what is an addon vis a vis reserve funds?
From: R.P. Aditya (adityagrot.org)
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 07:01:45 -0800 (PST)
At Great Oak Cohousing (www.gocoho.org) we completed a reserve study (we are 2
years old) and owner-added elements (like decks, patios, stoops) are included
in the reserve fund contribution each unit makes.

However, some unit owners feel that that is complicated at best and unfair at
worst. Their reasoning includes:

- why should I pay twice (albeit over 30 years) for my deck, esp if I might
not live in the unit that long?

- why should the association maintain and replace something I had built
according to my specification and is an exclusive Limited Common Element?

- what about addons that are not specifically defined in the Master Deed as
association maintained/replaced? why accord them an inconsistent privilege as
not being accounted for in the reserve fund?

What they propose is that we define an "addon" as something that is owner
added and can be removed without structurally affecting the association owned
building (perhaps with some remidiation like new siding/caulking which they
would pay for). Then we don't need to include owner-added elements in the
reserve fund and they become the entire responsibility of the unit owner
(except for a clause that says the association will take care of and charge
the owner for any repair/remidiation in cases of neglect).

>From the cohousing-l archives, this does not seem to be a common practice, to
put owner added elements outside the reserve fund. Are there other communities
that in fact don't collect reserve fees for owner-added elements (esp. decks)?
what are the drawbacks?

Thanks,
Adi

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