Membership of OAKRH19 Owners Association

Requirements

In order to become a member of OAKRH19 you must be the owner of a flat in the Kiln House, Fosters Place, East Grinstead, RH19 1EX complex. However you do not have to be resident in that flat.

Benefits of Membership

Before the formation of the Association in 2018, owners had no joint voice to air their issues and problems, complain to the Management Company or have a common place to understand what was going on at the complex. Since the association was formed we have been formerly recognized by First Port Ltd, the Management Company of the flats. This allows us to have formal meetings and communications with them regarding such diverse topics as Management fees, particularly where these involve additional unbudgeted amounts, recurring faults such as frequent Lift break downs and other flat ownership issues such as mains water billing .

OAKRH19 is a paid-up member of the The Federation of Private Residents’ Associations. This provides us with a wealth of information, documentation and free legal advice specifically tailored to associations such as us. We have already made great use of their resources and they are well worth the cost of membership.

Becoming a Member

If you would like to become a member of OAKRH19 and are a qualifying owner then the process is simple:

Download and complete the application forms at the bottom of this page, Send them to us and we will enrol you and you can start reaping the benefits. The more members we have the more voices we have to ensure that the complex is run efficiently and well and that our concerns are heard by the management company.

Membership subscriptions

While we endeavour to keep the costs of running the association to a minimum, there are a number of expenses involved:

Membership of The Federation of Private Residents Association.

Rental of a room to hold Membership meetings, AGMs and committee meetings.

Web site Hosting.

We therefore need a small contribution from each member to cover these costs. In order to make this as fair as possible we operate a "membership year" that runs from November to November. The cost for a full year is £24, that's just £2 a month! If you join in July, for example, then you pay £12 (6 months X £2) that will take you to then end of the year and then £24 for subsequent years. Further details of subscriptions will be discussed and ratified at The AGM.

It should be noted that the Committee Members, who are all owners, perform their roles and work tirelessly to progress and resolve member's issues free of charge.

n.b. As our costs have been lower than expected over recent years we now tend to ask for contributions on a less frequent basis as and when required.

Constitution

1. Aims

The aims of the Owners Association:-

a. Improve the immediate environment and management services of the development known as RH19.

b. Represent the majority view of the members.

c. Build and encourage a partnership and improve communication between the Freeholder, the Management Company and members.

d. Provide regular information to all members.

e. Regularly consult all members on current issues.

2. Membership

a. Membership of the Association shall be open to all account holders of each apartment in Kiln House.

b. Any membership fee will be determined at the Annual General Meeting.

c. The Owners Association must be acknowledged by fifty one per cent of apartments in Kiln House. This is to be evidenced through completion of the Associations membership form.

3. Ending Membership

Membership will end when a member ceases to own a property in Kiln House.

4. Annual General Meeting

a. The Association shall hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) once in each year and not more than 15 months shall pass between the date of one AGM and the next.

b. The AGM shall:

i) Receive an annual report from the Executive Committee

ii) Present annual accounts to members

iii) Elect the Executive Committee

iv) Consider resolutions put forward by members

v) Vote on any amendments to the constitution

5. Special General Meetings

A Special General Meeting may be called by the Executive Committee and must be called by the Executive Committee if requested by at least five members or 10 per cent of the membership, whichever is the most, no later than 28 days after the date on which those members request the meeting to be held. The Secretary must send to each member written notice of a Special General Meeting 14 days in advance of the meeting.

6. Voting

a. One vote per apartment (member) on any resolution put before an AGM, General Meeting or Special General Meeting.

b. All voting that takes place at an AGM, SGM and Executive Committee Meeting shall be counted and recorded in the Minutes.

c. All forms of meetings such as ECM, SGM and AGM’S must be recorded in minutes formally approved by the next meeting of the Committee or General Meeting respectively.

7. Minutes

a. All formal meetings such as ECM, SGM and AGM’s must be recorded in minutes and the minutes formally approved by the next meeting of the Committee or General Meeting respectively.

b. All minutes shall be available for inspection by members of the Association.

8. The Executive Committee

a. Any member shall be entitled to stand for election to the Executive Committee.

b. The Executive Committee shall stand down at each AGM and may be re-elected.

c. There shall be at least six Executive Committee Meetings each year.

d. The Quorum for all Executive Committee Meetings shall be three members.

e. All members shall be given not less than seven days’ notice of each Committee Meeting, at which any member shall be entitled to attend (but not vote).

f. The Committee from time to time as necessary create a sub-Executive Committee and/or working parties on a permanent or temporary basis. The members of any such sub-committee shall be selected by the Committee from among its members.

g. Any such sub-committee shall report to the Executive Committee for decision making.

h. The Committee shall monitor the work, finances and membership of the association.

i. The Committee shall report to each General Meeting on the work done by the Committee since the last General Meeting.

j. The Committee shall produce Code of Conduct which it may revise from time to time to govern the conduct of Committee meetings.

9. OFFICERS OF THE COMMITTEE

a. The Association shall have a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer.

b. The Chair shall chair the General and Executive Committee Meetings. The duties of the officers shall be defined in the standing orders of the Association.

c. The Vice Chair shall chair meetings in the absence of the Chairperson

d. The officers shall report to each Executive Committee Meeting and General Meeting of their work.

e. There shall be no more than one Executive Committee members from the same household.

10. FINANCE

a. The Treasurer shall open a bank or building society account in the name of the Owners Association and keep records of the Association's income and expenditure. The Treasurer shall report the balance in the account to the Executive Committee at each Executive Committee Meeting.

b. The Executive Committee shall appoint three authorised signatories for any cheques and cheques shall be signed by at least two of the authorised signatories. The signatories should be from different households and not related to one another.

c. The Association’s accounts shall be kept up to date and annual accounts for each year shall be presented to the Annual General Meeting.

d. The accounts of the Association shall be available for inspection by any members of the Association who require seeing them, within 28 days. The request for inspection must be made in writing to the Treasurer.

e. The Treasurer is authorised to pay for petty cash travel and other expenses to representatives of the Association undertaking the Association's work providing that each payment is supported by a receipt, ticket or voucher. Each such payment of petty cash shall be signed by the receiver. The Treasurer shall provide a list of petty cash payments to the Executive Committee, at each Executive Committee Meeting.

11. INFORMATION

a. The Executive Committee shall provide information to all members on things that affect the Association and its members.

b. Every member of the Association shall be given a copy of the constitution when they join. Members shall be given copies of any changes to the constitution.

c. Minutes of all General Meetings and Executive Committee Meetings shall be available from the Secretary for all members.

12. DISSOLUTION OF THE OWNERS ASSOCIATION

a. The Owners Association can only be dissolved by a Special General Meeting called specifically to consider a motion to dissolve the Association.

b. All members shall be given 10 working days written notice of such a meeting, which shall contain the wording of the dissolution.

c. The Owners Association shall only be dissolved if two-thirds of members present at the Special General Meeting vote for a motion to dissolve the Association.

d. The Special General Meeting shall decide on disposal of assets, funds and equipment.

Code of Conduct

1. Members are expected to conduct themselves in an orderly fashion, respecting other members at all times, both in meetings and on the development.

2. Members should at all times remember their role as an owner is to bring forward the views of owners in general. It is inappropriate for members to raise matters that directly relate to their personal circumstances.

3. Members should be aware of the confidential and sensitive nature of information that they may be given or may be told to them by other owners.

4. Offensive, disruptive, threatening or abusive behaviour and language including racist, sexist, disablist or homophobic inflammatory remarks shall not be permitted and will constitute a breach of reasonable behaviour.

5. Members wishing to speak should indicate to the Chair, and then wait to be called upon to speak. All speakers should address the Chair. It is the Chair's role to make certain everyone has the opportunity to speak. Members should be careful not to dominate the discussion.

6. Speakers should stick to the subject matter in hand and not stray from the point.

7. Only one person shall speak at a time and there should not be any private debates within the meeting.

8. Members should be punctual and arrive at meetings on time.

9. Any breach of reasonable behaviour will result in a vote of no confidence being called against the offending member.

Membership application forms

Download and complete the application forms below. The Form of Proxy is only required if you want to allow another member to vote on your behalf if you are unable to attend a meeting where voting takes place. When you have completed these application forms, please scan them in or take a digital photo of them and send them to OAKRH19@gmail.com. We will respond to you as soon as the application has been processed together with details of the subscription due. If you have difficulty sending the forms digitally please use the contact page on this site to let us know and we will provide you with an alternative method for submitting them. The Membership Application consists of your application details. The Form of Authority gives us the authority to act on your behalf .