Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: HOA dues for children/teens at what age?

[Raines Cohen (rc3-coho-L]

In the communities I've lived in, as in most condos, HOA dues are  
primarily per unit, with a portion of fees per square foot,  
particularly fee elements that go towards utilities that correspond  
to unit size... i.e. natural gas and heat and water and hot water at  
Swan's Market Cohousing (Oakland, CA). At Berkeley Cohousing, a small  
portion of the dues covers our shared water usage, which is allocated  
based on the number of residents per unit. It may be worth analyzing  
the HOA budget to see which elements vary more with number of people  
than # of units/total unit size, and then for elements which vary  
based on the number of people, whether actual costs shift  
dramatically at a particular age... perhaps the thought is that  
teenagers take longer or more frequent showers than kids do. Have you  
gone back to the folks who drafted it and asked what factors led to  
setting the trigger age at 13?

Raines
currently at Pleasant Hill (CA) Cohousing, participating in Tree  
Bressen's facilitation intensive workshop series
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On Jul 17, 2007, at 8:26 PM, ANGELA SULLIVAN wrote:

> I'm wondering at what age your community starts considering  
> children/youths as dues paying individuals.  Currently, our HOA  
> monthly dues are based partially on the number of people over the  
> age of 12 in the household.  This seems way too young to me.