Residents Associations

The Green Party tried this a few years ago at their annual conference, everyone was equal and there was no top podium for the leadership. The delegates sat in groups at small tables, talking to each other. People would occasionally move from one table to another, like at a bridge congress. Needless to say, the unstructured meeting achieved nothing so the following year, they went back to the old system.

It sounds like a relatively informal grouping of residents that tried to legitimise themselves with a set of officers and constitution. Probably set up with the best of intentions and as sure as death and taxes there was a disagreement between the handful of active participants as to what the function of the group should be.

unless you are willing to get on board and get actively involved I'd say you may as well be pissing in to the wind looking for any joy.

ive been involved in a fair few volunteer groups with sports clubs and local group and this always happens.

have you made any thoughts about getting involved ?

If the estate has been taken in charge by the council, then grass cutting is their responsibility. A voluntary association of residents who take it upon themselves to cut the grass at more frequent intervals is fine, but it's important to note that it's little more than a few people engaging in a hobby.

If you're taking small amounts of money off small numbers of people for specific purposes, you don't need formal structures in place. If people don't see their money being used properly they can just choose to not pay it. If they think it's being misappropriated, they can call the Gardai.

As noted above, talk of constitutions and committees and officers is way over the top unless you've got hundreds of properties, and it's usually done by someone with good intentions but way too much time on their hands and fanciful notions. Some people love committees. Like, would hold a committee meeting weekly to discuss sweeping the road. Once one of these people gets a hold of your association, you're better off abandoning.

I'd agree with all of this.

Except €100 is a LOT to be paying for a few cuts, unless there are only a very few houses involved.

And there was mention of insurance: As I understand, once the estate is taken in charge, you don't need public liability insurance for the common areas.

The whole situation sounds quite muddled.

If the estate is taken in charge then any public liability claims fall on the council.

Yes.

However, if a residents' association organises something like kids sports on the green and they are negligent liability for that may well fall back on the residents' association and it's individual members where it is unincorporated.

Some residents' associations think that they are management companies and may try to arrogate the power of that entity to themselves.

The question of OP's membership is a little unclear to me. I take it that he has not paid a formal membership subscription as distinct from the payment of €100 for grass cutting. In that case he is probably not a member but the issue remains a bit unclear.

OP can wait for the relevant subscription period to lapse and thus leave by default. I am minded of a High Court case tried by Morris J where he held that a "member" of a club [unincorporated association] was not actually a member because he had allowed his membership subscription to lapse after it's due date even though the member was active in the club !

Personally, I would be inclined to take the initiative by writing to the residents' association to confirm to them that I am not a member.

IMHO I would want to detach myself from the RA involved here as it all sounds decidedly dodgy.

What is done varies hugely by council.

In Kildare, a taken in charge estate will get one or two grass cuts a year (if none are being done otherwise) and a grant that works out as between €2-3 per house towards costs. They expect you to have PL insurance which the grand barely covers.