Governance Guide - Article 30 of the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1992

Payments by registered housing associations to members, etc.

30. (1) Subject to paragraph (2), a registered housing association shall not make a gift or pay any sum by way of dividend or bonus:

(a) to any person who is or has been a member of the association;
(b) to any person who is a member of the family of any such person as is referred to in sub-paragraph (a); or
(c) to any company of which a person falling within sub-paragraph (a) or (b) is a director.

30. (2) Paragraph (1) does not apply to:

(a) any sum paid, in accordance with the rules of the association concerned, as interest on capital lent to the association or subscribed by way of shares in the association; or
(b) any sum which
(i) is paid by an association whose rules restrict membership to persons who are tenants or prospective tenants of the association and preclude the granting or assignment of tenancies to persons other than members; and
(ii) is paid to a person who has ceased to be a member of the association; and
(iii) is due to that person under his tenancy agreement with the association or under the terms of the agreement under which he became a member of the association.

30. (3)The Department may specify the maximum amounts which may be paid by a registered housing association:

(a) by way of fees or other remuneration or by way of expenses to a member of the association who is not a member of its committee or an officer or employee of the association;
(b) by way of expenses to a member of its committee who is not an officer or employee of the association; or
(c) by way of expenses to an officer of the association who does not have a contract of employment with the association.

30. (4) Different amounts may be specified under paragraph (3) for different purposes.

30. (5) Where a registered housing association:

(a) pays any sum or makes any gift in breach of paragraph (1); or
(b) pays to any person a sum which exceeds any maximum amount specified in relation to that person under paragraph (3);

the sum or, as the case may be, the value of the gift or, in a case falling within sub-paragraph (b), the amount by which the sum exceeds the maximum shall be recoverable by the association; and proceedings for its recovery shall be taken by the association if the Department gives the association a direction to that effect.

30. (6) For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b) and Article 31, a person co-opted by the committee of a registered housing association to serve on the committee (whether he is a member of the association or not) shall be treated as a member of the committee.