The Victoria Mills Tenants Association is a group of leaseholders with a mission to better control the costs whilst improving the quality of services & standards of living for leaseholders. The Association has worked hard to grow and gain "recognised" status allowing leaseholders to have a voice in the decision making at Victoria Mills.
The Victoria Mills Tenants Association was setup by leaseholders for leaseholders and has no affiliation with the Landlord (Saltaire Facilities Management), their Managing Agent (Rendall & Rittner) or the Freeholder (E & J Estates / RMB 102).
In the inaugural meeting a small number of leaseholders were present. The meeting took place online and the items on the agenda were the following:
Welcome and apologies
Constitution approval and/or amendments
A number of points were carefully considered after the attendees had had enough time to read the consitution document individually:
-Membership fee and how to allocate voting rights were discussed and confirmed. (1 aparment=1 vote at VMTA and AGM meetings)
-Ensuring that in the coming meetings, a few more members can be elected to join the committee (integration of renters, 1 representative per block would be ideal. Social secretary roles and roles with a social scope were considered).
-dates for submission of accounts and AGM.
-Early discussion (in anticipation of point 5 of the agenda and linked to the Finance section in the constitution) on how and when to open a bank account for the association. We are mindful of any avoidable banking charges and will ensure we select a suitable bank account. Information on signatories’ responsibilities and issuance of cheques was offered based on previous experiences relating to the financial matters the chairperson has from another development. It was agreed to start shopping for a bank account in the following week in December with a view to opening said account in January (update: bank shortlisting has been carried out and they will contacted as soon as practical).
- The rest of the points were approved without further amendments.
Votes for chair, secretary and treasurer
The three roles were put forward, candidates were proposed and voted for. The acting chairperson, treasurer and secretary were confirmed in their acting roles.
Agreement of letter to inform of the existence of the Tenants Association and membership form (which will be provided to leaseholders as a Google Forms link).
The letter and membership form had been proofread, edited/anotated before the meeting to ensure enough time was spent on the first ever communication with leaseholders. The membership form was also discussed and some amendments/refinement were made (consistent use and clarification of terms referring to ownership). The aim was to ensure clear communication with leaseholders from day 1. Other points discussed were:
If an apartment(s) is owned by more than one leaseholder, it was agreed that only one of the leaseholders should complete the membership form.
We recognised the importance of the definition of the word “tenant” in the context that we find ourselves in and we ensured this was made clear at the top of the membership form.
Financial matters
Already discussed in point 1.
It was agreed to contact members of the old VMRA to find out what to do with the membership contributions made when said VMRA was running. A formal document seeking consent will be produced.
AOB (any other business)- None.
7. Date for next meeting:
- 11th January 2023 has been suggested and once it is confirmed, we will be able to extend an invitation via Teams for this meeting to all leaseholders who have become full members of VMTA. It is our intention to provide mixed on-line and face-to-face options of attendance for the AGM. A local venue will be selected in January.