Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Best Legal Structure for CoHo

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

I would also like to add to this thread that you can organize yourself 
as more than one legal entity if it suits your purpose.  At Sharingwood 
we are both a condominium, and a coop, with the Condominium owning and 
controlling about 9 acres of land (all the developed homesites, 
commonhouse and road) and the cooperative owning and controlling the 30 
acre greenbelt. We did this so the membership would have control over 
the greenbelt, not the banks.  In the condominium ownership the 
mortgagees (banks) have voting rights on matters which affect the value 
of the unit they hold a mortgage on.  We could have made the greenbelt 
a common area of the condominium and decided not to in order to keep 
the banks from having any say what so ever in what we do with that 
property.  (and also to set it up later as a land trust would be easier 
if owned by a separate entity).

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood