Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Monthly assessments

[Ian Higginbottom (Ian.Higginbottom]

Cascade Cohousing splits the running costs of our cohouse into two
pools, "capital running costs" which are paid by unit owners in proportion
to their "unit entitlement" and "community chest" running costs whichy are
paid by residents.   The former includes building maintenance, insurance,
rates, taxes, capital improvements and those things generaly paid by the
owner(s) of a house.  The later includes heat and power for common house,
some gardenning, tool maintenance,meeting costs (including child care) and
such other expenses as are mormally paid by the residents of a house.  This
structure allows renters to pay their share of community chest costs
directly and also allows the two types of costs to be split amongst the
households in different ways.  We easily reached consensus on the split of
the capital assesments but are in the process of debating the fair split of
the community chest monthly assesments.

We have not decided whether to split these "community chest" monthly
assesments on a per person or per household basis.

I would appreciate hearing from those who have already posted their monthly
assesment figures (and from those who are yet to post them) the logic behind
their decision to charge on a per person or per household basis. 

Cheers
Ian Higginbottom
Cascade Cohousing
Hig [at] ml.csiro.au