UK HOA pros and cons. Pros and cons of creating a HOA (Home Owners Association). But HOAs also have their drawbacks. These include

Majority apartment buildings are transferred to the management of various organizations, as this is quite profitable and convenient for residents.

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One type of such management is a partnership.

What it is

An HOA or homeowners' association, by its legal nature, is a non-profit organization.

This means that one of the main goals of the organization is not to make a profit in the form of Money, but the satisfaction of the interests and non-material needs of the persons included in its composition.

The HOA acts as one of the forms of management of apartment buildings, the residential premises in which are located in private ownership.

When transferring apartments to citizens through privatization, the state relieves itself of some of the responsibilities for their maintenance, thereby shifting them to the new owners.

Since citizens do not have practical experience for the operation of housing facilities, they are asked to choose one of the forms of organizing the management process - the creation of a partnership.

Thus, an HOA is a form of self-government of residents in relation to their own property, that is, a residential building and the adjacent territory.

The concept of management includes processes such as maintenance, operation, repair and provision of utilities to residential property owners.

It is worth noting that most apartment buildings will include not only residential, but also non-residential premises, the owners of which have an interest in managing the building.

In this regard, not only homeowners' associations, but also real estate owners' partnerships (TSN) will soon be created.

This form of management will allow the rights and interests of a wider range of subjects to be realized.

For what purposes?

Before defining HOA goals, it is worth revealing its tasks, which include:

Based on the main objectives, the main goal of the partnership is to ensure high-quality public services at home, maintain general cleanliness and order, control over payment of fees and fulfill the direct responsibilities assigned to it by the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Video: creating a HOA

Occupation

The main goal of the partnership can be combined into one concept - management. This concept is quite broad and includes different kinds activities.

Housing legislation specifically highlights the management of an apartment building as its main area of ​​activity.

If we consider this concept broadly, we can distinguish management functions as maintenance and repair, including the provision of various types of public services.

The list of the main activities of the HOA includes:

Providing water and sewerage, gas (if the house has such specific features), heating in the cold season
Maintaining general communications in a manner suitable for regular use planning and performing routine maintenance work on the house and surrounding area
Signing contracts for Maintenance and performing work with specialized contracting companies conducting technical documentation
Planning and execution repair work both current and capital nature
Consideration of incoming requests from residents elimination of existing shortcomings and resolution of emerging controversial issues

TO economic activity indicated in and can be attributed to:

  • exploitation;
  • service;
  • carrying out repair work on common property;
  • construction of new facilities;
  • transactions;
  • receipt and transfer of funds to service providers and contracting companies.

Despite the fact that, according to the rules, the HOA is created for non-commercial purposes, it has the right to receive profit from its own activities.

It can use the income only to achieve the goals for which it was created.

For example, use the funds received to carry out repairs or improvement of common property and territory.

All income received is subject to taxation, so funds must be documented, like any other actions of the organization’s board.

The management activity of the partnership consists of resolving a large number of organizational issues that are under the jurisdiction of the management bodies. This may include a meeting of homeowners.

Responsibilities of the organization

The responsibilities of the partnership are disclosed in housing legislation.

According to this norm, the HOA is obliged to:

The legislative framework

The HOA is dedicated to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation. After the breakup Soviet Union, the first types of partnerships began to form.

In this regard, the need arose to create a legal act regulating the activities of partnerships. So legal act became the federal law"About the HOA."

It was adopted in 1996 and lost its force in March 2005, when the current version of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation came into force.

All the pros and cons of HOAs

As stated earlier, a partnership is non-profit organization, the main goal of which is not to generate income, but to satisfy the needs of the members of the partnership, in terms of managing their common property located in an apartment building.

Is it for all residents? apartment building The creation of an organization is a benefit procedure. Homeowners association for or against - find out what needs to be taken into account.

Benefits Received

The benefits of the partnership include:

Thus, by creating an HOA, citizens receive a considerable number of benefits.

As many realtors note, based on their sales practice, square meters in residential buildings where this organization is located have a higher price category.

Negative points

A significant disadvantage of the partnership is the imperfection of legislation regarding the regulation of the settlement system.

If any member of the organization refuses to make payments, the service provider has the right to recover funds in court.

The court will not care where the payments come from, and it is possible that conscientious tenants will have to pay their bills twice.

In addition, the disadvantages may be slightly inflated prices for operation, increased risk when choosing an entity for the role of chairman.

The legislation does not provide for serious measures against unscrupulous payers.

Comparison table with other forms of government

Which method will be chosen depends on many factors, including the characteristics of the apartment building, residents, certain situations, etc.

When choosing, you should clearly understand all the main points, advantages and disadvantages of each method:

Type of government and general provisions Advantages and disadvantages
Under direct rule, the owners of residential premises themselves perform the functions of the governing bodies, including carrying out repairs and maintaining common property. They have the opportunity to enter into contracts with other persons providing home maintenance services. Each owner, in his own interests, independently enters into contracts with service providers All payments for consumed services are made directly to their suppliers. If debts arise, each homeowner will be responsible for them individually, thus there is no collective responsibility. The service fee does not include any markups, since there is no intermediary involved in the relationship. Problems may arise related to the execution of contracts with service providers. Since there is no creation of any legal entity, it will not be possible to open accounts for the purpose of accumulating funds for repair work
All relationships that arise between the management company and apartment residents are regulated on the basis of an agreement. The management company collects money to pay for utilities and other services, acting as an intermediary a single agreement is drawn up by the management company, which includes terms and conditions for maintenance and provision of services, as well as maintenance. The management company enters into contracts with service providers independently. An intermediary acts between the owner of the premises and the service provider, whose services are not cheap. None regulations regulating activities management company. The risk of fraudulent activity on the part of the organization increases
In a partnership, all relations are regulated on the basis and agreement for those persons who are not members of the HOA. The Partnership, on its own behalf, enters into contracts with service providers the organization has the opportunity to earn money from the change non-residential premises in and adjacent areas to the house. The proceeds are always directed to the needs of the residents of the apartment building. HOA members have the right to re-elect the board. There is collective responsibility between the members of the partnership. There is a need to organize accounting. Works with defaulters on its own

Reference. An HOA is a form of property management established by law, in which all home owners are responsible for maintaining the home.

In order to create an HOA in which homeowners will incur fewer financial losses with greater operational efficiency than with another form of management, it is necessary to learn about the forms of government support and what this means for this self-government body. This, first of all, will determine how expedient the choice in favor of creating an HOA will be.

Support measures that an HOA can receive from the state:

  • major repairs at the expense of the local or state budget;
  • equal, in comparison with other forms of management, conditions for the maintenance and repair of residential premises;
  • lenient lending conditions, up to paying part of the interest rate for the partnership.

In addition to government support, the feasibility of creating an HOA will depend on the efficiency of spending funds for the maintenance of the premises. Often, an incompetent or not very honest manager may spend money for other purposes; in this case, it will be necessary to hold a meeting of the audit commission and, in case of discrepancy, hold a meeting to change the manager.

To calculate how profitable it will be to create a self-government body, you need to determine what the costs of each member of the partnership are for maintaining the house and paying salaries to employees, depending on the area of ​​the common property.

The feasibility of creating an HOA can be calculated using the formula given in the table:

In this formula, BSO is the burden of maintenance and service.

This formula is universal and allows you to calculate the feasibility of creating an HOA. The lower the BSO coefficient, the more profitable the creation of this self-government body will be.

Main pros and cons

IN this method Property management has both positive and negative aspects.

In management

To begin with, let's consider advantages of managing an HOA:

In addition to the advantages, the HOA, like any other form of management, has its downsides too:

  • Large time costs. To resolve any issue, homeowners need to hold meetings, and only after that make a decision. This takes extra time.
  • The difficulty of organizing effective management. In order for the HOA to effectively carry out its work, while being economically profitable, it needs a competent and honest manager, who is often very difficult to find.
  • Defaulters. All expenses for maintaining the common property of the HOA are borne by the citizens themselves. If there are defaulters among them, this has a bad effect on the financing as a whole, because their debts have to be paid by bona fide tenants.

In payment

pros:


Minuses:

  • Higher home maintenance payments are possible. Since the HOA independently carries out landscaping of the territory, additional costs may be required to carry out the work more efficiently.
  • Urgent expenses. There are unforeseen expenses in paying for HOA services. For example, if urgent repairs to a roof or basement are needed, a large sum of money will be required. If this amount is not in the partnership’s reserves, then the residents will have to urgently “chip in” for repairs.

In service

pros:

  • Possibility of high-quality improvement of the common area. At the initiative of residents, it is possible to create additional amenities in the local area and create coziness in the entrances. Taken together, these measures can raise the market value of apartments in the building.
  • Ability to control the quality of work performed.
  • Possibility of prompt repair and replacement of utilities. By decision of the meeting, residents can replace communications without waiting for serious breakdowns, or the moment when “the turn comes.”

    Subsequently, this can significantly reduce payments for public utilities.

Minuses:

  • Lack of initiative. It often happens that the majority of citizens do not care what the territory will look like, what condition the entrances and communications will be in; they do not welcome the initiative and refuse to pay for the work.
  • If funds are not distributed correctly, it may turn out that The HOA is unable to pay for this or that service, this will again lead to the fact that residents will need to solve this financial problem on their own.

Under repair

pros:


Minuses:

  • Inflated prices for repairs. As a rule, a homeowners association is not a regular customer of building materials and repair services, and counterparties are not always ready to provide discounts for one-time orders.
  • Major renovation. If the house is old and requires major repairs, the residents of the HOA will be required to take responsibility for the repairs themselves, and at the same time, suffer large financial losses. Therefore, if the building is old and has not been renovated for a long time, creating an HOA is not practical.

From all that has been said, we can conclude - The creation of an HOA is advisable if the following factors are present::

  • Good condition of the house.
  • Having a competent manager.
  • Residents' solvency.
  • A large number of apartments (the larger the house, the lower the maintenance fee).

The work of HOAs is regulated by the articles of the Housing Code, in which Chapter 13 is devoted to this issue.

The partnership is a voluntary association of residents created to manage and ensure the normal functioning of the building.

So, let's figure it out: “What is an HOA, its pros and cons in an apartment building?”

Attention! The HOA is a legal entity with the right to maintain a current account, but is considered a non-profit organization.

The goal of an HOA is not to make a profit, but to rationally organize the management of an apartment building.

It is up to the apartment owners themselves to decide whether or not an HOA is necessary. If more than half of the homeowners in a building vote for its creation, then this will be an expression of the general opinion. Only with the active position of the majority can you get real benefits from HOA work.

There is no point in organizing a partnership in small houses, since maintaining a chairman, accountant and other personnel will be quite expensive for the residents.

Residents who are not members of the HOA may also be interested in the activities of the association and make claims regarding its work, since they pay bills on the same basis as members of the HOA.

These residents only do not have the right to vote at the general meeting.

What gives?

Creating an HOA allows you to independently resolve the following issues:

  • selection of housing and communal services service providers and contractors for work. Conclusion of contracts and payment for them from the funds of the partnership;
  • independent determination of the priority of activities depending on the prepared estimate of income and expenses;
  • determining the amount of payments for each homeowner;
  • the ability to carry out certain work on your own to reduce overall costs;
  • control over the expenditure of funds in the partnership account.

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

You can analyze the work of an HOA based on the main parameters that characterize the effectiveness of home management.

Reference! As in any organization, there are both advantages and disadvantages in the activities of a partnership.

The same factor has both a positive impact on the management process and introduces certain negative aspects into the work of the HOA.

Comparison table: pros and cons

Activity parameter


Advantage

Flaw

Relations with higher organizations and local authorities.

There is no supreme governing body over the HOA.

Problems arise when considering issues related to local authorities, which can only be resolved through legal proceedings.

The degree of participation of residents in the management of household affairs.

Owners can influence decision making, since all issues are approved by voting at the general meeting.

Residents who are not included in the HOA either because of disagreement or because they are not homeowners act as a passive observer.

Conclusion of contracts and transactions.

By decision of the owners, in order to receive additional income, agreements are concluded with housing and communal services providers, as well as with tenants of non-residential vacant premises.

If payment for utility services is violated, suppliers may suspend the supply of these services.

Costs of maintaining the management apparatus

Costs are minimal, since it is possible to attract specialists from the residents of the house. Personnel who are unscrupulous in their work can be quickly replaced.

You can make a mistake when choosing the chairman and members of the board of the partnership in their integrity. Selected candidates may lack experience and qualifications.

Control over the maintenance of property.

Produced directly by residents. They are stakeholders.

Funds for managing the operation of the household

Funds are transferred from the residents of the house. The partnership determines the payment amounts for each owner.

Problems arise with beneficiaries who pay less for housing and communal services. The missing funds are distributed to the remaining members of the partnership. The same applies to debtors.

Results

Analyzing all the pros and cons of the partnership, we can draw some conclusions:


Learn more about the disadvantages and advantages of HOAs in the following video:

The efficiency of the HOA is achieved only with the active participation of all residents of the building in solving pressing management issues. Without this, not even an ideal system will be able to function normally.

When choosing the chairman and board of the partnership, it is worth special attention address this issue. Otherwise, if they are dishonest, a situation may arise where residents will have to pay their bills twice.

In our apartment building, a HOA (homeowners' association) has been organized.
And you know, everything suits me - general meetings are held, there are no interruptions in water and heat. A plumber, an electrician, an elevator operator are always at hand. The information board at the entrances is constantly updated, announcements are posted in a timely manner. I even personally know the chairman of our HOA.

However, in practice there have also been cases where the minutes of general meetings on the creation of an HOA and the signatures of the owners on ballots were simply falsified. Maybe it's not so simple? Let's find out!

Federal laws governing the creation of HOAs

First of all, I would like to note that the Federal Law “On Homeowners' Associations” dated June 15, 1996 No. 72-FZ lost force on March 1, 2005, i.e. from the moment the Housing Code of the Russian Federation came into force. However, there are still cases when it is referred to in the minutes of general meetings of owners on the creation of an HOA and in some other documents.

The following articles concern homeowners' associations in the Housing Code of the Russian Federation: Art. - (conducting general meetings of owners, voting at a general meeting, competence of the meeting), chapters, (creation and activities of HOAs, legal status HOA members).

Of course, in the Housing Code of the Russian Federation there is no detailed instructions, how to create an HOA, but, nevertheless, everything is laid out in it quite clearly.

List of documents required for registration of HOA as legal entity, terms and procedure for registration are also regulated by the Federal Law “On state registration legal entities and individual entrepreneurs» dated 08.08.2001 No. 129-FZ.

Where can a HOA be created?

A homeowners' association can be organized:


  • in any apartment building (hereinafter referred to as MKD);
  • by combining several apartment buildings and even blocks, the premises of which belong to different (two or more) homeowners of these houses, located on a common plot of land or several neighboring (bordering each other) plots of land, with shared networks engineering and technical support and other infrastructure elements;
  • when combining several closely located buildings, structures, structures, houses intended for single-family residence, country houses with or without personal plots, garages and others located on a common plot of land or several neighboring (bordering) plots of land with common facilities, utility networks - technical support and other infrastructure elements.

Advantages of an HOA over a management company

This method of managing an apartment building as managing a homeowners’ association, as opposed to, for example, managing a management company, has quite a few advantages.

Firstly, since chairman of the HOA and the board members themselves live in the same house, they act in the interests of the HOA members, i.e. care about creating the best comfortable living conditions for all residents of an apartment building.

In addition, the governing body of an apartment building, even if there is an HOA, is the general meeting of owners of residential and non-residential premises, which itself has the right to resolve all current issues.

Related to this is that financial activities The HOA is absolutely transparent, because At any time, the owner of the premises has the right to familiarize himself with financial documents, estimates of income and expenses of the HOA, payment orders, issued invoices, i.e. find out why, for example, they take money from him.

In addition, the audit commission is obliged to regularly check the financial documents of the HOA and report on its work to the owners at the general meeting.

Secondly, in HOAs, payments to resource supply companies for the supplied utility resources (light, water, heat) come directly from the HOA’s current account, therefore, HOAs, unlike management companies, always have less debt to resource providers, or none at all.

Thirdly, according to the legislation of the Russian Federation, the HOA is a non-profit organization, but at the same time has the right to engage in commercial activities, if this does not contradict the goals and Charter of the HOA.


  1. maintenance, operation and repair of real estate in an apartment building;
  2. construction of additional premises and common property in an apartment building;
  3. leasing, renting part of the common property in an apartment building.

For example, HOA personnel (electrician, plumber, elevator operator, janitor) can perform work under a contract with other HOAs that do not have such personnel. The HOA can also rent out empty non-residential premises, basements, attics (based on the decision of the general meeting), which is also important.

Thus, the HOA can have its own income.

Fourthly, organs state power, local governments very often make concessions to HOAs and encourage their creation.

So, for example, in some regions, owners of premises in apartment buildings where a homeowners association was created, and in which, in accordance with tax legislation The Russian Federation is obligated to pay land tax, and were exempt from paying it. In Moscow, for example, the Department of Housing, Communal Services and Improvement of the City of Moscow organizes training for chairmen of HOAs in accordance with the order of the Moscow government dated September 10, 2008 No. 2062-rp “On creating conditions for the development of self-government of citizens in the housing sector” .

At the same time, there is always the possibility of transferring management into the hands of the management company, even if a homeowners association has been created in the apartment building. In this case, all contracts will be concluded by the management company, and not by the HOA represented by the chairman.

In addition, resource supply companies do not have the desire to apply to the arbitration court to declare the HOA bankrupt if there is an outstanding debt of more than 100 thousand rubles, since in the future it is not possible to receive any funds or other liquid property from the HOA.

Basically, resource specialists go to the courts with such demands against management companies that are LLCs, because They, as a rule, have liquid property on the right of ownership.

Not many people know that the HOA does not have the right of ownership to the common premises in an apartment building, which can be foreclosed on for the HOA's debts; they belong to the owners of apartments and non-residential premises on the right of common shared ownership, just like land plot, on which the apartment building is located, and the corresponding local area.

Disadvantages of HOAs as a way to manage an apartment building

In addition to the advantages, HOAs have a number of disadvantages: for example, only one HOA can be created in one apartment building; there are some difficulties in determining the amount of mandatory payments when managing the common property of several apartment buildings that are part of one HOA.

HOAs may also impose additional membership fees for the maintenance of common property and the legal entity itself, but, as a rule, this happens quite rarely and is not an unbearable burden for the owners.

As I already noted above, the HOA does not have any premises on the right of ownership, therefore, there are no such premises for placement service personnel(employees) of the HOA. In such cases, the chairman of the HOA most often hosts a reception at his home and speaks at general meetings.

When creating an HOA, it is necessary to take into account that the Housing Code of the Russian Federation does not stipulate that the decision to create an HOA can only be made at a general meeting of owners; therefore, in such cases, absentee voting is allowed.

I agree with those who argue that the possibility of holding an absentee vote when creating an HOA and selecting its board members provides greater freedom for forgery (falsification), since there is no opportunity to observe the voting and the summing up of its results.

In this regard, there are often simply criminal ways of creating an HOA and selecting board members (including the chairman) by forging the signatures of the owners of the premises, and then, after the HOA is registered, the apartment building is transferred to the management of some “subsidiary” management company. Sometimes it happened that a person unexpectedly found out that he was the chairman of the HOA.

However, even taking into account the above disadvantages, it should be recognized that, among others - direct management and the management company - the HOA is the most acceptable way to manage apartment buildings.

The main stages of creating an HOA

The main stages of creating an HOA are:


  1. Creation of an initiative group, holding a general meeting of owners on the creation of a HOA, approval general meeting HOA Charter, selection of board members, chairman of the board, compilation of a register of HOA members, selection of the person entrusted with the registration of the HOA with the tax authorities
  2. Registration of the HOA as a legal entity with the tax authorities, obtaining a certificate of registration (OGRN) and registration (TIN). Assignment of statistics codes, registration in extra-budgetary funds.
  3. Opening a current account(s) for the HOA with a credit institution for settlements with service providers and receiving funds from the public. Transfer of apartment buildings to the balance sheet of the HOA, transfer of technical documentation.
  4. Concluding agreements with resource supply organizations.

Everything related to the procedure for creating an HOA will be discussed in more detail in the following parts.