Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Rental policies

[Diana Carroll (dianaecarroll]

> 1) We don't want to lose the cohousing feel of our community - with only
14 households, we fear a lot of rentals will erode owner interest and
community participation.

Although I have lived in CH for only a short time (< 3 years), my
experience here has mirrored my experience in life: making LAWS against
things that you fear will hurt your culture is not an effective tool.

I do not believe there's anything you can do in your CCRs to preserve you
community's cohousing feel and make sure interest and participation remains
high.  You can't regulate your way into or out of being a community.

Laws force people who want to do something NOT to (or TO do something they
do NOT want to.)

Preserving your cohousing feel and community participation won't be
enhanced by forcing someone who wants to move out not to, because they
aren't allowed to rent.

If you think rentals detract from the community, you have to make people
not WANT to rent...ie: to stay living there.  You can legislate that.

- Diana




On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 2:35 PM, Marty Roberts <martyr [at] sonic.net> wrote:

>
> We are trying to come up with a policy that addresses all these
> concerns.  After Jan. 1, it will not be legal to amend CC&R's to limit
> rentals.  Our concerns are:
>
>
> 2)  We've been told by lenders that you cannot refinance or get a loan
> if the community has a large percentage of rentals
> 3)  Some people are worried about property values if there were a lot
> of rentals.
> 4)  We find in general that renters do not have the same commitment to
> participation and upkeep of the property etc.  (exceptions of course)
> 5) To preserve rights, we are talking about a limit on time a house
> can be rented if someone else wants to rent for awhile.  Maybe 3 house
> at a time and if a 4th wants to rent, the first one out needs to move
> back or sell the house.
> 6)  Of course any of this can be changed by amending our CC&R's if we
> want to.
>
> I am looking to see if anyone has this sort of renter limit in their
> CC&R's and how it is working.
> Thanks,
> Marty
> Two Acre Wood, Sebastopol, CA (north of San Francisco)
>
>
> On Nov 9, 2011, at 10:45 AM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > Your community "policies" can't supersede rights and duties written
> > into your master deed and condo or HOA bylaws.  Similarly, master
> > deeds and bylaws can't contradict rights conferred or duties imposed
> > by State and federal law; if ill-considered provisions are
> > challenged in court, they may get voided out.  But I am not an
> > attorney, and the details of all this need to get sorted out by
> > qualified legal counsel in your particular jurisdiction.
> >
> > But setting aside what attorneys think, consider further what's
> > fair, ethical and reasonable in and for your own community.  The
> > problem with setting a limit on % of units rented out is that those
> > lucky households who jump to the front of the line have access to an
> > option that is denied to households who try to do the same thing a
> > few months later.  So if commitment is measured by duration of
> > tenure, you are rewarding the least committed people (the ones who
> > flee first), and punishing the more committed.  Is this really what
> > you want?
> >
> > RPD
>
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