Residents' Association

resassoc

I am heavily involved in one Residents' Association (www.tramyard.com) and have found that the problem of apartments isn't as simple as it sounds. Basically it is a four fold problem.

Builders:
Builders want to sell properties and one of the ploys they use is setting the initial management fee low. This is attractive to purchasers but sets a complex on the road to hell as the fees won't be enough to cover expenses.

Property Management Agents:
Some property managers just dont care ... lets face it. They don't care if they don't collect management fees, don't care how they spend the money, don't care about planning for the future.

The management company:
ie the people who are the common area owners (often the builders but often not). They are directors but do not discharge their duties correctly.

The owners:
Its a really silly way to protest over work not getting done by not paying fees. This is like a drowning person protesting the fact that no one is helping them by crossing their arms ... they just drown quicker! Fees must be paid ... if you want to sell the property, no buyer will take it without having them paid. By paying and forming an active residents association you at least can take charge.

Solutions???
Take matters into your own hands and stand up and be counted. Get an effective residents association and get visible. I designed and run www.tramyard.com which has pulled all the residents together. I am in the process of setting up www.resassoc.com ... which is intended to be a Residents' Association Network so that we can speak with one voice and share information. Anyone interested? Need help putting a site together or want to share information? Drop me a line at resassoc@tramyard.com.

www.resassoc.com

Victor

Any comments?

lomb

Victor wrote:

Any comments?

a leasehold property is a con in my opinion, no one will ever own an apartment they mearly have an 'interest' in it, even if that is a 999 year interest.
the shocking thing is many properties like new terraced houses are being built in private estates and are infact leasehold(hence the council doesnt take responsibility for the car park and the 'tenents' pay public liability insurance thru a service company while getting screwed for gardeners fees, cleaners, rubbish, gate repairs, its basically a crock with no cap on how high the fee can go or how low the property can deterorate. i dont think most young people have a clue about property and the different types of interest u can have in it. in my opinion a poorer old freehold property is a better buy at the same money than a newer leasehold property.

freeholds in ireland are worth their weight in gold.

resassoc

Management companies (and I dont mean management agents) do have one benefit and that is control. It allows residents a say on they want there area run. It puts the control in your hands or perhaps more accurately your wallet. It means that if a common green area needs to be mowed then it will be mowed and you dont have to hope that the council will do it. It means that public area lights will be fixed, graffiti removed, and entrance pillars and signage maintained.

It also means that residents can't get out of control and start putting up satelite dished all round the place in an apparent attempt to "phone home" ET style. It also means that you have some recourse against anti-social neighbours.

Leasehold interests weren't designed to be difficult but to fix real problems!

www.resassoc.com

democrates

Resassoc, you might want to check out mobhaile (my town) if you haven't already.

Looks like the lgcsb plan to cater to all community groups in one national portal, with mapping, email, sms and so on.

Could save you a lot of work if it's duplicating your effort, I've backed off a similar plan since I saw that.

lostexpectation

there is antoher residents association network out there already... took me ages to find it last time, so good luck

democrates

I wonder is that ACRA you're referring to lostexpectation?
It is a voluntary umbrella organisation to which many residents associations are affiliated, they've been campaigning on a wide range of issues from ground rent to bin charges since mid 1955, and have much experience of lobbying local and national governmental bodies. There'll be wise heads in it that know what will fly vs what will blow up in your face, who to talk to and how to go about creating the conditions for change.

Many people call it the Association of Combined Residents Associations, which looks odd on closer inspection, the official (preferred) name is Aontact cummann Riarta Aitreabtoiri, which I won't even try to remember. Combined, thing.

They had a site at http://www.iol.ie/~acra for a while in 2003, but they're nowhere to be seen on google now, or the phone book for that matter. Probably because they got a deluge of mail about bin charges from a nasty codger with a mad beard who's bin was particularly laden. I do apologise for that. Bad taste. No call for it.

Their email address was acra@iol.ie, it may still be working resassoc...
PS tramyard is a damn nice site, fair play.
PPS did you have a peruse at mobhaile and if so what do you think of it?

resassoc

Thanks for the feedback. I'm still toying with the idea of launching www.resassoc.com properly. The aim is perhaps not just quite yet to represent or be a voice for associations but to help associations to actually set up and how to run.

I am a firm believer of the idea that if you are going to do something do it professionally ... hence my time and devotion to the Tramyard. I also believe in promoting a good thing and setting it up right ... eg... buy a webdomain... make the site look good ... and make it work even better. Registered users on Tramyard can access far more areas such as accounts, newsletters, information guides, etc when they login.

Also, I am a big believer that we should pay our way. I grew up in the countryside where we pay for water and were delighted when the binmen would finally come to the house to take away the rubbish ... no matter what the price.

Is anyone out there involved in a residents association? Would you like some assistance in setting up a website, having graphics designed, talking with other associations? If so ... let me know... the more replies the quicker www.resassoc goes live!

mobhaile is a great idea but how many resident association have a website? lets start with a good foundation!

webmaster@tramyard.com

Newshound

resassoc wrote:

Is anyone out there involved in a residents association? Would you like some assistance in setting up a website, having graphics designed, talking with other associations? If so ... let me know... the more replies the quicker www.resassoc goes live!

mobhaile is a great idea but how many resident association have a website? lets start with a good foundation!

webmaster@tramyard.com

Great idea. There are too many management companies getting away with charging people for doing nothing at all.

At least if there is a website for each assoc then people who live in the place can easily add their feedback and read what is going on. Not everyone can be at res assc meetings all the time and some are just too lazy to go.

RainyDay

resassoc wrote:

Solutions???
Take matters into your own hands and stand up and be counted. Get an effective residents association and get visible. I designed and run www.tramyard.com which has pulled all the residents together. I am in the process of setting up www.resassoc.com ... which is intended to be a Residents' Association Network so that we can speak with one voice and share information. Anyone interested? Need help putting a site together or want to share information? Drop me a line at resassoc@tramyard.com.

Congrats on getting up off your backside & getting something done. The Tramyard site looks great & should be very effective in building an online community.

Can I clarify one point - Are tenants entitled to become members of your association, or is it limited to owners?

Eoin

Hi,

This looks like a great idea, would like to see the site up and running.

We are looking into this in our estate (See Charlesland / Greystones forum in my profile), so would be very interested in any pointers etc

thanks,

Eoin

Spocker

Hi resassoc,

Just want to give this thread a bump, good to see someone being pro-active out there. I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and will be setting up my own site shortly, for a residents association in Kilkenny. I've requested a logo over in the Design forum (and used both of your sites as references, hope you don't mind ), but would be grateful for any advice/assistance you can give offer, particularly on the site content: what we should include and what not to include.

I also am looking for suggestions on the sticky issue of getting people to cough up; there's no management company in place (and there won't be) so, of course most people have no roblem in handing over a few quid when you say its for cutting the grasss, painting the fences etc etc; how do you approach/handle the ones who refuse/couldn't be arsed..?

Diaspora

Spocker

What would really help me is if you could put up the ground rules that define what is a bona fide residents association which invites all residents to join a legitimate residents association. There have been many cases throughout the years of a small number of residents forming residents associations to pursue vendettas and agendas.

Is there a set of guidelines produced by a national umbrella body on this?

Re: Management companies running schemes in apartment complexes there is very clear legislation in the UK.

http://www.jrf.org.uk/KNOWLEDGE/FINDINGS/housing/H124.asp

Spocker

There is a website for what seems to be an umbrella body called ACRA; however the situation is a lot fuzzier when dealing with Residents Assocations as opposed to Management Companies (hint: its in the titles)

No-one can force anyone else to join an association; when you purchase an apartment type property it's generally in the contract that you must become a member/partner/shareholder in the management company - a legally binding agreement (I'm open to correction on this).

Unfortuantely a legitimate residents association requires time, effort, money and paperwork; something a lot of people arn't willing to give. Generally residents associations fall into the voulantary category, with the goodwill of the many (hopefully) making up for those who couldn't be arsed.

eointierney

I'm an Independent Candidate in Dublin South East.

Many of the Council Housing Estates lack effective Resident's Associations and many residents with whom I've spoken are keen to set them up.

ACRA and resassoc are great, but we need more effective ways of coordinating decisions between Resident's Associations as there are many common issues that cannot be usefully addressed by separate handfuls of people.

Over the next few months a number of RA's will be set up in DSE, websites, structure and funding will be provided, training in meeting management and effective lobbying will be provided, and attention will be focussed on basic amenities and local resources.

Your experience and criticism will be invaluable.

I would favour use of existing resources as that is most efficient, and would even go so far as to suggest a unification of ACRA and resassoc. Perhaps a new thread might be started in this forum?

Best wishes,

Eoin Tierney