Interested in forming a committee

mel123

I am interested in starting up a residents committee in my estate. Its fairly new and at present there is a residents committee which was formed at the Management Meeting and is run in conjunction with them. There are about 6-8 members in this. Firstly I feel that in an estate of id say 400+ apartments and houses this is not a fair representation of views, hence, me thinking that a residents committee should be formed. Is this normal for estates to have a residents association formed via the management AND another one ie I don’t particularly want the management getting their foot in this one!!

I know there are a lot of threads on this, and I will go through them to try and get some info before I decide what to do, but if anyone has any comments at all on weather this type of thing is even worth the hassle, any tips or advice I would love to hear it.

The_Conductor

There is absolutely no reason why there should not be a seperate residents committee. Keep in mind though- that the Management Company, of which the owners of the properties are members, may have fundamental differences of opinion as to what should or should not happen in the complex/estate.
In general management companies try to spend as little money as possible to the greatest possible effect. Sounds like a noble aspiration- till you discover this means lawn mown every two weeks, windows not washed, no callouts after 6pm in the evening etc.....

If the company that is managing the estate is not reflecting the wishes of the owners/landlords (rather than the residents) it is entirely at the discretion of the owners/landlords to check the details of the contract that they have with the company and to terminate their contract with the company. At that point they have to decide whether to award the contract to another company (there are several property management companies out there) or whether they are going to try to do it in house (from experience this is a very thankless task).

First of all- you have to decide what exactly you intend with your "residents committee"- is it to be a talking shop- a point of contact with the current management company- or do you intend it to have a more hands on approach in the management of the estate? Further- are the members of this proposed committee owners of the properties- or are they tenants (landlords may or may not listen to the committee at all- and the Management Company, depending on its composition, may not take the views of the committee on board).

What you are proposing could possibly be a whole lot of work, with very little appreciation for what you do........I don't have enough information really to comment further.

Remember too that the management company will be fundamentally different as they own the common areas and can tell any other body to take a hike when it comes to decisions concerning the care and control of common areas. It's their property, not any others. You may only be adding another layer. So while noone can prevent another company forming, it really should not concern itself with something over which it has no legal right whatsoever.