Management Company For Multi Uni Development Estate

SurferRosa

Hi,

was hoping to get some advice or insight here how other housing estates are run.
The estate I live in was built during the boom and as the bubble burst the residents were not happy with the management company and elected our own board of directors with an administrator.
Now it looks like the administrator will move on and we will need to employ a new management agent.
This will be more costly for all.
We have a mixture of houses and duplexes. The duplexes are currently not only severly undercharged, many don't pay their fees and therefore the people in the houses are subsidising them.
Refuse collection forms part of their management fees.
I'm not looking for legal advice, but rather just out of interst would love to hear how things are run in other multi unit developments.

1) Are there any where houses and appartments are kept separate.
2) Do people in appartments sort out their own bins?
3) Is a management company employed or is fee collection/administration sorted out among residents?

As a houseowner I would love to cut loose from the duplexes and possibly find a loophole in the lease document. It would bring down my own fees.

If anyone likes in an estate with both houses and appartments it would be much appreciated to hear how it's managed, thanks in advance.

L1011

There are many estates with mixed houses and apartments that have split structures - the estate is taken in to charge and management companies exist for the apartment buildings only. Getting this put in place afterwards will, I suspect, be impossible though.

It would be normal in this situation for the apartments/duplexes to still have shared bins. It would be extremely rare for apartments to have to sort their own bins.

ThisRegard

Lots have them separated . All you need to do is have separate management companies for the apartments and houses and you can either use the same management agent or have each individual company organise their own.

athtrasna

It is 100% dependent on the articles of association of your management company. To change these would require 100% agreement of all members which will never happen as long as one set are paying less than the others.

In my cluster fees are divided by number of bedrooms with a two bed house paying the same as a two bed apartment behind a shared entrance. The apartment gets more services but pays the same. It sucks but that's what happens when you buy without being fully aware of how the budget is apportioned. The cluster above us is the same and anything newer than that has a split dependent on what services are available to that unit.

OP it depends entirely on the legal documents. While it might seem fairer to reapportion services charges, the reality is that it's next to impossible.

ThisRegard wrote: »

Lots have them separated . All you need to do is have separate management companies for the apartments and houses and you can either use the same management agent or have each individual company organise their own.

As L1011 pointed out, it's too late after the original managment company has been incorporated. To do so would incur massive legal fees and again would need 100% approval of all members.

SurferRosa

Thanks for the replies.

Yes I guess we're stuck with them!

Also I wasn't meant to say tha t we would have them take care of their own refuse, meant actually to move their bins out of the bin sheds and put them outside the duplexes as some residents are giving their keys to pals, and there's people coming in the early hours of the morning to dump stuff like matresses and other bulky items.

I'm going to dig up the lease information and see what's written there!

athtrasna

SurferRosa wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Yes I guess we're stuck with them!

Also I wasn't meant to say tha t we would have them take care of their own refuse, meant actually to move their bins out of the bin sheds and put them outside the duplexes as some residents are giving their keys to pals, and there's people coming in the early hours of the morning to dump stuff like matresses and other bulky items.

I'm going to dig up the lease information and see what's written there!

Your lease isn't key it's the articles of association of the management company. If your management agent won't give you a copy download them from the cro website for a few euro.

Go to your next agm and get on the board of directors and push for improvements to service and action against those abusing the facilities. Nobody will look after your investment like you will. I've been a director since the first agm after the developer left. Getting involved means you have a say.

dubrov

athtrasna wrote:

As L1011 pointed out, it's too late after the original managment company has been incorporated. To do so would incur massive legal fees and again would need 100% approval of all members.

I am not so sure. Some things that are specified in the lease like weighting of management fee on the unit would be impossible to change. However, if the houses were being charged for services that they don't use (e.g. lifts) then i think that could be contested.

athtrasna

dubrov wrote: »

I am not so sure. Some things that are specified in the lease like weighting of management fee on the unit would be impossible to change. However, if the houses were being charged for services that they don't use (e.g. lifts) then i think that could be contested.

We got expensive legal advice, each unit pays a percentage of the development budget. Services are not specified in the leases.

Banjoxed

SurferRosa wrote: »

Hi,

was hoping to get some advice or insight here how other housing estates are run.
The estate I live in was built during the boom and as the bubble burst the residents were not happy with the management company and elected our own board of directors with an administrator.
Now it looks like the administrator will move on and we will need to employ a new management agent.
This will be more costly for all.
We have a mixture of houses and duplexes. The duplexes are currently not only severly undercharged, many don't pay their fees and therefore the people in the houses are subsidising them.
Refuse collection forms part of their management fees.
I'm not looking for legal advice, but rather just out of interst would love to hear how things are run in other multi unit developments.

1) Are there any where houses and appartments are kept separate.
2) Do people in appartments sort out their own bins?
3) Is a management company employed or is fee collection/administration sorted out among residents?

As a houseowner I would love to cut loose from the duplexes and possibly find a loophole in the lease document. It would bring down my own fees.

If anyone likes in an estate with both houses and appartments it would be much appreciated to hear how it's managed, thanks in advance.

After a decade of dealing with an effectively builder controlled management company, I would never buy a similar property again. :mad:

L1011

SurferRosa wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Yes I guess we're stuck with them!

Also I wasn't meant to say tha t we would have them take care of their own refuse, meant actually to move their bins out of the bin sheds and put them outside the duplexes as some residents are giving their keys to pals, and there's people coming in the early hours of the morning to dump stuff like matresses and other bulky items.

I'm going to dig up the lease information and see what's written there!

The bin company usually takes the bins out of the sheds. Certain people will always give keys to mates - they don't seem to realise higher costs will get passed on to them either in their fees or via their landlord increasing rent when his costs increase. CCTV and coded fobs is the only way to have any chance of controlling it.

SarahMollie

I live in a development which contains a mixture of apartments, duplexes and houses. We have one management company and there is one rate for the apartment owners and one rate for the house owners. We occasionally get grumbles from the 2 bed apt owners that they have to pay the same as the 3 bed duplex owners, but hey ho, thats just the set up.

The house owners contribute based on use of bins, upkeep of grounds and contribution to sinking fund. Apartment owners pay all the same stuff but also block insurance, and an additional contribution to the sinking fund to cover things like balcony maintenance etc.

Sometimes certain owners need chasing to pay their fees but we're typically up to 100% paid up by year end. One thing we offer is a quarterly direct debit which seems to be popular, takes the sting out of having to pay a lump sum. From chatting to our management agent, I know they move against non payers pretty quickly as a matter of policy. Not so much an issue in our development, but in some others they manage, they've gone down the full legal route to collect costs. They operate on a zero tolerance basis.

SurferRosa

Great thanks for the replies everyone.
I actually am on the board of directors. Yes despite my blatant lack of knowledge
It was more by default as no one else ever shows up to the AGM so I was need to fill a gap
Anyway, thanks for the tips - and yes it seems the sinking fund for the houses was too much and the apartments too little. I just left all that business to the agent we had (she also owns a property on the estate but doesn't live here)
I wouldn't personally chase up on fees etc anyway living here.
Would anyone be able to recommend management agent companies that are both reasonable and get the job done? If it's allowed?

mitresize5

One thing to bear in mind in the long run is those that dont pay the fees will not be able to sell their properties until all unpaid management fees plus interest are settled.

Management fees are now second, behind the revenue, in line for payment on sale.

SarahMollie

Where are you based OP? I'm in Dublin so I'd be happy to recommend our MA's as they've been really good in my experience. I'm also on the Board of Directors, and they've been very helpful in guiding us, as like yourself, we're all just ordinary home owners.

athtrasna

Any recommendations by pm only please as per the forum charter.

Banjoxed

mitresize5 wrote: »

One thing to bear in mind in the long run is those that dont pay the fees will not be able to sell their properties until all unpaid management fees plus interest are settled.

Management fees are now second, behind the revenue, in line for payment on sale.

All the more reason for 'shareholders' to make sure that management companies dont pull figures out of thin air, or anywhere else.

SurferRosa

Yes we have recently gotten money in from houses that have sold that had never paid.
We are also concerned that with a good percantage not paying, that a management company would need to take legal action to recoup and the legal fees will be passed back on to us, making fees more expensive and possibly more people not paying up.
Ideally we'd like to manage in house in the long run if we could somehow get the debt collection sorted!