Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Is communal ownership obligatory for cohousing?

[Michael Barrett (mbarrett]

Non-availability of Sam's compact pickup truck for sometime community use 
probably could be resolved as Brian describes. But what happens on more 
substantive issues: like the property owner wants to harvest the woods - 
needs the cash.  Or declines to spend $20,000 on a needed new roof or 
heating plant for the meeting hall/workshops? This might be more than merely 
annoying to community members.
Michael

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Bartholomew" <bb [at] stat.ufl.edu>
To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 5:51 PM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Is communal ownership obligatory for cohousing?


> > For #3 we plan to share the use of meeting halls, workshops, gardens,
> > and woods, but we don't plan to share the ownership of them.
>
> | Who would/does own them? What happens if that person/entity doesn't
> | agree with the wishes/desires of the community members for the
> | use/development of those facilites?
>
> Scenario: Community member Sam owns a compact pickup truck, which is
> not his everyday transportation.  He uses it rarely, so he loans it to
> community members for their errands, as long as they refill it.
>
> Sam wakes up on the wrong side of bed one day and decides to be a
> jerk.  For some transparently dubious reason he says that nobody can
> borrow the truck anymore.  This annoys community members, who have
> come to enjoy having a truck available, and think Sam is being a twit.
>
> People will probably first try to sweet-talk Sam into making his truck
> available again, and if that doesn't work and they really miss the
> truck, one or more community members will buy another used truck and
> go back to the previously-enjoyed sharing arrangement.
>
> However it turns out, Sam has lost social capital.  If Sam is smart he
> will apologize quickly and people will forgive him.  But in any case,
> Sam's ownership rights have been respected, while the rest of the
> community has adapted.
> Brian
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