Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Limiting whole-house renting in CoHousing

[Fiona Frank (fionafrank]

In Lancaster Cohousing in the UK we've definitely benefitted from having
renters as part of our community, but what we've tried to do is see if we
can move towards longer term renting so that renters can play a long term
and full part in community life.   I went travelling for six months four
years ago and rented my house out for six months while I was travelling -
the renters ended up buying a home here when i came back...    Another
couple moved in together and rented out one of their houses for 3 years but
then sold it and the renter had to move out....  Two other flat owners
moved away and rented out their flats for a while...   one person died, and
his stepsons (his heirs) rented out his flat for a year till it was sold.

Currently three homes are owned by three other owner-members and rented out
long term and a group of members loaned money to the community to buy a
fourth flat which is also rented out long term.
  The membership group manages the rental pool in exactly the same way that
they manage the 'buying pool', ie renters have to be as committed to the
community as owners do, and membership has to be agreed by GM before anyone
rents or buys) ....
So i'm not answering your specific questions but just saying that we
totally benefit from renters here.    Anyone who buys a house 'just for
investment' (this happened in the past but in the end that couple came to
live here long term) would still need to be approved by GM and show their
commitment to cohousing principles.

On Tue, 21 Jun 2022 at 16:02, Marvin Berkowitz via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

>  Dear Sara,I'm a group therapist and consultant, and probably shouldn't be
> weighing in on this topic.  But I'm interested in co-housing options for
> myself (now 80) and helping facilitate for communities on such questions as
> you raise.  Unfortunately, I don't have money for a buy-in for myself and I
> don't want to be shifting from place to place on 1 year rentals.  I'm
> looking for an open ended lease.
> Re your Question:Seems if you want to maintain close cohesiveness in a
> very small community like yours, you need some guidelines about approving
> who sales and rentals of units are to, as in a condominium complex. Have
> you looked at your turnover rate?---sales and rentals?
> Seems Once residents begin selling to investors, you're in for
> trouble. Option 4---minimum length leases (like a year) seems sensible to
> maintain community connection.  The other options that you present seem
> burdensome and overly restrictive to current residents who, for one reason
> or another choose to move, and will require constant management by the
> community board.
> Sincerely,Marvin Berkowitz
>     On Tuesday, June 21, 2022, 07:24:08 AM PDT, Sara Gottlieb <
> sara.gottlieb [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Hello CoHousers!
>
> I write from Lake Claire Community CoHousing in Atlanta, GA, USA.  We are a
> very small community (13 households) that has been in existence since
> ~1996.  Last year, one of our households, in a hurry to sell their home,
> sold to a non-resident investor whose intention was to rent the house for
> income.  While the situation has (so far) worked out well for the community
> - we were very involved in recruiting renters, and they are very involved,
> community-minded people - the situation raised a lot of concerns that this
> could become a trend with very detrimental impacts on community.  All of us
> receive multiple calls, emails, text messages, and mailings every day from
> investors looking to buy our homes.  Some of our residents are aging and
> could find themselves in a position of needing to sell quickly.
>
> We started a discussion about ways to prevent this from happening*, while
> allowing our residents to rent our homes during times of need (have to move
> temporarily to help an ill family member, have to move during a time when
> house prices are depressed and want to wait for the market to recover,
> etc.)  At least one of our residents is opposed to any limits on house
> rentals and doesn't think we have any reason to be concerned that this will
> become a trend.
>
> I was asked to put this question out to the larger CoHousing community to
> see what other communities (especially smaller ones) have done about this
> issue.  Thank you for your input!
>
> --
>
> Sara J. Gottlieb
> Lake Claire CoHousing Community, Atlanta, GA USA
> sara.gottlieb [at] gmail.com
>
>
> *Options we considered include:
>
> 1. Limit % of homes that can be rented at any one time
>
> 2. Limit whole-house rental to owners who have lived in the community for a
> minimum amount of time (e.g. 1 year)
>
> 3. Limit lease lengths to the amount of time owner has lived in community
> (lived here for 1 year?  You can only lease your house to someone else for
> a maximum of 1 year, etc.)
>
> 4. Minimum lease length (to avoid an AirBnB situation)
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