A Tenant’s or Resident’s Association is a group of leaseholders who have been granted leases from the same landlord on similar terms.
To become part of a Resident’s Association, you must be contributing to a service charge which is used for services, repairs, maintenance or insurance. A leaseholder who pays a fixed or non-variable service charge will still be entitled to membership of the Resident’s Association, but will not be entitled to vote. Landlords or Management Companies are not permitted to become members.
Resident’s Associations are usually formed to represent its members to an independent landlord and offers leaseholders a strengthened position in the event of conflicts between residents and landlords.
What do Residents Associations do?
Typically, a Residents Association will get involved in:
- Increasing the sense of belonging to a community.
- Informing residents of their rights under the law and in particular under the Landlord and Tenant related legislation.
- Putting pressure on the landlord to maintain an appropriate standard of decoration and maintenance to the interior and exterior of buildings, and at reasonable costs.
- Establishing a relationship with landlord to facilitate good management and representing the needs and views of residents on management issues and report back to the residents the concerns of the landlord.
- Assisting in resolving disputes between individual residents.
- Organising opposition to undesirable planning applications.
- Preparing to take on responsibilities of management if transferred by the landlord under the Rights of First Refusal or Right to Manage Legislation or following the purchase by the residents of the landlord’s interest collectively.
So how do you set up a Residents Association?
Residents associations should be set up fairly and democratically. The first thing to do is draw up a constitution for how it will operate. There are a number of template constitutions that residents’ associations can use to get started. Here’s where you can get hold of them:
- ARMA has drawn up a template constitution for residents’ associations.
- The Federation of Private Residents Associations (FPRA) also publishes a model constitution in its information pack.
- The Association of Retirement Housing Managers (ARHM) publishes a model constitution suitable for retirement schemes.
What’s next?
To be as effective, a Resident’s Association should be formally recognised.
Recognised Residents’ Association are entitled to:
- Obtain information about service charge accounts.
- Be consulted about the landlord’s choice of appointing managing agents.
- Be notified by the landlord of proposed major works and receive copies of estimates etc.
- Submit details of contractors which the landlord must consider before embarking on major work projects.
- Appoint a surveyor under the Housing Act 1996 for the purposes of a management audit.
There are two ways in which a Residents’ Association can get recognition:
- A written notice is given by the landlord to the secretary of the residents’ association
- A certificate is issued by the local Rent Assessment Committee
The local Rent Assessment Panels are usually willing to issue recognition certificates to any properly constituted association. The certificate from the local Rent Assessment Committee usually lasts for four years, after which, the residents’ association is free to apply for its renewal.
NOTE:
This content is of a general nature only and makes no attempt to state or conform to legal
requirements; compliance with these must be the individual user’s own responsibility and therefore it may be appropriate to seek independent advice.
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