I am the director (along with 1 other person) of the management company for our estate, which comprises of approx. 80 houses (no apartments). The management company has existed since the developer signed over the title of the common areas on completion of the estate about 4 years ago. Luckily we also have a letter from the local Borough Council stating that they have taken charge of the roads, footpath, lighting, sewers, etc., basically everything except the maintenance of the common areas, i.e. grass cutting. The management company effectively exists to collect a very small maintenance fee in order to pay for the cutting of the grass & also to hold title of the common areas.
The problem which we have, is that only a small percentage (less than 20%) of home owners are actively paying the maintenance fee & this is no longer enough to pay the accountant to file our annual audited accounts or to cover grass cutting costs. The attendance at our AGMs is comical at best, only about 5 of the houses are represented each year, so it's safe to say that home owners really don't care & there's an "out of sight out of mind" approach to the up keep of the estate. I'm confident that when the grass begins to grow up around peoples windows this will prompt some action from those who care, but we no longer have the luxury of time, since the accounts need to be filed before the end of October & there isn't enough money in the account to cover the accountant's fees this time around.
Both myself & the other director do not want to let the company incur fines for late accounts or to be involuntary struck off by the CRO & at this point think it's best that we dissolve the company while it's still liquid. The other director also owns his own business & doesn't want to be associated with a company that's struck off, nor do I for that matter.
My questions are as follows;
1. How do we go about transferring the title to the common areas out of the company's name before we dissolve it? How does this effect the title of each home owner in a real world scenario? (Our account tells us that this will damage the title of each homeowner if the common area is not in good title, but a solicitor friend of mind told me that in reality this is fairly common around Ireland & a lot of common areas are vested in the state anyway. Once there is some sort of residents association in place to collect a fee to pay for the grass there shouldn't be an issue with any potential future sale of a house within the estate)
2. What is the correct procedure to dissolve a Ltd. management company? I looked on the CRO website but my lack of knowledge about Irish companies means that I'm not sure do we chose to "dissolve", "voluntary strike off" or "cease business name"?
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
The problem which we have, is that only a small percentage (less than 20%) of home owners are actively paying the maintenance fee & this is no longer enough to pay the accountant to file our annual audited accounts or to cover grass cutting costs. The attendance at our AGMs is comical at best, only about 5 of the houses are represented each year, so it's safe to say that home owners really don't care & there's an "out of sight out of mind" approach to the up keep of the estate. I'm confident that when the grass begins to grow up around peoples windows this will prompt some action from those who care, but we no longer have the luxury of time, since the accounts need to be filed before the end of October & there isn't enough money in the account to cover the accountant's fees this time around.
Both myself & the other director do not want to let the company incur fines for late accounts or to be involuntary struck off by the CRO & at this point think it's best that we dissolve the company while it's still liquid. The other director also owns his own business & doesn't want to be associated with a company that's struck off, nor do I for that matter.
My questions are as follows;
1. How do we go about transferring the title to the common areas out of the company's name before we dissolve it? How does this effect the title of each home owner in a real world scenario? (Our account tells us that this will damage the title of each homeowner if the common area is not in good title, but a solicitor friend of mind told me that in reality this is fairly common around Ireland & a lot of common areas are vested in the state anyway. Once there is some sort of residents association in place to collect a fee to pay for the grass there shouldn't be an issue with any potential future sale of a house within the estate)
2. What is the correct procedure to dissolve a Ltd. management company? I looked on the CRO website but my lack of knowledge about Irish companies means that I'm not sure do we chose to "dissolve", "voluntary strike off" or "cease business name"?
Any advice is greatly appreciated.