definitions - What ARE we? A Rose by Any Other
Name ....
Any properly constituted Association is just a gathering of good neighbours
to make life better for everyone.
Tenants' Association
Tenants' and Residents'
Association
Tenants' and Leasholders 'Association
Residents' Association
Tenants' Association is an association of tenants in a building
where everyone is a tenant (either a private landlord or a Council owns the
freehold). This sort of Association could also be a Residents'
Association, since everyone resides in the building.
Tenants' and Residents' Association is the
preferred term used by the Camden Federation of Tenants' and Residents'
Associations (CFTRA) - for an association in a Local authority Building
(Council Building) in Camden which has Council tenants and leaseholders.
Why?
I don't know. There may be some legal definition this phrase is satisfying,
but I know it causes a lot of heart-ache amongst people, and has class undertones
which helps to divide people into 'council tenants' and 'residents'
(they don't mean 'residents, of course, they mean 'lease-holders)'
which is very useful for the landlord, because every time residents
fight amongst themselves, they are not united in fighting the landlord
for better living conditions.
Tenants' and Lease-holders' Association would be a more accurate
term, except that it implies it leaves out the Private Tenants (increasingly
the lease-holder is renting out the property) .
Residents Association would be the most accurate term for the
communal association of neighbours in a building; it is the residents (the
people who reside in the building) who should be responsible for the decisions
made about the building. This is the term used in private buildings for the
communal gathering of neighbours in the building. and I don't know why it
wouldn't serve just as well for Local Authority buildings.
DON'T BE DIVIDED BY
TENANT/LEASEHOLDER
DESIGNATIONS
Don't let anyone play the 'Leaseholder versus Council Tenants versus
Private Tenants' game to divide the people who live in your building. We
all have more shared interests than differences. Lease-holders are just long-term
assured private tenants -- and private tenants have all the increase in service
charges passed on to them through rent increases, and increasingly (to
our collective shame) so do council tenants.
Unless we own the freehold of the building, we are all tenants, and we are all residents, and everyone has something to contribute . Talk to your neighbours - four times a year at the general meetings - digging compost in at the garden meetings monthly -- chatting over coffee looking at photographs for the history project -- talking to each other makes democracy easy.
WHATEVER YOU CALL YOURSELF, ADD THESE CLAUSES TO YOUR CONSTITUTION:
Keeping in mind that it is the landlord or ease-holder,
whether resident or not, who is responsible for making decisions on Capital
Projects, but it is the people who reside in the building who have to live
with day-to-day decisions, these clauses should be in every constitution:
-- At every General Meeting only one vote may be cast on any motion in
respect of each Flat, and on motions relating to service charges, only Flats
in respect of which the variable service charge is payable may cast a vote
(in terms of Section 18 – 30 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 relating
to service charges).
-- There shall be one exception to the general rule limiting voting to one
vote per flat. In relation to article 6e) above, resident tenants who are
not leaseholders shall be entitled to vote on all matters decided upon by
the Association except those relating to the variable service charge. The
non-resident Leaseholder for a flat shall be permitted to attend meetings
of the Association and vote on matters relating to the variable service
charge.
SUGGESTED MODEL FOR CONSTITUTION AND WHY YOU NEED ONE
HOW
TO MAKE YOUR BUILDING A COMMUNITY |