Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Common costs: common house, infrastructure - how to proportion?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Jan 1, 2004, at 9:34 AM, Linda Gluck/Treehouse wrote:

> We are in formation and trying to figure out how contributions to the 
> common
> costs should be divvyed up. Base it on:

It depends on your legal structure and whether you are a lot 
development model or a connected buildings model (better name for 
this?) but we are a condominium legal structure and in DC this means we 
can mix and match.

The total budget for the year is divided in half -- One half is paid 
according the percentage share each unit owns in the total structure 
based on square footage of their unit. Larger units may more. Smaller 
units pay less.

The second half is divided equally -- each unit paying 1/43 since we 
have 43 units.

There is no fee per person. Some units have 5 residents and others 1. 
One hopes that the larger units contribute more work but ........

This does mean the smaller units pay a larger percentage of the over 
all costs. I'm not sure why this was done but it was. In a lot 
development model, you might have equal fees all around. Charging per 
member or resident would probably not be possible since this changes so 
often and people would object because some would use the common 
facilities more than others. Based on ownership is probably more 
workable.

Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

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