New Bank Account for an Association - Advice Please

Cloth_of_Gold

I recently discovered that, last year, our residents' assocation's bank account was closed by the bank because it hadn't been used for some time. I am in the process of claiming the funds that were in the account and would like to open a new residents' assocation account for the funds to go into. The old account was set-up many years ago by a resident who has since died, because at that time the residents managed the building themselves. The resident who ran the association made various payments from it, such as for the electricity for the common areas and for repairs and so on; the service charge payments were also paid into into it. This is not the case now but we do need to have an account as we will have a small number of payments to make in the near future and possibly on an ongoing basis. 

The old account was a business current account but given that we will be making only a small number of transactions, and payments out of the acocunt can be done by bank transfer, perhaps we don't need a current account and a savings account will do. 

I should be grateful for any advice on (a) whether a savings account ok and (b) a good bank to open such an account with. I would prefer one with a high street presence as sometimes it's useful to be able to go in and talk to someone in person. I'd like a bank that makes it as quick and easy as possible to open the account.  Ideally I'd like it to be free but if we we have to pay a monthly fee I'd like it to be as low as possible. 

Our association is an informal one that was set-up decades ago by someone who died several years ago and we don't have any written documents relating to it, such as articles of assocation. Do you think that this might be a problem? I see from Virgin Money's website that to open their account for clubs and socities you need to provide, among other things, paperwork relating to the club or society. 

Any advice gratefully received!

Eco_Miser

You are likely to have to produce a constitution etc. for any bank account.

You could formally reform the association, and adopt a constitution. 

As you have already discovered, Virgin Money's  clubs and societies account is effectively free for low use.