​The process of legalising your management committee.

In this seventh episode of our communal property essentials series I am going to clarify how you demonstrate to owners and authorities you are a legal management committee and have the powers granted under Section 38 of the Immovable Property Law.

One of the most common questions I am asked through my Facebook page and website is once you have setup your committee, do you need to register it?

It’s quite common to read on forums and social media about a requirement to register your management committee and submit the minutes of your annual general meeting each year with the land registry.

However, this is a myth as there is no requirement under the regulations to register your management committee with the land registry.

While there is no requirement to register a committee with the land registry, there is a requirement to register a copy of any ‘Custom Regulations’ drafted under the immovable property regulations. It’s this requirement that many people confuse as a need to ‘register’ the committee.

It’s also important to note that submitting a set of custom regulations is not mandatory, there is a set of default regulations included in the law which are suitable for most committee’s needs. 

How do you make sure you are a legal committee?

You must make sure that your Annual General Meeting is held in strict accordance with the requirements of the immovable property regulations.  Paying special attention to quorum and voting requirements.  If you want a copy of these regulations, I will include a link in the video description.

As an optional step, you can employ an independent legal advisor or communal property specialist to assist the development and monitor the General Meeting. 

What evidence do you need to prove you are a legal committee.

You need to create an accurate and comprehensive set of minutes for your general meeting.  These minutes must go into specifics on how the meeting was held. Make sure you include notes on the key requirements of quorum and how voting was held.   These minutes should then be signed by the meeting president and secretary and sent out to unit owners with a note to contact if any owner fees these are not an accurate representation of the meeting.

If you employed a legal advisor or communal property specialist to assist/monitor the meeting, you should also ask them to sign the minutes as a witness, or produce a separate letter stating the meeting was held within all legal requirements in their professional opinion.

To help the clients of my communal management company and the developments who me to help organise their AGM’s I also produce a validation certificate which details all the steps were followed. 

It is these minutes and any accompanying documents that any government authority, bank or court will require to verify your committee’s legal status.

So by following all the requirements of the regulations, and making sure you document everything to show you are a legal management committee, how do you make sure to protect your building and your committee from potential liability.  Well that’s the subject of the next episode in the Communal Property Essentials Video Series.