Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Regarding house rules

[Mac & Sandy Thomson (ganesh]

Rob,

Maybe we are headed for trouble, but we've had our Membership Application in
place from the very beginning and haven't had any trouble yet.  Granted, we
haven't had any resales yet, but almost all of our members got mortgages
when they first bought their homes.  No banks balked at any of our
membership requirements.

- Mac

On 09/23/03 Rob Sandelin wrote:
> Mac and Sandy wrote that their membership agreement is not part of their
> CC&R's and were doubtful of its legal enforceability. Actually, it
> probably is legally enforceable and once the house for sale goes to a
> mortgage broker, it may cause you problems.  Most condos have written into
> their CC&R's the right of the association and board to make house rules.
> These house rules, as long as they were created following the procedure
> outlined in your CC&R's are as legally binding as the rest of your CC&R's.
> In fact, most banks will ask you for a copy of such rules, and I believe
> in most states, if you hold these out, you may find the bank can cancel
> the mortgage contract.
> 
> We had to change our membership agreement at the first resale after
> creating it, because the potential lender objected to restrictive resale
> language which included, reading the cohousing book and being in accord
> with our principals and commitments docume nts.  So, if you are organized
> as a free market condo, and most cohousing groups are, you may find
> lenders not accepting your house rules if they hold any restrictions on
> who can be a member, or what somebody has to do to be a member.
> 
> Remember, banks assume that they will have to foreclose on any loan, thus
> they have Vice presidents and loan officers who scrutinize your documents
> to ensure that their are no barriers to reselling a property they
> mortgage. 

-- 
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


"Nobody cares if you can't dance well.  Just get up and dance."
     - Dave Barry
**********************************************************



_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L