46AM

Ah OP - I know not your pain, because with my acreage, the nearest neighbour isn't visible to the naked eye.

four18 · 29-05-2012 01:47AM

The King of Moo wrote: »

Residentent, thanks for the rent.

See OP !

four18 · 29-05-2012 01:50AM

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Ah OP - I know not your pain, because with my acreage, the nearest neighbour isn't visible to the naked eye.

You Jammy etc ! Oh They also do census work so you, In the back of yonder, They will get You !!

The King of Moo · 29-05-2012 01:52AM

four18 wrote: »

See OP !

I read it, but my song wouldn't work if I changed it, sorry.

Cookie_Monster · 29-05-2012 04:59AM

stovelid wrote: »

When we had a committee, we always invited people that had concerns like yours to come along and get involved and help out. Sadly, I think they all took sick or died because they tended to disappear off the face of the earth shortly afterwards

residents committees seem to have that effect on people, I can't imagine why:pac:

Jester252 · 29-05-2012 07:50AM

People in any position abuse it a bit
and People like to bitch about people in positions higher then them

Fulton Crown · 29-05-2012 09:42AM

Resident Assoc man he com to my door to ax fer de money !

I say" hello Mr Resident Assoc man what yo want dis money for ?"

"To clean up the communal areas" he reply politely.

"What % of de residents contribute" ? I says

" Not sure orf de top o my head ..but say about 15%" he guess.

"So the 15% is payin to clear up de comms areas an 75% is payin fuck all ?
I rejoind.

"Would seem so" he said

I shake him by the hand and say"Well you can now fuck off outta here pal...nothin personal !"

OldNotWIse · 29-05-2012 09:43AM

Humbug

OldNotWIse · 29-05-2012 09:50AM

Cant believe the "bored housewives" types still exist but clearly they do! I imagine them out painting the little wooden borders on their flowerbeds and baking wholewheat muffins for the neighbours so that they can drop around and have a snoop and look down at you for not having your letterbox painted and having scruffy kids lol

I am lucky to live in an area where there's about quarter of a mile between each house (more or less) so people stay out of your way but having said that, the neighbours are great. They are not in your face but when you need anything you know you can rely on them 100%

Formosa · 29-05-2012 10:23AM

Fulton Crown wrote: »

Resident Assoc man he com to my door to ax fer de money !

I say" hello Mr Resident Assoc man what yo want dis money for ?"

"To clean up the communal areas" he reply politely.

"What % of de residents contribute" ? I says

" Not sure orf de top o my head ..but say about 15%" he guess.

"So the 15% is payin to clear up de comms areas an 75% is payin fuck all ?
I rejoind.

"Would seem so" he said

I shake him by the hand and say"Well you can now fuck off outta here pal...nothin personal !"

And the other 10?

Jester252 · 29-05-2012 10:36AM

Formosa wrote: »

And the other 10?

They are paying for something else?

Sleepy · 29-05-2012 10:37AM

I think it's an awful shame people think this way tbh.

I was raised in a number of different estates and the Residents Associations were quite good when I was a kid: there'd be a clean-up day of the estate once or twice a year where all the kids would help pick up the litter whilst the adults did some landscaping on the common areas etc.; an annual children's party where they'd rent out a bouncy castle, fill us with coke and sweets and let us run riot and an annual barbeque for adults to get locked and get to know their neighbours.

It led to a sense of community, of knowing who your kids were playing with on the road and friendships between a lot of the neighbours.

Now, I always lived in small estates of 20 - 30 houses where it was probably easier to organise this kind of thing than in the monstrous "developments" that sprung up during the 90's so maybe that made a difference. We live in a similar size estate now ourselves and, tbh, if we weren't renting, I think I'd be having a go at setting up a similar residents association to the ones my mother would have been involved with when I was a child.

I think the sense of community in the area you grew up in is a sadly missed part of Irish life from the 80's and, looking at the Diarmuid Gavin Tidy Towns thing on RTE lately, was hoping that maybe the one good thing to come out of this recession might be the resurrection of such community groups.

Fulton Crown · 29-05-2012 10:56AM

Formosa wrote: »

And the other 10?

Heh heh ! Clean headshot Buddy ! 85% !

mikemac1 · 29-05-2012 11:07AM

Sleepy wrote: »

an annual children's party where they'd rent out a bouncy castle, fill us with coke and sweets and let us run riot

Couldn't do that anymore

A child hurts themselves and parents would sue you

Coriolanus · 29-05-2012 11:15AM

mikemac1 wrote: »

Sleepy wrote: »

an annual children's party where they'd rent out a bouncy castle, fill us with coke and sweets and let us run riot

Couldn't do that anymore

A child hurts themselves and parents would sue you

I was reading about the jubilee celebrations. The last one 80s probably had bouncy castles and a tig of war. Can't now for lack of insurance. If the fsckin queen can't swing it what hope for some estate in lucan

flutterflye · 29-05-2012 11:41AM

The amount of shyte they go on with really pi$$es me off too.
Letters about unsightly grass verges, and how cars shouldn't be parked in this place and that place, and trying to convince everyone to go out and tidy up this saturday at this particular time.
Fuck off!!!
I sleep at that time on a saturday!!!

Cookie_Monster · 29-05-2012 11:56AM

Fulton Crown wrote: »

Resident Assoc man he com to my door to ax fer de money !

I say" hello Mr Resident Assoc man what yo want dis money for ?"

"To clean up the communal areas" he reply politely.

"Don't the council do that anyway?" says I

"yes" he says "but they won't replace the perfectly good street sign with a giant rock with the name carved in it with a little flower bed around it for us."

four18 · 29-05-2012 12:00PM

Yeah in the 80s, you could have a bit of craic with BBQs etc but everything has gone so PC now. Throw insurance issues and the pain in the arse from no 14 and its just not worth the hassle anymore.
Residents Associations should just die a natural death like klackers and Aztec bars !

Conall Cernach · 29-05-2012 12:09PM

I hate resident association types too. I only ever went to one meeting of our local one as the people at the top table automatically dismissed everyone elses ideas. For instance they were mad to put in speed bumps because they maintained there were a load of boy racers driving in and out of the estate. This estate has no through road it is a big cul de sac so anyone driving in would be a resident or visiting a resident. There was a fair split at the meeting about putting in these bumps with the chairman and the secretary in favour. So it was agreed that a survey would be carried out as to whether or not work should proceed. Less then a week later I arrive home from work to see a bunch of workmen putting down speed bumps outside my house and not a word of a survey.

So in short Resident Associations are run in the main by a shower of little Hitlers who want to tell everyone else how to keep their property.

Sleepy · 29-05-2012 12:22PM

mikemac1 wrote: »

Couldn't do that anymore

A child hurts themselves and parents would sue you

Any reputable bouncy castle hire place would have public liability insurance.

It's depressing that people have become so self centred they're irate at the mere thought of getting out of bed before midday on the weekend to join their neighbours in making the living space they share with them look well.

leggo · 29-05-2012 12:40PM

I remember one time I tried to get my family to help me petition for a stop sign at a high traffic intersection in the estate. It was mad, they were supposed to go door-to-door looking for enough signatures to take the issue to the Resident's Association, but they were so caught up in their own minor issues they forgot to do it.

So I showed up at the Resident's Association and they quickly wrote my issue off, more concerned with the chairman's birthday cake than anything else. However, my family ended up showing up at the last minute with the right amount of signatures and they were forced to discuss it. Despite that, they still refused to put in my stop sign! Very frustrating!

You know what I did? I ran for election for town council. There was even a debate with me and the head of the Resident's Association that was televised for community TV. But it went horribly, my partner ended up getting questioned extensively about our bedroom activities (there was one time on Valentine's Day were they ended up trying to surprise me with a hotel room and ended up naked in a senior citizen's room after getting the wrong key, which made them look like a sex pest). The video of the debate went viral. Someone even auto-tuned it into a song. Very embarrassing.

Despite that, I dusted myself off and election day came. It was tough and embarrassing: I lost a tooth during the day and sounded completely drunk during a local radio interview, not to mention my brother and his partner making fools of themselves while in a car with a loudspeaker trying to win me votes. So I wasn't that surprised that I lost.

On the bright side though, I found out that my daughter (who's really pretty but really dumb) was on a waiting list for college that day. And, later on, the head of the resident's association put a stop sign where I had originally wanted one. Now getting people to actually pay attention to it, that's the next challenge. We need speed bumps. To be continued...

_HULK_SMASH! · 29-05-2012 01:53PM

hmmmmm...sounds familiar.....now where..hmmmmm...

Sleepy · 29-05-2012 02:59PM

South Park?

Squ · 29-05-2012 03:12PM

I say residents committee, they say vigilante mob.. Go figure.

RichieC · 29-05-2012 03:18PM

You think that's bad? In America the HOA's have had peoples houses Taken off them for not paying their dues.

OneArt · 29-05-2012 03:27PM

When I lived at home we had a very nosy resident's association. My mam would end up peeking out the window and then telling us not to answer the door sometimes because she didn't want to be forced into cutting the green or painting the communal pineapples or whatever the fcuk.

I've lived in apartments since I moved out and there's always been peace. I never see any of my neighbours, its absolute bliss. I don't think I'll live in a real house again if I can avoid it!

Sleepy · 29-05-2012 03:38PM

RichieC wrote: »

You think that's bad? In America the HOA's have had peoples houses Taken off them for not paying their dues.

Part of a management company set up or a condition of the lease on the property etc?

Can imagine some management companies in Ireland doing similar tbh since they're effectively just more expensive version of residents associations anyway...

To all you ''Residentent Association'' Types !

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