Everything You Need to Know About Apartment Owners Association

23-Feb-2022

When an apartment eventually gets occupied by families, a handful of questions usually abound in the new community.

Generally, these are issues related to flat maintenance, troubles with handover involving the builder, electricity, water, common areas within the property, and more. To help establish a common ground of rules that residents of the apartment are supposed to abide by, an Apartment Owners Association is formed. In essence, an apartment owners association caters to a handful of benefits:

• It helps improve the quality of life for the residents in the new community
• It helps set forth an effective body in place to address recurring issues faced
• Stands responsible to maintain and oversee the amenities and facilities within the apartment
• Conducts timely events like meetings and awareness programs to ensure safety and enforcement of resident rights.

In other words, an apartment owners association is more like a governing body. Although such bodies are controlled internally, in many cases, residents can get their association legalized which gives them the authority to sue, defend, or take other legal routes whenever the need arises.

In this post, we take a closer dig at what all is expected from an Apartments Owners Association, its formation, member rights, and everything else in between.

Read on!

The Membership - Duties and Rights

All resident owners within a complex are readily members of the Apartment Owners Association. However, in case it's joint ownership, the first holder is usually counted among the members of the association. That being said, anyone who is not the rightful owner of a flat within the complex can never be a member of the Apartment Owners Association.

Further, the members of every Apartment Owners Association are entitled to the following rights and will have to abide by certain duties. These include :

• Attending the general meetings held monthly or quarterly, depending on the need and convenience of the residents.
• Every single member of the association has the right to cast their vote for electing principal positions like the President, Treasurer, and Secretary.
• Also, all members have the right to inspect records, book of accounts by giving prior notice to the Management Committee.

What to expect from the Governing Body of an Apartment Owners Association

The governing body of an Apartment Owners Association is primarily responsible to maintain peace, harmony and ensure the safety and protection of all residents.

Besides, they are also expected to do the following:

• Delegate certain responsibilities to members as a part of administrative tasks of the building
• Represent members of the association on matters related to the protection of one’s rights and interests
• Conduct and oversee all religious and cultural celebrations
• Maintain bank accounts in the name of the association where the President, Secretary, and Treasurer shall act as signatories
• Ensure that all payments made towards the association are used in welfare activities and maintenance work of the building
• Keep all vital documents establishing the identity of the Association and its members in safe custody

The principal members of the Association and their duties

Broadly speaking, an Apartment Owners Association has three primary members, namely the President, the Secretary, and the Treasurer.

The President is generally responsible to oversee the state of affairs within the complex and usually voices the opinions of members and single-handedly can take decisions pertaining to the general well-being of the building.

The Secretary comes right after and acts as the responsible head for general administration activities. He is more like second in command and can act as the authority figure in absence of the President.

Lastly, we have the Treasurer who is generally empowered to handle and operate the bank accounts in the name of the Association along with the President and the Secretary. He is also responsible for maintaining a tally of all payments made by the resident members.

Dealing with disputes

There may be times when your apartment or its resident members can run into some disputes. If things are so, as a responsible resident and member of the owners association, you should inform such matters to the President or the Secretary, if their intervention is needed to sort out things.

Also, in case of a non-personal dispute arising between one or two resident members, the Association head invariably has to intervene and solve it amicably.

In other scenarios like non-payment of maintenance fees or anyone found guilty of carrying out illegal activities within the premises to threaten the peace and safety of other resident members, the Association is vested with full power to take action or resort to legal help.

In numerous instances, any resident member willingly not paying maintenance fees has been subjected to a penalty which includes added interest. However, it must be noted that although the association enjoys the right to sue the defaulter, it cannot deny any facility on the grounds of non-payment.

Wrap Up

So, you see, it takes a lot for an Apartment Owners Association to be a functional body looking after the wellbeing of all resident members.

Nevertheless, in reality, several apartment owners' associations fail to match the ideal standards. The reasons aren't too obscure to scan and include the likes of incompatibility between the resident members. In extreme scenarios where an existing Association fails to take appropriate actions against any mishap, a resident member has the right to approach the Registrar of Societies, which in turn, enjoys supreme power to cancel the registration of a particular owner’s association.

Thus, it is necessary that you choose your governing body members wisely and all resident members should reside in harmony like one, big, happy family!