Cohousing-L Mailing List: laundry machines - lease or own?

[Susan Coberly (susandgeorge]

LaQuerencia/ Fresno Cohousing leases commercial machines.

Originally the laundry room was equipped for 3 stackable sets. After
some reconfiguration by the handy people in our community, we have room for
4 stacked sets in the common house laundry room [in addition to the
originally supplied folding/sorting countertop / cabinets, a laundry sink
and a not-home sized gigantic water heater...]..

Currently we have leased 2 stacked sets and one conventional counter height
set. All homes (28) have laundry hookups for stacked units. most of the 24
occupied homes use the common house laundry. we have an honor system tally
sheet and monthly [it is my task] we tally up and send out the amounts due
by each household that used the machines that month. The cost is 25
cents to wash and same to dry, each on a per load basis.

Water [and sewer, trash pickup, etc]  are part of the HoA-provided
amenities to all homes and the common facilities which are covered by
monthly HoA assessments. Electric and gas in the common facilities is also
a common cost. Electric and gas to each house is paid by that resident
household.

Originally we had posited the use would be free because we wanted to
encourage impromptu gatherings over common things in the common house, but
there were some concerns voiced that the "HoA" was subsidizing the "free"
laundry, so we switched to a nominal amount per load which covers the
supplied basic high efficiency detergent, non-scented dryer sheets, gas and
electric for the function, as well as most of the leasing costs [the latter
is unknown - the leasing cost is mostly covered, I believe]. We also
account for common house use (linens for the guest suite, kitchen, napkins)
as a common house expense  (when people remember to put them on the tally
sheet)

By leasing the machines, we call for repairs at the leasing compay's cost.

At initial move in we used donated home-grade machines, started to wear
them out one by one and switched to the leased system...

Susan at LaQ