Cohousing-L Mailing List: Renters & Owners Rights & Responsibilities

[Fred-List manager (fholson]

Diana Christian <diana [at] ic.org>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after reformatting a bit and putting the document at

http://l.cohousing.org/renter_owner_relations.docx

Diana speaks and has published on ecovillages and intentional
community and goverance of them
See http://dianaleafechristian.org
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Hello friends and colleagues in cohousing,

I've noticed that in intentional communities -- including cohousing --
certain kinds of conflicts can arise from misunderstandings among
renters and owners about what rights and responsibilities renters and
owners have, and how these may differ, if they do.

I believe having really specific, unequivocal documents which clearly
spell out the rights and responsibilities of renters and owners,
signed and with copies kept by both parties, can really reduce this
kind of conflict.

    So I created a draft document to address four things for landlords
in community to give their tenants:
(1) The specific rights and responsibilities of the renters
(2) specific rights and and responsibilities renters don't have
(3) specific rights and responsibilities of the owners
(4) specific rights and responsibilities owners don't have

The owners of a shared group household in Canada created a real
document for their own household of owners and renters, based on this
draft.

I now use what they wrote for their household as a sample document
in my workshops on starting successful new communities. Its better
than my draft because it has real-life examples of rights and
responsibilities for each party. I just sent this out to friends in
various communities in the US that also have renters and owners, and
they like it!

I wanted to share this on the Coho-L list this in case any
landlords or committees who work with rental issues in their
communities might find this sample agreement useful to adapt and
change to suit their own circumstances. It's in .docx format so it
can easily be modified.

See http://l.cohousing.org/renter_owner_relations.docx

I you find this useful! ;)

All good wishes,
Diana