Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Per Household or per person?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Mar 18, 2013, at 11:12 PM, John Leet <jwleet [at] aol.com> wrote:

> We are Panama Cohousing Village, in the formation stage in  Panama.  One of 
> our member is single and is objecting strenuously to paying "twice as much" 
> as those of us in coupled relationships for our expenses relating to 
> marketing for new members. 

I think we need more information to understand what costs you are talking about 
and what expenses you are incurring.

I would suggest that the expenses are related to marketing and construction now 
and later will be for maintenance. The massive part of these expenses is the 
same as in a conventional condominium and proportionate to the size of the 
unit. There is very little expense incurred that goes up  by person.

While some communities do have some fees assessed by person and others by size 
of unit, I think that is a hard nut to crack. It gets you into who really lives 
there, who is an adult and who is a child (as in huge 14 year olds who are 
accident prone), etc. 

Fees based on size of unit can be related much more easily to costs actually 
incurred.

As a single person I also object to "discounts for couples", etc., not based on 
actual costs, but in cohousing, there are actually few of these unless you have 
a very disproportionate population in one unit.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines

Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org