Guidelines to make an apartment association workable

Having an apartment owners association in every apartment is a vital part of a community living. An apartment owner’s association is formed in order to maintain facilities or amenities available in the apartment by the owners of the apartment as well as the members of the association. This association works for the welfare of the residents in an apartment and conducts events or awareness programs as well as protects the rights of the apartment owners. They can be registered or unregistered. It is always better to have a registered apartment owners association as they can sue or defend any legal action and enjoy all the legal benefits.

How to make an apartment association workable?

There are various apartment associations in India which are unaware about the concepts of bye-laws and its contents. Each apartment association should have bye laws which should be drafted and should have a procedure for registration. Also various associations have a framework in the form of memorandum of objects and bye-laws. It is always advisable that an apartment association has to be registered and should have good intentions.

Normally, the registration of an association involves the   drafting of memorandum and bye-laws. The memorandum shall contain the name of the association and the objects of the Association apart from just the name, addresses and occupations of the members of the Committee. 

The role of bye-laws:

Each apartment association will have an apartment bye law which contain certain details like the name of the association, the address, the date of formation, jurisdiction aspects and so on. The bye laws contain various particulars which relate to the business hours of the association along with the objects and activities of the association.

The bye-laws will include;

• The names of persons or officers who can sue or be sued on behalf of the association.
• Particulars of the person or officer who can give directions with regard to the business of the association.
• It is mandatory that the bye laws should have details about the enrollment of members, qualification for membership, restrictions and other conditions along with the entrance and fee.
• The deadline date for the payments and the fee.
• A list of delayed payments and penalties.
• Rules about eviction of members and the circumstances under which members can be evicted along with the particulars of rights, obligations and privileges of the members.
• The bye laws should have the particulars relating to the manner in which the business of the association has to be carried out.
• A list of qualifications of members to hold office, the term and other conditions for appointment/reappointment should be mentioned.

The importance of bye-laws:

Bye-laws are required by the managing committee of an Apartment Owners Association (or Residents Welfare Association) to ensure proper maintenance of the apartment complex and to resolve all the issues that the residents face in a timely and effective manner. Solving the issues is not an easy task and it is quite a difficult task to convince the society to agree to the chosen rules and regulations. All of the related issues are solved through a set of rules known as the bye-laws. Every apartment complex adopts the bye-laws from the moment it is registered. The bye-laws govern the day-to-day functioning of the apartment complex and it is considered as the constitution of an apartment complex.

The importance of maintaining records:

It is mandatory that every apartment association should maintain records, accounts and other transactions along with the provisions relating to the same. The records should also have the copies of bye-laws and the statement of accounts. The record maintenance will also include the penalties, fines and other transactions leviable on an officer for violating the norms.
In an apartment association, it is very important that there should be clear provisions to deal with the funds of the association. Also if the funds are marked, the details should be mentioned. The details of the day-to-day affairs and expenses incurred on the employment and the services should be mentioned. Apart from just all that, records also contain views of the general meetings of the association members.

Importance of transparency in the association:

Along with other mandatory policies the transparency of the association should be maintained. In order to get transparency among the group, the association can display the related topic books during the business hours. The concepts from the books should be incorporated. Being transparent includes maintaining issues related to the repairs, replacement, transactions and other important issues.

Henceforth an apartment association can be managed well if the above steps are followed.

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