Allotment association advice

[Rabidbun]

Hi all,

I was hoping someone here might be able to help - has anyone ever been in an association where the folks running it just up and quit?

Ours has had this happen, and we've just gotten a new committee to replace them (once we found out that they'd not passed it over, as we thought, to other interested folks), however we've come across a slight (?) problem in that we cannot access the bank account. The bank can't tell us who is on the account and the only folks who it could be are all saying it can't be them and aren't willing to check.

As you can imagine it's concerning, but I don't know how to handle it. Does anyone have any experience with this happening by any chance?

Thanks for reading.

rabidbun (the utterly confused one)

[Greenleaves]

Hi Rabidbun

You are in an unfortunate position but please be aware that we can not give proffesional advice on the forum.

My reccomendation to you is to contact the National Allotment Society

[Beansprout]

Hello Rabidbun,

I would assume your association is registered with nsalg.org.uk (National Allotment Society). There are formal legally binding rules for how you must run it.

Definitely your first point of contact. 01536 266576. They offer free legal advice for members anyway.

[Snoop Puss]

Good luck.

[Rabidbun]

Thanks guys, I'll get in contact with them and start reading. I hope I've done the right thing by accepting chair. 😣

[ESBkevin]

If you can get hold of minutes of the previous meetings it will give you a guide to who did what. It would be safe to say that there should have been separation of duties so that a chairman might not access the bank but thetreasurer might, or similar. There should be a writen report for the AGM on the state of finances etc. All this assumes they committee hadn't fallen out and run off with the proceeds. Will the bank tell you where they post the statements? that is often the last address they had authorised.

Sorry I can't be of more help, banks have to be so careful of fraud these days that they cannot take anyones word without documentry support.

[Rabidbun]

Thanks, yes, the bank's hands are tied legally through data protection but there are forms to fill in now. It's been much of my day, alas, but I've pierced together a general picture of what has happened at least.

Going to try and sort it all out tomorrow with another committee member - apparently there's a lovely wordy procedure to go through, so with luck we'll get there! Plus I'm in the process now of joining the National Allotment Society so that I can make sure things are done right - thanks for the nudge in that direction guys. x

After this, working out how to sort a community patio area will be the least of my worries! Looking forward to getting all of this sorted out and moving on with what people are hoping for as regards the allotment.

[Jungle Jane]

Who does the land belong to,how do you know if the lease has been renewed? Could the land be being sold quietly? If you’re the new lease holders wouldn’t you need to collect the rent & put it in an account for your new association to have access & then would you need to take the other people to court if they owe money to the association? I don’t think you could get access to their account? Good luck with this,citizens advice bureau might know something?

[Rabidbun]

Thankfully it's charity owned so straightforward there at least, but thanks for thinking of that. I'm just going to keep everything crossed I think at this stage, and hope that we can just squeeze everything together and end up with a good resolution.��

[Forage420]

Thank you for the information everyone.
I'm curious to know if anyone has ever contacted the National Allotment Society if they have been unhappy with a committee decision, and whether they have been any good in dealing with it?
I am having an issue at the moment and I don't wish to delve any deeper at this time, but I need to know my options in case it needs to go to arbitration.

[Greenleaves]

^^Only one way to find out....call them

[nickdub]

My niece and her husband are involved with the managing/running of some allotments up in Birmingham. If you care to pm me, I'll let you have their contact phone number, names etc if you would like a chat with them. They're both retired, so have some time to help available ( that at least is my theory )

[Forage420]

^^Only one way to find out....call them

Hmmm, yes, but it's probably worth getting first hand testimonies before embarking on such a course.
Nowadays a lot of organisations won't speak to you until they have all your personal information, and then once you hand it over there is no guarantee they will be any good at helping with your problem. My time is precious to me.

I have personal experience of many government organisations that are worse than terrible and not worth their salt. I could give examples, but only for the purposes of defending my point of view and perhaps that's not worth doing here just for the sake of it.

[Greenleaves]

Totally confused why you bothered to ask the question then.

[veggiechicken]

Can we guess the issue?

1. Not being able to sell your produce from your plot
2. Other plot holders using Glyphosate
3. the footings for your greenhouse are not temporary and you have to remove it.