Cohousing-L Mailing List: controlling membership

[School of Mathematics, U of MN (dept]

A remark in Rob Sandelin's message of July 12 struck a cord:

Rob thought he remembered a group which may be able to control membership 
by mixing ownership between condo and coop.  As Rob recalled it, you had to 
be approved by the coop, and own a share in the coop to own a condo.  He 
was not sure that the legal work had passed muster.

Here is my concern and it has more to do with selling a unit than with new
members joining:  as a condo or townhouse association we would be obligated 
to sell to whoever wants to buy.  If a buyer joins and then just sits 
around and takes advantage of the benefits of CoHousing and does not do his 
share of the work or becomes a disruptive element otherwise, then what?  
Rob mentioned that his group has a waiting list of people who they know.  
In Minneapolis we are struggling to fill our units and may not be in this 
lucky position.

We're starting to set up the legal papers, so this issue will come up in 
our discussions pretty soon.   Personally, I'd prefer not to use legal 
means to solve the problem.  Someone in our group suggested to write a work 
requirement into some document, and when the person does not participate at 
the required level, heavy dues would be levied as an incentive.  The 
backside of this solution is everybody would have to document their work.  
That's something I hate to do.  

Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Monika Stumpf, Monterey CoHousing-Mpls, kdept [at] math.umn.edu