Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: rental issue

[Elizabeth Stevenson (tamgoddess]

We currently have a short-term renter, and have had several in the past.
Certainly, everyone is an individual. Some short-term renters have been
great. But if the owners are not here, it usually ends up being not as good
for the community to have the renter here, on the whole. We had an incident
recently where a short-term renter offended some members of the community as
well as the person who rents the house to him. Mostly, the problems have
been misunderstandings because the renter wasn't really clear on what we are
and our culture. This is a well-meaning young man. If it had been someone
not well-meaning, it could have been disastrous. I think six months without
the owner of the home there is really too short for someone who has no
intention of living in a cohousing community in the future. They aren't
invested enough in the community. But if a person were interested in living
in cohousing and were trying to see if they could fit in or liked it in
reality, then a short rental could be a big benefit to that community.

I know you really want a more hard and fast answer, but I don't think there
is one. Having a mechanism in place where you could screen potential renters
would be great if you could implement it. But we haven't done that, mostly
because each situation seems to require something a little different. One of
our homeowners has been gone for three years and technically, that violates
our rules. But it's worked out really well and brought some great people
into the community who otherwise wouldn't be here.

I suspect that when the homeowner of the problem rental comes home in 2
months, we'll be revisiting this issue of renters again.

-- 
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California
tamgoddess [at] comcast.net
> From: MerylD [at] aol.com
> Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 11:35:27 EDT
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: [C-L]_Re: rental issue
> 
> 
> Hi all:
> 
> I'm still trying to get a handle on whether it is advantageous or detrimental
> to a community for people to be renting out their units for short sprints of
> less than a year. On the one hand, that brings interesting people to the
> community and allows owners to travel while recouping some expenses. On the
> other 
> hand, people wandering in and out of the community hardly helps intimacy and
> stability, especially a concern here in South Florida where snowbirds abound
> in 
> wintertime. 
> 
> Is the Seattle rental posted on this site 6 months minimum for a reason? Is
> that the community's policy or the owners? I would love more feedback on
> whether other communities feel allowing rentals for less than a year is a good
> thing 
> or a problem?  What about a six-month minimum?
> 
> Thanks!
> Meryl Davids
> Emerald Place Cohousing, Delray Florida
> (Breaking ground in a few months)
> 
> 
> In a message dated 9/25/03 10:01:12 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org
> writes:
> 
> << Specifics-
> No smoking, no pets, kids cool
> First & last & $400 deposit
> $1,200/month lease + utilities (min. 6 mos.)
> MUST be intersted in participating in community activites.
> Contact Anne@ (206) 324-6105 for info & pictures
> Website: www.seattlecohousing.org >>
> 
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