Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Coops and cohousing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 4/20/2003 10:17 AM, "Fred H Olson" <fholson [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> It seems to me that the big advantage to cohousing of using a cooperative
> ownership structure is that with co-ops, the co-op gets to approve any new
> buyer before a unit is sold.  They can't discriminate on any illegal
> criteria of course, but they can create a screen to make sure that any new
> owner is really interested in being a member of the community.  With condos,
> any person can sell their unit to any other person they want to and the rest
> of the community members can't stop them.

While this is technically true, we have an option in our bylaws so the
community has first choice on purchase of a unit. There are various
provisions to cover different circumstances but essentially we have
exclusive right to buy the unit for 45 days after formal notification of
intent to sell and 3 days after an offer is received to match the offer.

This prevents an "anger" sale by someone leaving the community because of
personal difficulties or an instance where the person refuses to sell to
another member.

We've just had three resales and all went to current residents or people who
were known to the community for some time prior to the sale.

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines, Washington DC
Where all roads lead to Casablanca

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L