Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Rental policies

[Kay Argyle (argyle]

At Wasatch Commons (Salt Lake), renters are full members of the community,
with a few exceptions -- for instance, because we're legally a condo, they
can't be on the management committee (but the renters appointed two
representatives to attend management meetings, and if the committee chooses
to be influenced by their views even on matters unrelated to rentals, well
...).  Responsibility for the condo fee is negotiated between owner &
renter.

We have 26 units, broken down into
* five low-income rent-to-own rentals, owned by the community [for more info
search the archives for the word "Crown"],
* two rentals with absentee landlords,
* three rentals with resident landlords (that is, they own two units, live
in one and rent the other), and
* sixteen owner-occupied units.

If income diversity is a goal, then rentals are a way to get it.  For that
matter, rentals widen your market of potential members -- a number of our
more enthusiastic residents don't (yet) qualify for a mortgage, and could
only move in because someone who preferred to sell was willing to rent
instead.

I think talking about it early on is a good idea, in order to lower anxiety
levels, but emphasize in your discussion that reality has a habit of sending
us problems we didn't expect instead of the ones we planned for.  That was
certainly our experience.

Kay

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