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Registration of a HOA in an apartment building: procedure, advantages, sources of funding

Registering a Homeowners' Association (HOA) in an apartment building offers a number of key advantages that can help enhance the tenant experience and improve asset value. This post explains the procedure for setting up a successful HOA, sources of funding for its establishment, and the advantages it provides, such as improved tenant communication, maintenance support, and potential tax incentives. An HOA is an excellent way to ensure the common needs of apartment tenants are met and to create a more cohesive and harmonious living environment.

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Instructions for creating a homeowners association

The first step is to go around all tenants and find out how they feel about creating a homeowners’ partnership in their home. It is better to conduct a survey not orally, but in the form of a questionnaire, this will help to clearly show at the meeting how many people are for the HOA and how many are against. For a conversation with people, it would be nice to prepare an informational material that will list all the advantages of this method of management..

If the majority voted in favor, it is necessary to agree with them the time, date and place of the tenants’ meeting, at which the decision on the establishment of the HOA will be made. According to Article 136 of the RF LC, it is possible to create an HOA if more than 50% of the votes of the house owners are given for this decision, therefore it is important that as many residents as possible come to the meeting.

Note.By the way, it is customary to count votes not by the number of apartments, but by their area. If, for example, the total area of ​​an apartment building is 3000 square meters, then in order to calculate the weight of the vote of the owner of an 80-meter apartment, you need to divide 80 by 3000 and multiply by 100%. That is, he will have 2.6% of the votes at the meeting of the HOA.

Next, you need to prepare a draft Charter, form an agenda for a meeting of homeowners and find people who agree to head the HOA, becoming members of the board and the audit commission of the tenants’ association.

At the meeting you must:

  • vote for the creation of a homeowners association;
  • elect the persons listed above;
  • approve the Charter;
  • enter all decisions taken in the minutes of the meeting.

The next step is to notify residents who did not come to the meeting about all decisions made by members of the newly formed HOA.

One of the most important stages is registration with government agencies. To do this, you must submit the following documents to the tax office:

  • application for registration of a legal entity in the form prescribed by law;
  • Charter;
  • minutes of the general meeting;
  • puncture of the meeting of the board members of the HOA;
  • a receipt confirming payment of the state duty.

Once the homeowners’ association is registered, it must start working immediately..

Functions and responsibilities of the HOA

According to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, an association of residents of an apartment building can perform the following activities:

  1. To be engaged in the maintenance, repair and operation of the property of an apartment building (to carry out work on the repair of the building, garbage disposal, landscaping of the territory, maintenance of elevators, concluding contracts with utilities, cleaning staircases and adjoining territory, etc.).
  2. Engage in the construction of additional facilities on the territory allocated by the HOA (build playgrounds, organize parking lots, etc.).
  3. Rent out the common property of the residents of the building (conclude contracts for the placement of advertisements on the walls of the building, rent out parking spaces to persons who do not own apartments in the building, etc.).

Registration of a HOA in an apartment building: procedure, advantages, sources of funding

Since an association of homeowners operates on the basis of the Charter, all activities that its members plan to engage in must be clearly spelled out in this document. It will not be superfluous to write the phrase at the end of the list of HOA functions: “
 as well as perform other actions that meet the goals of the partnership and do not contradict Russian law”. This will allow you to engage in any type of activity within the framework established by law, even if you forgot to write it into the Charter..

What do residents get after the formation of a homeowners association

When properly managed, a homeowners association can make life a lot easier for apartment owners. First of all, this concerns the cost of utility bills.

It is no secret that Russian utilities often charge apartment owners with inflated bills for water, electricity and heat, starting not from real consumption, but from average indicators. In such cases, some residents of a resigned person pay the invoices, others unsuccessfully beat the thresholds of utilities in the hope of resolving the issue in their favor. But if you solve the problem of paying for the services of operating organizations, an HOA is taken, representing all the owners of apartments in the house at once, the chances of reducing utility bills are much greater.

In this case, tenants only need to raise money for the services of a good lawyer (in a large house this will be a small amount from each apartment), who will represent the HOA in courts and public utilities. The chairman and members of the board will oversee the process of resolving this issue in government agencies and will take care of installing meters in the house. Given their personal interest, they are unlikely to let this business go by itself..

Also, the presence of a homeowners association greatly simplifies issues related to the repair of a house and its utilities. If earlier residents had to cut off the telephone in the housing office for weeks so that its specialists could solve such problems, now representatives of the homeowners’ association living in the house and personally interested in the early repairs can quickly conclude contracts with the necessary specialists who will carry out the necessary work in the shortest possible time.

How to find funding sources

Maintenance of any apartment building requires significant expenses. First, it is required to pay for the services of personnel performing the work planned by members of the HOA (electricians, plumbers, cleaners, concierges, etc.). Secondly, we need money to pay the chairman of the board and an accountant, without which no homeowners’ association can exist. Therefore, apartment owners can spend several thousand rubles a month on the maintenance of the HOA, which for many of them is a significant amount.

There are several ways to minimize costs:

  1. According to the legislation, in the houses in which the HOA is formed, capital repairs can be carried out at the expense of the Fund for Assistance to the Reform of Housing and Communal Services. To do this, at a meeting of the HOA, it is necessary to make a decision on financing the overhaul from the funds of the partnership (at least 15% of the total cost), draw up an estimate of costs, open a bank account and send details to the local government.
  2. Homeowners’ associations can not only spend money, but also receive income. For example, conclude contracts for the placement of advertisements on the walls of a house, rent out empty common premises (attics, basements), make money on the transit of communication networks.

All the advantages of a homeowners’ partnership listed in the article are achievable only if the chairman and members of the board have the necessary experience and take their responsibilities responsibly. If the management staff does not possess such qualities, then such HOAs in terms of efficiency may well compete with housing offices hated by many generations of residents. And apartment owners in such cases should seriously think about concluding an agreement with the management company.

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Comments: 1
  1. Jaxon Davis

    Can someone please explain the procedure for registering a Homeowners Association (HOA) in an apartment building? What are the advantages of having an HOA in place? Additionally, I would like to know about possible sources of funding for the HOA’s activities. Thank you!

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