Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Method for calculating Homeowners' Association dues in your cohousing community.

[Mac Thomson (mac]

Hi Joani,

Heartwood is one of the communities that calculates HOA dues in part  
based on the number of people living in each home.  I think that the  
system works fine for us, although finding the perfectly fair system  
is forever elusive.  Although the system is generally quite objective  
and easy to apply, sometimes we have to make judgement calls about the  
number of people living in a home.  For example when children live  
part time with one divorced parent in the community and one divorced  
parent out of the community.

Here's the language that's in our agreements (and also in our CC&R's,  
I think):
> Assessments

> All homeowners are assessed monthly. Assessments are allocated 50%  
> on a per lot basis and 50% on a per person basis. For purposes of  
> making this calculation, the census of how many people are living in  
> each home is updated at the beginning of each month. A person is  
> added to the census if they intend to or do in fact live here for  
> more than 90 days.  A person is removed from the census if they  
> intend to or do in fact move away for more than 90 days.

> The calculation works as follows: Fifty percent of the total  
> assessments to be collected is divided by the number of homes which  
> have begun paying assessments to arrive at the per home assessment.  
> Fifty percent of the total assessments to be collected is divided by  
> the number of people living in the community to arrive at the per  
> person assessment. The per person assessment is multiplied by the  
> number of people in each home to arrive at the total per person  
> assessment for each home. The total per person assessment for each  
> home is added to the per home assessment to arrive at the total  
> assessment to be paid by each homeowner.


Let me know if there's other info you are looking for.

Cheers,
Mac

--
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious  
life?"
     - Mary  Oliver
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On Jul 15, 2009, at 4:16 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:

> Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:42:47 -0700
> From: Joani Blank <joani [at] swansway.com>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Method for calculating Homeowners' Association dues in
>         your cohousing community.
> To: cohousing-l <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID: <4A5CDFB7.60401 [at] swansway.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> In a response to recent  inquiry about HOA dues in cohousing  
> communities
> I answered in part:
>
> "In almost all communities the HOA dues for an individual household
> consists of one dollar amount that is the same for every household,  
> and
> another dollar amount that varies by the square footage of the unit  
> that
> the household owns. In a very few cases, the community will vary a  
> part
> of the monthly dues on the number of persons residing in the unit,  
> or in
> even fewer instances (perhaps only one or two in the nation)
> consideration is taken of "ability to pay" in setting one part of  
> the dues"
>
> I'm quite sure that my first sentence above is essentially factual.  
> But
> I'm most interested in hearing about communities where at least part  
> of
> the household's monthly dues are based on number of people (or  
> number of
> adults) living in the home, on "ability to pay,"  or, for that  
> matter on
> anything other than unit square footage.
>
> Because of an issue that has arisen in my own community, I'm also
> interested in knowing what your CC and Rs say about the method /
> criteria you are supposed to use to calculate monthly fees/dues, and
> whether or not you stick strictly to those criteria / methods.
> Presumably,  if you do not stick to them strictly, it is because you
> want to introduce more "fairness" into your system of paying for
> community expenses. Or perhaps there's another reason.
>
> If you are willing to share this but would rather not post your  
> response
> on this open listserve, please send the information to me:
> joani [at] swansway.com  and I will collect the information and report back
> to this listserve without revealing your name or your community's  
> name.
>
> Joani Blank