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Some important things about the law you should know when working with residents’ groups (02 Jun 09)
Get these things wrong and you, your residents and your organisation could be in a lot of hot water. Get them right and everybody is protected
Working with residents’ groups can seem deceptively easy.
They usually don’t have that many members, they concentrate on local issues and more often than not they don’t employ anybody.
But like anything in life there’s usually more to things than first meets the eye, and residents’ groups are no different from anything else.
In fact the whole area can be a bit of a minefield which is why we are running a webinar on the subject on 28 July from 11am to 12pm.
In case you can’t make it here are some key tips.
I hope you find them useful.
Here they are:
Make sure you know the legal structure of the groups you are working with
The legal structure is important because it affects:
- What the group can do
- The liability of residents
- How the group can hold money or assets
How do you tell what the legal status is?
If it isn’t a company, an Industrial and Provident Society or a charity then it is probably an “unincorporated association”. This means that the organisation has no separate legal identity, but the members will still have duties and liabilities to each other and potentially to other people.
Always ensure the group has a constitution.
Make sure the Committee have read it and that they understand it, and conduct the group according to what it says.
If the constitution doesn’t work properly encourage them to change it instead. Just because it’s a local group doesn’t mean that the law won’t expect them to abide by its terms.
Make sure the constitution deals with these areas:
A constitution is important and as a minimum it should cover these areas:
- Who the members are
- Who the Committee are and who appoints them
- How to change the constitution
- How the group can be wound up
You can’t count someone as a member of a residents’ association just because they don’t opt out.
If you do, the law wouldn’t uphold it if something went wrong
Have a clear code of conduct, and an agreed process for dealing with complaints.
Use the process if a complaint comes in
Pay attention to groups or associations that are expanding their roles
If a group or association is expanding its role (for example taking on an employee, or entering into contracts) then it should consider changing its legal structure to guard against liability.
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