Change for 60,000 resident management companies

New rules potentially affecting 60,000 existing Residents Management Companies (RMCos) have come into force. Annual General Meetings (AGM’s) and the Company Secretary are abolished and there are provisions for written resolutions, email and website communications. The deadline to file annual accounts has changed too. All newly formed RMCos from the 1st October 2009 will have model default Articles (the ‘Rules’ of the company) unless otherwise decided. Elements of the simplified Articles can be adopted by existing RMCos. David Hewett, Chief Executive of ARMA was sceptical: “We perceive that residents should have a say on how their RMCo is being run and the main conduit for this is the AGM. And in many RMCos the company secretary is often the driving force”.