Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 56, Issue 21

[Isabel Linda Aaronson (Laaronson]

See you at Bob's on Friday @ 6!

Isabel

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org>
To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 3:16 AM
Subject: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 56, Issue 21


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> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Re: Renter's Fee (Douglas G. Larson)
>   2. Re: renters fee? (Craig Ragland)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:06:50 -0700
> From: "Douglas G. Larson" <ddhle [at] earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Renter's Fee
> To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID: <004901c91d7d$3e7f7df0$1600a8c0@LarsonLisette>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
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>
> I can explain the rationale.
>
> > From the beginning a portion of each homeowner's HOA fees cover general
> expenses like electric bills for the common house, supplies for the common
> house and other similar expenses. After we started having renters we had a
> discussion about wanting the renters to have a stake in the community in
> some way since they were not homeowners and also have them contribute to
> expenses that are incurred by everyone but which cannot be itemized out
> specifically. As a result the renter's fee was created.
>
> I am one of the landlords here at Songaia and I have had 3 renters in 4
> years with a 4th coming soon. I make it clear to each prospective renter
> that this is a cohousing community and that community involvement to some
> degree is expected. The degree to which each renter is involved is up to
> them. All 3 of my previous renters chose to be involved in community life,
> though each did so at different levels. I suppose I could encounter a
> potential renter some time in the future that didn't want to be involved 
> in
> community life in any way. Its never come up but if it did I would 
> question
> why they would choose to live in a cohousing community but do nothing to 
> be
> involved in the community.
>
>
> Douglas G. Larson
> Songaia, Cohousing
>
>
> > 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
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:09:59 -0700
> From: "Craig Ragland" <craigragland [at] gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ renters fee?
> To: "Kay Wilson Fisk" <kwwilson [at] bartcommunity.org>
> Cc: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID:
> <3d048fc40809231009v51d7289oe000aebb5c44c57f [at] mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> 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
>
> Please try email first, include your phone number (w/time zone) - or give 
> me
> a call: 425-487-3550 (Pacific)... communicate!
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> End of Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 56, Issue 21
> *******************************************