Apartment building management options
The Housing Code allows three ways to manage your own property:
- Direct management of property by owners. By law, this is possible if the number of apartments in the building does not exceed thirty. Residents themselves carry out the full range of repairs and maintenance of common property. Ultimately, living conditions and the state of communication systems must comply with the set of federal and departmental legislation. An option that is becoming obsolete. Often work is carried out not as planned, but according to the “thunder struck” principle.
- Concluding an agreement with professional management companies. With this method, the general meeting of residents selects one of the housing and communal organizations represented in the region. Legally, the relationship is formalized by an agreement between the housing complex and each owner. Residents are required to regularly make the payments established by the agreement, and the company is required to carry out the work. All responsibility for the proper condition of common property rests with the manager. The method is effective, but the costs for residents are also significant.
- Creation of non-profit associations of residents. These can be housing or consumer cooperatives, homeowners' associations. Lately, many owners of high-rise buildings have chosen an HOA, so let’s talk in more detail about organizing an owners’ association.
What is the job and who holds the position?
The manager of an HOA or housing cooperative is an individual who is obliged to perform all duties related to the administrative sphere of organizing the work process of the entire partnership. Such a person can be an individual entrepreneur or a simple worker.
Recently, quite often so-called anti-crisis managers are invited to this position. They do this in order to solve existing problems and transfer experience from the invited person to the HOA board. A citizen holding this position has the following functions:
- Selection of contractors to perform various works and repairs of apartment building property.
- Conclusion of contracts related to the provision of the full range of public services.
- Hiring and firing of labor.
- Monitoring the progress of various types of work related to repairs, maintenance, and maintenance of the building.
- Representing the interests of the partnership in government organizations and local governments.
- Preparation of information regarding profits and expenses for 12 months.
- Interaction between homeowners and HOA members on work issues.
This is important to know: Transition to direct management of an apartment building: procedure
The essence of the HOA
What is HOA
A homeowners' association is a voluntary association of owners of an apartment building, created for the purpose of self-government, with legal status. faces.
As amended by the latest changes in housing legislation, homeowners' associations are being gradually reorganized into real estate owners' associations - TSN. But if the owners merged before 09/01/2014, re-registration is not required.
An HOA is a non-profit entity, therefore all financial transactions on the account must be related exclusively to the activities of managing home property.
But in order to achieve the common goals of residents regarding the proper condition of the property, HOAs/TSNs are allowed to engage in entrepreneurial activities.
Job description of the HOA manager, sample
Instructions for the performance of official duties for the managing association of homeowners are drawn up in writing.
Like any other instruction, it has the following structure:
- General provisions. This should include information about the HOA, the location of the partnership, who acts on behalf of the partnership, as well as to whom the hired manager should be directly subordinate, what requirements are imposed on the candidate, the validity period of the document (if any), information about the duration of working hours.
- Responsibilities of the house manager. This point of the instructions is explained in the most detail.
- Manager rights.
- The signature of the person appointed to the position, which confirms his familiarization with the document.
You can download the building manager's instructions here.
Requirements for HOA
Goals of formation: ownership, control, management of common property.
Mandatory state registration of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities to obtain legal status:
- Availability of bank details and own seal;
- Registration with the tax service as a legal entity. faces;
- 50% quorum of residents “for” the creation of a partnership from the total number of owners;
- Notarized endorsement of voting results
- The HOA may include both the owners of high-rise apartments and the owners of adjacent land plots.
The partnership manages only common property. What does this include? Naturally, entrances. Attic spaces, elevators, playgrounds and adjacent parking areas, courtyard areas. Technical rooms and floors.
In a word, everything that does not relate to apartment ownership.
But the maintenance of apartments (including intra-apartment communications) is a headache for its owner.
What does he do?
The manager is an individual who also carries out improvement activities in the homeowners’ association. If it’s convenient for you, you can consider him an employee .
This person is assigned his responsibilities as defined by the charter and the agreement with the owners. As a rule, these are predominantly administrative functions that are associated with organizing the work of all members of the partnership and employees.
Moreover, this employee may even have the status of an individual entrepreneur and be invited to perform certain duties. He can carry out his activities for a fee in several homeowners' associations at once.
In addition, it is important to know that two types of contracts can be concluded with this citizen.
The first is a well-known and popular employment contract.
It is concluded between the homeowners association and the manager. It specifies the main obligations of the parties, rights, as well as the necessary conditions for cooperation.
a civil contract can be concluded with him , which also has legal force.
A distinctive feature of this act is the fact that the employee becomes an object providing services under certain conditions for a certain period of time, and not a permanent employee as in the case of an employment contract.
Who and where can organize an HOA?
The principle of creating an HOA
To create a non-profit association, two owners of an apartment building are enough. But an HOA can also unite entire residential complexes (LCs) consisting of several houses:
- If a society unites several houses, then the buildings must have a common infrastructure and electrical networks
- All property of the partnership must be located on common land. As a last resort, in adjacent areas
Concept
Let's start with what a homeowners' association is. Otherwise, you risk getting confused in terminology.
So, a homeowners association is an organization represented as a legal entity.
This organization, despite the fact that it is non-profit in nature , manages the account formed by the residents for the needs of the house, and the main responsibility of this organization is maintaining the house and the surrounding area in proper condition and order. Let us explain how this manifests itself.
The responsibility of the partnership includes maintaining communications in proper quality, arranging the common area, timely elimination of breakdowns, and so on.
In general, the homeowners association manages the apartment building. The board of the partnership decides where to spend the funds, what to fix primarily, and what to pay attention to.
The chairman approves or rejects their initiative. Also, the highest governing body of the partnership is a meeting of the owners of an apartment building, which meets either on its own initiative or by convening the chairman to resolve general issues.
HOA: staffing schedule
By law, an HOA must have a board and a chairman. The company also provides for a staff of paid positions. As a rule, any association has an accountant or lawyer. If necessary, the partnership can introduce positions of janitor, concierge, security guards, etc.
HOA staff
The chairman with the right to sign financial documents and the board are elected by the general meeting. “Executive bodies” are elected for the period determined by the charter.
The chairman of the HOA is the legal representative of the society in all authorities. A power of attorney is not required for representative functions: the Charter is sufficient.
The regulatory framework for the activities of HOAs is Federal legislation.
In the period 1996-2003, a separate federal law on HOAs was in force in Russia. Since 2004, all housing issues in the country have been codified in the Housing Code. In connection with this, the law was repealed, and its provisions were included in separate parts in the LC.
The activities of Homeowners' Associations are regulated by Chapters 6, 13, 14 of the document. Some civil law issues overlap with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
If the work of the HOA is carried out with violations, then you will have to turn to the norms of the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Differences between a HOA manager and a HOA chairman
The chairman of the board can only be one of the owners of the premises in the house , and the building manager may not have anything to do with this house, he just works here.
The chairman, at his core, is an administrator, while the house manager actually manages the life support of the apartment building entrusted to him.
The chairman can deal with the affairs of the HOA for a small remuneration or even on a voluntary basis, while the manager works full time, receiving a salary in accordance with the staffing table.
The head of the board is elected by the meeting of owners for a period of 2 years (Article 149 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation), while the manager is hired for a period stipulated by the agreement with him.
The chairman, being a person appointed by the general meeting, does not need confirmation of his powers as head of the board.
And the manager of the homeowners association, as an individual, must present to third parties the power of attorney issued to him by the HOA.
Responsibilities of the HOA
Responsibilities of the HOA
The partnership must conduct document flow according to established rules.
Therefore, the HOA, at the request of any apartment owner in the HOA, is obliged to provide originals or copies of:
- Charter. The document was adopted by the general meeting of owners, which means it should be publicly available.
- Minutes of general meetings. They must be stored for at least 3 years. Elections of the chairman and board, general management and technical issues - everything must be recorded. These documents are the effectiveness of the HOA's activities.
- Acts of work and services provided;
- Solutions for establishing payments.
As part of the commissions, residents can gain access to financial documents: estimates of income/expenses of the partnership, payment slips, etc. The requirement for disclosure of financial information of the HOA is set out in Art. 148 Housing Code of the Russian Federation.
In the field of property management, the HOA is obliged to:
- Collect contributions to form the association’s budget;
- Conclude contracts with performers of work;
- Monitor the quality of services provided, accept work and pay performers.
For the HOA manager
The manager of an HOA is a hired employee, that is, an individual hired by the board of the partnership (Article 148 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation) to professionally manage the common household facilities.
In what cases is it needed?
The HOA manager is required to have a power of attorney in the following cases:
- signing contracts with contractors;
- registration of contractual relations with resource suppliers, reconciliations, mutual settlements, etc.;
- when resolving issues in banks, tax services, customs authorities;
- when representing the interests of the HOA in court, local administration, etc.
Before putting his signature on any serious document, the building manager must present a power of attorney from the HOA as confirmation of his authority.
By whom and for whom is it compiled?
The power of attorney is signed by the chairman of the partnership as a person authorized to sign without any confirmation (clause 4 of article 185.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) - the powers of the chairman are enshrined in the Charter.
Article 185.1. Certificate of power of attorney Clause 4
A power of attorney on behalf of a legal entity is issued signed by its head or another person authorized to do so in accordance with the law and constituent documents.
The power of attorney must be stamped with the seal of the partnership. A lawyer advising the HOA should be involved in the preparation of the document.
Procedure for compiling
A lawyer must be armed with the following documents:
job description of the manager;- passport details of the person for whom the power of attorney is issued, and also take advantage of the help of the chief accountant, who will provide a list of organizations with which the HOA representative - the manager - will have to conduct business.
Range of institutions and legal entities persons, as well as actions, must also be listed in the power of attorney: the manager does not have the rights to all actions on behalf of the HOA, since this type of power of attorney is not general .
Here, on the power of attorney, the signature of the manager and the validity period of the document are placed (usually it is limited to the date of expiration of the powers of the current board of the partnership).
An incorrectly executed document will give rise to recognition of transactions, certificates, letters, etc. are insignificant, so ignorant persons should not undertake the preparation of a power of attorney.
Below is an example document:
Rights of owners' associations
Having legal status significantly expands the capabilities of the HOA:
- The HOA decides on the method of managing the common property: by residents or by hired specialists (usually a management company).
- The homeowners' association has ample opportunities to monitor the management company and, most importantly, to hold them accountable in case of provision of poor-quality services.
- Managing a home as a partnership minimizes maintenance costs.
- All technical and auxiliary premises are used more efficiently.
- Recent changes in legislation allow the partnership to take out loans from banks, which allows it to carry out large-scale capital repairs and work on improving the local area and expanding the infrastructure of the entrusted area of residence in a short time.
Also, the latest changes in the Housing Code of the Russian Federation give real estate vehicles voluntary-mandatory rights to collect payments for capital. repair.
How to make changes to a job description
Housing legislation allows for changes to be made to the instructions drawn up.
To change this document, a meeting of the board of the partnership is necessary, which will decide on the need to enter new data into the document. The chairman also participates in the discussion.
Changes to the instructions by the decision of one person are not allowed. After the instruction has been changed, the manager is obliged to familiarize himself with it. The fact of familiarization is also confirmed by his signature.
Whose fortress is my home? HOA costs
HOA costs
The current legislation is not perfect, but when it comes to managing common property, the “human factor” comes to the fore.
The inertia of the majority of residents is the main problem. Everyone prefers to walk around landscaped courtyards and live in clean, comfortable hallways. But they don’t want to make even the slightest effort. Therefore, “general” meetings are often empty, payments are not made on time, and apartment meters are incorrect.
Owners of apartment buildings should understand that their possessions are not limited to the entrance door to the apartment. Only in this way will homeowners be able to fully appreciate all the possibilities and advantages of the modern form of property management.