Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Admitting cohousing members

We have wrestled with this question. Originally we incorporated as a 
cooperative. That legal structure gave us a little more freedom to put 
restrictions on who we allowed as members. But this came at a price. As a 
cooperative banks tended to look askance at us and in reality there was 
only one bank, the National Cooperative Bank, that would lend to us as a 
cooperative, very limiting. In addition that bank was requiring 100% 
presale of all units before they would give us a construction loan, also 
very limiting. So after soul searching we changed to a condo association so 
we could have more options from lenders and because our attorney said that 
while as a condo association we were technically obligated to not 
discriminate, in acutal practice we would attract the people who had 
similar values to ours becuase of who we are and how we talk about our 
community, how we welcome visitors and so on.

We also formed an LLC as our development company. It will exist only so 
long as the project is under construction and will then cease to exist.  We 
are all members and are on the board of the LLC. New members are voted in 
to the LLC but we are careful not to say or think of this as a vote of 
membership in the community only in the LLC. If we did we could be open to 
lawsuits for discrimination. This may sound like splitting hairs but I 
think the distinction is important.

So I hope this is helpful. It may sound a little disjointed. In summary I 
believe that the true selection or deselection rules will be in how you are 
who you are with each other, with potential prospectors, and with the 
larger community around you. With respect to legal structures it would be 
wise to check with federal, state and local laws and speak with an 
attorney.

Doug,
Songaia Cohousing,
Bothell, Washington

On Friday, August 18, 2000 6:36 PM, pase6560 [at] pacbell.net 
[SMTP:pase6560 [at] pacbell.net] wrote:
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| Our cohousing group is in the design process and have formed a Limited =
| Liability Company.  Our Operating Agreement needs to state how members =
| are admitted.  At present, we automatically admit anyone who wants to =
| become a member and can make a 5% down payment.  We don't want to =
| discriminate against anyone, but what if a person who otherwise =
| qualifies would be detrimental to the group for some reason?  How do =
| other cohousing groups admit members? =20
|
| >From Sonja Eriksson, Oak Creek Commons, Paso Robles, CA
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| <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>
| <P class=3DMsoNormal>Our cohousing group is in the design process and =
| have formed=20
| a Limited Liability Company.<SPAN=20
| style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp;</SPAN>Our Operating =
| Agreement&nbsp;needs=20
| to state how members are admitted.<SPAN style=3D"mso-spacerun: =
| yes">&nbsp;=20
| </SPAN>At present, we automatically admit anyone who wants to become a =
| member=20
| and can make a 5% down payment.<SPAN style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; =
| </SPAN>We=20
| don&#8217;t want to discriminate against anyone, but what if a person =
| who otherwise=20
| qualifies would be detrimental to the group for some reason?<SPAN=20
| style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </SPAN>How do other cohousing groups =
| admit=20
| members?<SPAN style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </SPAN></P><SPAN=20
| style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">
| <P class=3DMsoNormal>From Sonja Eriksson, Oak Creek Commons, Paso =
| Robles,=20
| CA</P></SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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RE: Admitting cohousing members	<– Date –> <– Thread –>
From: Diane or Douglas (ddhleearthlink.net)
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 20:53:02 -0600 (MDT)