Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: renters fee?

[Craig Ragland (craigragland]

Hi Kay,

Our renter fees has nothing to do with creating a structural solution to
non-participation (in time) by renters.

One type of real cost for all of us living at Songaia is money. The
$25/month that renters pay (money) is both a meaningful contribution to our
shared community costs and a symbol that they are participating with the
community in that dimension.

There is a real per capita cost for every community - each additional person
adds some cost to your "operation." A portion of our operating budget
recognizes this - and families with more people pay higher monthly
assessments to reflect them. To help clarify, the monthly assessment for a
vacant home at Songaia is less than that for one housing people - and it
costs more for 2 than 1, etc.

For renters, we are just recognizing that they also add to our operating
costs - so they are asked to participate by sharing a piece of our common
costs. This is about minimizing feelings of US-THEM as much as the actual
money - which is quite small relative to our overall budget.

$25/month does not ask them to participate in any of the capital costs of
our operations... our intention is that they do not to contribute
financially to things that increase the property value or that insure it
from loss. So while the funds are not ear-marked, they are tuned to our
estimates of a "fair share" in the operating costs for somebody without a
financial stake in the undivided property that's attached to our Condo
homes.

An alternative that we considered was to just charge the landlord more,
based on their rental adding additional more people to the community - make
it just the same as a larger number of family members. Our feeling (and
"our" included our renters), was that it was healthier to have that
relationship directly between the community and the individuals, like all
the owners...

Craig


On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 11:37 PM, Kay Wilson Fisk <
kwwilson [at] bartcommunity.org> wrote:

> Hi Craig,
>
> Can you explain the reasoning behind the renter's fee?
>
> The reason I ask is that we have six rental units and one remaining unit
> for
> sale that is rented under a lease with option to buy. Of these, the vast
> majority of our renters do not choose to participate in most community
> meetings or work parties, and this is something we are struggling with. So
> I
> am wondering if the renter's fee is based on an assumption that renters,
> having no vested interest in the community, are not expected to contribute
> as much? A sort of surcharge?
>
> And if so, are they able to work it off for a refund?
>
> Kay
>


-- 
Craig Ragland

Coho/US executive director
http://www.cohousing.org
craig [at] cohousing.org

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