Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Changing common elements

[O3C11N6G (normangauss]

Matt:

When I had first read our CC&R's and By-Laws, I felt comfortable with the 
structure portrayed.  Although I was initially skeptical of the harmony 
portrayed in the sales literature, after reading the CC&R's and By-Laws, I 
felt I could live with that kind of structure.

However, after moving in, the CC&R's were regarded as fiction.  One of our 
key people (he had worked with the lawyers in this document) told us that 
now we could forget about anything in that document.  I was flabbergasted. 
Indeed, in the first year, we violated many of the provisions in the CC&R's 
and By-Laws.  This is when I began to see that this was just a sham.  No 
matter how much I brought up the legal implications of ignoring the 
governing documents, people thought I was over-reacting.

Now after three years, the Board is agreeing to follow the CC&R's and 
By-Laws.  And so is the community.  What a relief!  Due to the extraordinary 
efforts of a few people who realized the importance of staying within the 
CC&R's and By-Laws, we have found that they are sound documents and worth 
following.  However, there are some portions which some people want changed. 
This will require thousands of dollars and much legal service.  After the 
expense of such a project is fully realized, we might want to hold off on 
that for a while.

So, even though there are such documents as CC&R's and By-Laws, it appears 
that cohousing people feel constrained by them.  I feel secure following 
them.
Perhaps if I lived in an ordinary condo, especially a large one with 
professional management, I could spend my time in hobbies rather than 
participating in running the place.

Norm Gauss


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt Lawrence" <matt [at] technoronin.com>
To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2007 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Changing common elements


> On Sat, 22 Sep 2007, Sharon Villines wrote:
>
> > You may never be happy in a community where things are done by
> > unpaid, unprofessional staff. When work has to be shared, it will be
> > done by people who have a wide range of standards and a wide range of
> > expectations.
> >
> > Even in real life everywhere , very few laws are followed or
> > enforced. If they were, we would all probably be nuts. In cohousing,
> > it is hard to get people to even write laws.
>
> If there is already a set of bylaws and they are being ignored, I think it
> is a very bad thing.  Those are some of the basic agreements made between
> the owners of the community resources.  To ignore them is to say to the
> other members of the community that you don't care and you can not be
> trusted.
>
> At this point, I'm in agreement with Norm that the other folks in the
> community are seriously in the wrong.
>
> -- Matt
> It's not what I know that counts.
> It's what I can remember in time to use.
>
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