Re: Shared purchase of homes
From: Michael Mariner (mykanofone.net)
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 15:05:43 -0600
Joani asked,

>Aren't there standard arrangements for buying property together; namely
>tenants-in-common and joint tenants. Any lawyer or real estate person can
>explain these two with the advantages and disadvantages of both.

I think they vary from state to state, but, yeah, the legal part isn't 
the difficulty -- it's writing up a good agreement among the parties that 
gives them recourse if one of the purchasers doesn't work out and/or if 
somebody wants to move -- giving the remaining share holders a chance to 
determine their new housemate/co-owner.

I'd just hoped to see some sample agreements or get some resources about 
it.

> I suppose
>if the property is owned as a cooperative that is a different matter, where
>shares are involved. But I think only one cohousing community in N. America
>is structured as a cooperative (though Berkeley came close), so I'm
>assuming that San Juan CoHo is not structured that way.

No, pretty sure the entity of San Juan Cohousing is not a cooperative, 
but I don't know that there'd be a problem if a household or two were 
cooperative households.  The zoning on SJC's land would tend to restrict 
that co-op or shared house to one kitchen.  Far as I know, that's the 
only zoning restriction.  In Boulder certain zonings couldn't have more 
than 3 unrelated people sharing a house.  I'll be that's unconstitutional 
-- hasn't it been found that in some case, some state or another?

Mike Mariner

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