Roadside Boundary Walls in estates

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fluffy47

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Good evening, all.

I am a member of a residents' association, and we are getting road-facing boundary walls painted in the estate. Numerous communications have been placed on our Facebook page outlining the walls in question (10 ft walls); letterbox notifications have been delivered to homes, and emails have been sent to the owners who have given their email addresses to us in the past. Most of the homeowners have notified us of their wishes, but a few house owners' decisions remain outstanding.

Can we go ahead with the job?

thank you
 
fluffy47 said:
Most of the homeowners have notified us of their wishes
Click to expand...
I dont understand this, was it a multiple choice of colours or simply do they agree to proceed with painting.

Presumably theres a shared cost with this painting. Are you looking for everyone to proceed?

You never get 100% engagement on these matters, rented properties or lack of interest.
I'd crack on with it. Whats not to like, wall is getting a likely much needed paint
 
All of the boundary walls and houses in the estate were originally painted by the builders. A slight variation on a theme of cream/magnolia has always been used. Anyone with a boundary wall has been contacted. The costs will be covered by the sinking fund that is there for such jobs.
Some people have not replied. Most people have agreed, and one or two others have recently painted the walls themselves and are happy for them to be left out on this occasion.
 
My management company doesn't look for sign off by every member/household before doing work on common areas. E.g. they replaced the speed bumps in the estate recently without notifying everyone. It may have been discussed at the last general meeting but I was unable to attend so I don't know.
 
It isn't clear if this is an estate management company or just an ad-hoc committee which looks after some of the common areas
 
Good point. I was assuming a management company but see now that the original post refers to a residents' association.
 
Yes, but it's apparently a residents association with a sinking fund. I would think that's fairly unusual, no? It might actually be a management company that calls itself, or thinks of itself, as a residents association.
 
Thanks everyone.
  1. There is no Management Company attached to the running of the estate. The estate was built almost 40 years ago.
  2. There has been a Resident's association in place for as long as we have lived here.
  3. AGM is held annually, accounts are prepared for all to see, minutes taken and published for all to see.
  4. Meetings are held by the association on a needs basis, eg every 2 months.
  5. The count council has in the last 8 yers taken the estate in hand but will not cut grass, (of which there is a lot), maintain the entrance avenue where there are trees, and laurel hedging, etc....and so the annual fee plus sinking fund is used to fund grass cutting, hedge maintenance, this particular job in question and some other projects
  6. Regarding the sinking fund, If there was no sinking fund there would be no way for getting these jobs done as the county council has specifically noted that they do not do these jobs. It is not unusual for resident's associations in our area to have sinking funds. We are based in North Kildare and all estates in our area have to operate in this way.

Work has commenced on the walls this morning. Thanks for the input.
 
Given all we know now, it's safe enough to assume the boundary walls are owned by the owners of the adjoining property. A check of your own folio and maps would confirm. You can't paint someone's boundary wall without their permission.
 
Are residents' associations that are not officially an OMC but operate like one and have sinking funds etc. common?
 
I agree with Leo. Don't paint the walls of anybody who hasn't responded to the correspondence and agreed to them being painted.
 
ClubMan said:
Are residents' associations that are not officially an OMC but operate like one and have sinking funds etc. common?
Click to expand...
I've heard of a few in established estates where there is a good community spirit. The LAs do the minimum in terms of maintenance now and it's often left to those living in the are to maintain greens and other shared space. Sinking fund might perhaps suggest a management company but the ones I've heard of just do an ad-hoc collection or fundraising to build a kitty to cover costs of grass cutting or maintenance of planting, and provision things like play / sports equipment (with the LA's permission).
 
Surely a type there describing walls as "10 ft"... Front garden walls are usually 3 ft or 1 metre in height.
 
its not a sinking fund as people are understanding it i presume its just a current account that residents pay an annual amount into and any expenditure required comes from it.
 
Definition
A sinking fund is a fund established by an economic entity by setting aside revenue over a period of time to fund a future capital expense, or repayment of a long-term debt.
 
Yes, and clubs, residents associations and more are economic entities too. While the term is most often referred to in the context of OMCs here, it's commonly used in a number of contexts, including personal finance.
 
Thank you, Leo. That went off on a tangent there that wasn't originally intended.

While the official term 'sinking fund' is often used by management companies, in our case the fund that is in our banking account is what we refer to as a sinking fund because we dip into it for projects such as this particular one. To the person who queried the height of the walls, the walls in question are 10 ft high and face onto the roadways throughout the estate.
 

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