Apartment residents association

[t1grm]

I’ve recently moved into an apartment in a new building. There are 10 flats in my block. I’m one of the first to move in. Obviously now the developers have their money off all the buyers they’re keen to wash their hands of the whole thing . So they are pushing the residents to form a residents association to look after the communal areas. The developers set a deadline for the residents to notify them of our representative so they could hand over all the appropriate documents - to which they got no response. This is mainly because none of the residents have even moved into the building yet and so aren’t getting the letters the developers send them. So now the developers have said if they do not hear from the residents association in two weeks they will cut off the electricity to the communal areas because they’re not going to carry on paying the bill.

Now I don’t have a problem paying my bills but I a) don’t have the time to get involved in a residents association and b) don’t know where to get hold of any of the residents to contact them and sort this out. I’ve not heard from any of the other residents on this.

So who’s responsibility is it to get the ball rolling on this residents association thing? I did consider stuffing a note in everyone’s pigeon hole trying to arrange a meeting and hope they come by now and again to pick up their mail. However if I do that I just know the fact that I instigated the meeting would put me right in the frame for running the residents association – which I don’t want.

I thought of taking on the residents association myself to start with, as a temporary measure, as I’m the first to move in but once you’ve said yes it’s going to be very difficult to get out of it in future.

I should add this is apartment is in Malta. I’ll only be here 30-40 days a year so it’s pointless me running the association. I also know at least three of the apartments are owned by Maltese people (so I assume they’ll be here most of the time) and that at least one of those couples is retired. So I think there are residents better placed than me to get involved in this.

Any ideas how I should approach this? Do any PH’ers run/get involved in a residents association for a block of flats? How much work is involved? Are there any legal liabilities involved (e.g. people slipping and breaking their neck on the stairs suing the association etc.)?

Maltese law is heavily based on UK law (plus they’re EU now) so I can’t imagine it’s that much different here.

[trooperiziz]

Whenever I've bought a new flat, the developers have always handed over management responsibility to a chartered surveyor company. I thought that was the normal thing to do, but maybe not.

If it was the UK I would recommend finding out which surveyors the developers use and see if they have a managament branch, or know of another local company to do the management.
Personally, I've never been tempted to run anything.

[birdbrain]

Surely a management company should be handling this stuff?? I've just bought a new build and it was handed over to a company specifically to manage this stuff. Residents are definitely not expected to do it themselves!

[nicecupoftea]

Our flats have a residents' association - basically the woman at number one is in charge of it. (edited: not all flats employ a company to do it)

As far as I can see, it involves getting a maintenance fee from each flat every month that goes into a sinking fund. Any jobs that need doing / bills that need paying come out of that.

When it comes down to sueing for things (got very angry when Mrs.NCOT twisted her ankle round by the garages because a bulb had blown and there was no drain cover ) there's no point - who pays? The Residents' Association = you! I'm sure some sort of insurance would be in order.

It is a problem, the woman who does ours is useless - I asked her to change the combination on the side door as it has been the same for 30 years and every past resident knows it, she agreed, and I am still waiting 12 months on . However, I wouldn't do it as it is a lot of work. There is always the possibility of delegation, but I think you have a cast iron excuse for not running it ie, you don't live there most of the time. I say call a meeting and explain what you need to do ie find somebody to be in charge. Maybe CAB can help you with the usual procedure for setting it all up? I have no idea how you would go about it personally...

>> Edited by nicecupoftea on Thursday 10th February 17:53

[birdbrain]

One of my friends used to manage a residents association and he said it was a major headache. The residents complained about parking and when he tried to do something about it, he just got a load of abuse from... guess who? Yes, the residents.