Licensing and registration of HOAs: all actions from documents to obtaining your own seal

What is the need for the procedure?

Is it necessary and where to register an HOA?

A homeowners' association is an organization that aims to carry out actions to manage an apartment building , as well as its improvement.

One way or another, a partnership is a non-profit organization in the form of a legal entity, which includes owners of real estate.

It is these people who are responsible for their home, which is why this organization is the most popular and sought-after form of management (read about the pros and cons of HOAs).

If you suddenly decide that you can create a partnership on your own, you believe in your abilities, and most importantly, you know how to do it correctly, then you can proceed to the most important issue - namely, registering a partnership.

Is this procedure necessary to form a management body or can a partnership exist without registration ?

Since the partnership is a legal entity, and therefore a taxpayer, the question of the need for registration arises by itself.

Regardless of how long you want to create a homeowners' association, what its composition will be, and so on, we can say that registration is a mandatory procedure so that the state at a mandatory level allows the implementation of such activities.

You can find out how to complain about the HOA or leave it on our website.

Office work in the HOA

As you know, the management and control bodies in the HOA are the general meeting of owners of the premises of an apartment building, the general meeting of HOA members, the board of the partnership, the chairman of the HOA board and the audit commission (auditor). Documenting the management activities of the partnership requires maintaining its own records. Minutes of general meetings, meetings of the HOA board and the audit commission, and other documents of the partnership must “always be dry like gunpowder” and can be requested at any time for any reason. How to achieve registration and passage of partnership documents, their execution is considered by the chairman of the board of the Association of Homeowners' Association "Center" Lev Materov .

Documentation of the management activities of the homeowners' association is carried out on the basis of current national regulatory and methodological materials. The paperwork itself in the partnership is simply necessary “like air” for the management activities of the HOA. And it must begin as soon as an initiative group is formed in the apartment building to choose a method of managing the residential building.

The first minutes of the meeting of the initiative group must confirm the intention of the group of initiating owners to create a homeowners’ association in an apartment building or take control of a residential building without forming a legal entity or choose a management company of any organizational and legal form.

The initiative group should contact the residents of the building asking why it wants to choose this or that method of managing the residential building, conduct a survey of residents in order to determine what kind of owners, tenants, and tenants live in the building, and also receive proposals from residents for candidates for the future the board of the partnership, committees and commissions of the HOA, members of the audit commission, etc. All this will be useful in preparing and holding the constituent meeting and all this requires documentation and confirmation.

In addition, the initiative group incurs certain monetary expenses for the creation and registration of a homeowners' association, which will then be distributed among all owners - members of the association in proportion to the occupied area. They will have to be confirmed on the basis of the adopted charter of the HOA, and then approved at the general meeting of the members of the partnership. You will have to report to the owners of the premises of an apartment building for every penny spent. So, any expenses must be supported by documents: checks, contracts, fundraising inventories with signatures of the owners of the premises, etc.

Residents can offset part of the costs with their own resources: some have a computer and a printer, some have a photocopier, others have the opportunity to reproduce materials at work, etc. And all this needs to be taken into account by the initiative group, so as not to later sort out relations with certain owners of the house. Therefore, maintaining records from the very beginning allows you to avoid many conflicts in an apartment building in the future.

If you choose a method of managing an apartment building in the form of an HOA, the board of the partnership organizes and conducts office work on the basis of independently developed individual instructions and other regulatory and methodological documents that do not contradict legislative acts.

The instructions for record keeping are approved by a decision of the board of the association and establish general requirements for documenting activities and organizing work with documents in the association of homeowners.

Responsibility for organizing office work on the board of the partnership, compliance with established rules and procedures for working with documents is assigned by the charter of the partnership to the chairman of the board. And the chairman of the board appoints from the elected collegial management body responsible for record keeping, which ensures the recording and passage of documents and, in a timely manner, informs the board about the status of their execution, familiarizes the members of the HOA board with regulatory and methodological documents.

If the number of members of the board is small, office management functions are assigned to the chairman of the board. When a member of the board or employee goes on vacation, goes on a business trip, due to illness or dismissal, the documents he has, at the direction of the chairman of the board, are transferred to another member of the board or handed over to the chairman of the board.

The rights, duties and responsibilities of persons responsible for record keeping in the partnership are determined by their job descriptions, and also comply with GOST 6.30-97 “Unified documentation systems. System of organizational and administrative documentation. Requirements for the preparation of documents" and GOST R 51141-98 "Office work and archiving. Terms and Definitions".

The main types of partnership documents and their details should, as a rule, be drawn up on forms and have an established set of details and a stable order of their arrangement. Some HOAs have their own logo or “trademark.” The location of details on the forms of organizational and administrative documents of the partnership must comply with the above GOSTs.

Partnership documents drawn up in accordance with this GOST have legal force and can be used as arguments in courts of general jurisdiction or the Moscow Arbitration Court.

The name of the homeowners association is indicated in strict accordance with its Charter. It can be located in the upper left corner of the document or in the top middle. Often the names of the partnership at meetings are proposed by the owners and are the same. Thus, the most frequently repeated names are from the existing HOA “Our House” or the name of the street where the residential building is located, for example “Arbat”. As a result, you sometimes have to look for the address of the partnership throughout the city, and the postal address of, for example, the Arbat HOA may receive all correspondence on that street. Therefore, to avoid repetition, it is better to include the postal address in the title: 46 Profsoyuznaya str., building 2.

The abbreviated name of such a partnership will be HOA “Profsoyuznaya 46-2”. Then no one will confuse you with anyone.

The name of the type of document must correspond to the table of unified forms of documents, and the title to the text of the document must correspond to a summary of the contents of the partnership document. It should be as brief as possible. Accurately convey the meaning of the text. The title must be grammatically consistent with the title of the document. For example, an order (about what?) on the appointment of the chief accountant of the HOA, a card (about what?) of the movement of fixed assets of the partnership.

The date of the partnership document is the date of its signing, for a document adopted by a collegial body (general meeting of HOA members, the board of the partnership) - the date of its adoption, for an approved document - the date of approval. The document is dated by the official signing or approving the document, for example, the chairman of the board or the chief accountant of the HOA. It must be remembered that documents come into force from the moment they are signed (or approved), unless a different date is provided in the text or legislation. So, for example, the date of creation of the HOA (according to the law on state registration of legal entities...) is not the date of the general meeting of owners of the premises of an apartment building to choose a method of managing the house, but the date of registration of the partnership as a legal entity in the tax inspectorate No. 46 of Moscow and etc.

The dates of signing, approval, approval of the partnership document, as well as the dates contained in the text, must be issued digitally. Date elements are given in Arabic numerals in one line in the sequence: day, month, year (for example, 06/24/2005).

In the texts of partnership documents containing financial information, a verbal-numeric method of formatting dates is used: June 28, 2005. When referring in the text to a legal act, a HOA business agreement or other document, the date is formatted as follows: agreement No. 36-D dated June 28. 2005

Documents sent to third-party organizations on behalf of the HOA are signed by the chairman of the board, his deputy or the manager (management company). The composition includes: the name of the position of the person who signed the document, personal signature and its transcript. For example, - Chairman of the Board of the HOA "_____" (V.V. Ivanov).

Documents of collegial bodies are signed by the chairman of the meeting of the collegial body. For example, a general meeting of owners of premises in an apartment building - by the chairman of the meeting and its secretary.

The documents prepared by the commission or committee of the HOA do not indicate the positions of the persons who compiled them, but the distribution of responsibilities within the commission. When signing a partnership document by several officials, their signatures are located one below the other in the sequence corresponding to the position held.

If the official of the partnership whose signature is prepared on the draft document is missing, then the document must be signed by the person acting as the chairman of the board or his deputy. In this case, it is necessary to indicate the actual position of the person who signed the document and his last name (corrections “acting”, “deputy” are made typewritten or by hand). It is not allowed to sign partnership documents with the preposition “for” or with a slash before the title of the position.

A note on the execution of a partnership document and sending it to the file includes brief information about execution, if there is no document evidencing execution or, if such a document is available, a reference to its date and number. The document is marked with o, the number of the case in which the document will be stored, the date, the signature of the executor or manager in which the document was executed.

Documents are approved by decisions of the general meeting of owners of the premises of an apartment building, the general meeting of HOA members, the board of the partnership, the audit commission or the chairman of the board. Approval of partnership documents is carried out by affixing an approval stamp. Approval marks are drawn up as follows: APPROVED. Chairman of the Board of the HOA “_____”, (personal signature, initials, surname), date 00.00.00 or APPROVED. Minutes of the general meeting of the HOA “_______” No. ____ dated 00.00.00

Documents are addressed to the organization, their structural divisions or a specific official. When addressing a document to an organization or its structural unit without indicating an official, their names are written in the nominative case. When sending a document to an official, the name of the organization is indicated in the nominative case, and the position and surname of the addressee - in the dative case. When addressing a document to the head of an organization, its name is included in the addressee’s job title.

The full postal code is indicated when sending the partnership document to one-time correspondents in accordance with postal rules. For example: Homeowners Association “Yasenevy – 19”, 117593 Moscow, Yasenevy Boulevard, 19. It must be borne in mind that the chairman of the HOA board is elected for two years and, in order not to edit the title documents of the HOA each time, only the number of the residential building is indicated. Moreover, for each change in the title documents of the HOA, you must pay a state fee in the amount of 2,000 rubles. When electing a new chairman of the board, you must write to the post office serving the house the chairman’s apartment number, to which all correspondence is sent.

Taking into account new electronic media and the ability to send electronic letters and messages from a computer: Internet, e-mail, mobile communications, on the HOA letterhead you can indicate their personal address of the chairman of the board or one of the board members, and if the partnership has its own electronic mailbox of the board, then and his specific email account. E-mail makes it possible to hold virtual board meetings, exchange data and make quick decisions.

Requirements for the execution of documents sent by e-mail are similar to the requirements of GOSTs.

If the partnership document has attachments named in the text, then a note about them is drawn up in the following form: APPENDIX: for 10 sheets. in 3 copies. If the annexes are not named in the text, then it is necessary to list their names, the number of sheets and copies of each. APPENDIX: “List of beneficiaries - members of the HOA” on 3 sheets. in 1 copy. or “Certificate for calculating the debt of HOA members for housing and communal services” on 2 pages. in 1 copy.

If applications are bound, the number of sheets is not indicated. If there are several applications, they are numbered. Applications must be drawn up on standard sheets and contain all the details necessary for the partnership document.

These are just some of the office management requirements of a homeowners association. Features of the preparation and execution of certain types of documents (order for the HOA, instructions, minutes of the general meeting, notice of the general meeting, extract from the minutes of the general meeting, calculation of the shares of premises owners in the common shared ownership of an apartment building, application for membership in the HOA, obligation to make payments , certificate of the owner of the premises in an apartment building, certificate of absence of debt for payment of housing and communal services, etc.), list of documents of the HOA, the board of the HOA, the procedure for drawing up documents of the board of the partnership, list of members of the HOA, documents for the current work of the chairman of the board (administrative and regulatory -reference documents), an approximate list of documents on which the HOA stamp is placed, an approximate list of documents subject to approval by the board of the partnership, the procedure for forming cases, an approximate list of management documents of the HOA indicating retention periods, requirements for a “business letter”, etc. All this is in the following articles.

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Legislative regulations

The legislation provides the best possible coverage of the aspect of registering a partnership under the law. Since all issues related to the housing sector are under the jurisdiction of the Housing Code, registration issues should also be looked for there, or rather, answers to questions from owners.

Thus, Article 136 of the Housing Code tells us not only about the main stages of creating a partnership, but also states exactly how this procedure should take place.

According to this article, completing the registration procedure is mandatory at the initial stage of creating a partnership, even before the start of its official work.

You can learn about the responsibilities of the HOA manager from our article.

How to register an HOA? Step-by-step instructions below.

What to do if not all residents agree with its provisions?

Before the document is adopted, it is discussed and amended taking into account the opinions of the residents who are members of the created partnership, but if a number of property owners in the building do not agree with certain points, they can take one of the following actions:

• organize an initiative group to adopt amendments to the charter;
• leave the HOA;
• contact the court or housing inspection.

To convene a meeting for the purpose of adopting amendments, it is sufficient for the holders of 10 percent of all votes, distributed in proportion to the square meters occupied, to submit a corresponding notification to the board or to the chairman.

IMPORTANT! In the event that certain clauses of the charter contradict housing legislation or may indirectly cause damage to a separate group of apartment owners, they have the right to contact the housing inspectorate with a complaint to organize an unscheduled inspection of the HOA and its statutory documents (Clause 4.2 of Article 20 of the RF Housing Code).

If a member of a housing association is categorically not satisfied with certain provisions of the charter and he fails to convince his neighbors of the need for amendments, he can withdraw from the membership of the HOA and receive utilities and other services under a separate agreement concluded with the board.

Where to begin?

Registration of a homeowners' association may seem like a complicated and tedious procedure only at first glance. In fact, this is a fairly simple action that any person who knows the law can carry out.

The first step is to understand how strong the desire to create an HOA is . Familiarize yourself with the basic principles of the functioning of this body and if the large amount of responsibility does not intimidate you, proceed to the next step.

And the next step is obtaining approval from the owners. In order for an HOA to be created on the basis of your house or several houses, you need to organize a meeting of owners. Get ready to face a lot of questions and mistrust.

You should notify each resident where the meeting will be held, what time it will be held, and, if possible, ask them to come with their entire family.

At the meeting, you should familiarize residents with the essence of your demands and the basis for creating an HOA, justify your position and policies in the future. Next, you can ask the owners to vote for or against the creation of an HOA.

Let us remind you that a decision is considered valid when it is made by a majority of votes, that is, when more than half of those present are in favor of a particular decision.

By the way, about those present. You must appoint a meeting secretary who must record who exactly attended the meeting. The meeting cannot be held, and the voting results are considered invalid if less than half of the living owners of the house attend the meeting.

If the meeting went well and the majority of residents supported you, you can move on to the next step.

You can find out whether it is mandatory for an HOA to have its own official website from our article.

Reorganization

The possibility of reorganizing the partnership is provided for in Article 140 of the RF Housing Code. An HOA can be transformed into a housing or housing-construction cooperative.

Reorganization of the partnership may take the form:

• Accessions . The rights and obligations of the partnership are transferred to the legal entity to which it was merged.
• Transformations . Transfer of rights and obligations to a newly formed legal entity from a reorganized one.
• Mergers . The newly formed legal entity assumes the rights and obligations of several partnerships.
• Discharge . There is a division of responsibilities and rights between legal entities.
• Divisions . The newly formed legal entities assume the responsibilities and rights of the reorganized entity.

Reasons may include:

• reorganization of the partnership into a housing cooperative;
• changing the form of management of apartment buildings, that is, transferring the rights of the management company;
• refusal of the services of a management company and joining a partnership (read about whether a management company can manage a house together with a homeowners association here).

The decision to reorganize the partnership is made at a general meeting by a majority vote. After the formation of a new legal entity, it must be registered. To do this, you will need to submit an application to the Federal Tax Service. The application must be accompanied by constituent documents, minutes of the general meeting and a receipt for payment of the state fee.

An HOA is a group of owners who jointly manage common property and resolve housing and communal issues. Read our articles about the structure of HOAs, about financial and economic activities and reporting, about liquidation, about the difference between HOAs and TSNs, about claims against HOAs.

Is the procedure different from opening and how?

The only difference between reorganization and opening is that the powers from one organization are transferred to another, or their current list is expanded. In the case of opening, the range of rights and responsibilities is determined anew .

Otherwise, the procedure is no different. For reorganization, the same documents will be required as for the formation of a partnership. Registration deadlines for the Federal Tax Service are the same.

The creation of an HOA is the result of the will of homeowners. The formed partnership must undergo state registration, along with other legal entities. The founders will need to collect a number of documents and pay a state fee.

Where to go?

Draw up documents that will regulate the activities of your organization.

You need to develop a charter and discuss its provisions with the owners of premises in an apartment building at a meeting. In addition, you need to form the board of the partnership from the active members of the meeting.

Upon completion of the paperwork, before opening a homeowners association account, you must appear at the tax authority, namely the nearest tax office .

Only after registering an organization with the tax office is it considered existing and can carry out actions in accordance with the charter.

What are the HOA charter?

The main document of the HOA - what could it be?

The HOA Charter is the main document of the partnership , regulating its activities and defining the powers of its members. In terms of importance, this is the second document after the housing code, which must be followed by tenants who are members of the partnership.

Every HOA has a charter. It is one of the official constituent documents , the presence of which is mandatory for owners' associations.

Documentation

In order for the tax office to accept your application, you must compile a package of the following papers :

1. Registrant's passport.
2. The organization's charter, drawn up and adopted by the owners.
3. Minutes of the meeting where the voting took place.
4. Board composition.
5. Agreement of an apartment building for the acceptance of services.
6. Application for the creation of an organization.

Read our article on how to submit an application to join a HOA.

All documents must be notarized and have at least two copies.

How to fill out an application correctly ? The application is drawn up strictly in printed form and according to a sample, which you can either obtain from the tax office or download from the tax website.

This document must be filled out in strict accordance with the sample; errors and inaccuracies in wording are not allowed.

This application must be completed by the person who plans to become chairman.

The application must be drawn up on a blank white sheet of A4 format, the computer font must be standard.

What needs to be included in the content?

According to paragraph 2 of Art. 135 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, a standard charter document of a housing association must contain the following data:

• name of the partnership;
• location address;
• subject and goals of activity;
• the procedure for residents to join and leave the partnership;
• composition of governing bodies;
• management powers and decision-making regulations;
• regulations for the activities of the audit commission;
• the procedure for convening and holding general meetings of residents;
• other operating conditions.

Other conditions may include the procedure for concluding agreements with contractors and accounting rules.

Processing times and costs

The HOA is registered as a taxpayer organization within one day. If you haven’t received any documents or you have questions, the registration procedure may take up to several days.

One way or another, the period will vary depending on the degree of preparation.

The cost of registration will cost one and a half thousand rubles.

What documents are issued after?

After registration, tax documents are issued. Thus, a certificate of your existence as a legal entity is issued. persons, as well as a document indicating that you are included in the register of legal entities, that is, an extract from it.

Read our article about how to become a member of the HOA.

Reasons for refusal

When can they refuse? Registration may be denied in a situation where no document is provided , as well as in a situation where you do not have the authority to open due to any circumstances. For example, a meeting of owners was not held, or the voting results were unacceptable.

Read about how absentee voting of HOA owners is conducted in our article.

Acceptance procedure

The decision to adopt the charter is made at a general meeting of residents . All members of the HOA must be present at the approval stage, but in practice this rarely happens. Therefore, the law allowed absentee voting without attendance at the general meeting.

1. The meeting is held in accordance with the legislative norms prescribed in Art.
   45-48 Housing Code of the Russian Federation. The owners are notified in advance of the general meeting. The notice contains information about the specific date, time and place of the meeting, and the agenda. The charter is adopted if the number of those who voted for the adoption of the document is a majority of the total number of votes of apartment owners in the building (clause 2 of article 135 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation).
2. The voting process can take place during a gathering of residents or in the format of absentee voting, since the simultaneous presence of the required number of owners of residential premises is not always possible.
   In the absentee voting format, each owner is given a printed protocol form, and voting takes place at home. All details of the charter in this case are discussed in advance.
3. After voting and preparation of the charter itself, the document is signed by the chairman of the meeting or the chairman of the board, who is elected by the same vote of the HOA participants.
4. When everyone comes to a common opinion, you can proceed to approval of the document. The charter is considered adopted if ⅔ of the participants vote for it. Such requirements are not specified in the legislation, but, as a rule, after adoption, the charter is laced and the pages are numbered. The completed document is given to the chairman for signature; the apartment owners do not sign the charter.
5. After completing the procedure for drawing up the charter, the HOA, along with the charter, is registered in the manner prescribed by law. The charter is kept by the chairman of the partnership.

Features and nuances

Registration with the tax office is the first and most important action , because only after this a person becomes an official taxpayer, which means he can carry out his activities.

Do I need to order an HOA stamp? After the registration procedure with the tax office, you must order a stamp , which from now on will be placed on all documents.

Is it possible to register an HOA at State Services? The government services portal will not help you complete the registration procedure for a legal entity, but it will allow you to make an appointment with the tax office and tell you what documents you need to collect.

Read our article about how to register an HOA in the GIS Housing and Communal Services.