Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: what info do new/prospective owners need?

[Michael Barrett (mbarrett]

. . . . all owners are bound by a) CC&Rs, b) By Laws, c) Community Agreements.

 I believe that while the CC&Rs, By Laws and Community Agreements may all 
represent community requirements and agreements, they are virtually 
unenforceable - unless perhaps the community wants to go down to the court 
house and start filing papers - which I suspect would not achieve the hoped for 
results. 

In my experience, at two communities, owners follow community practices (which 
may differ slightly or significantly from the CC&Rs,  By Laws, and Community 
Agreements) because they choose to, not because they are forced to by threat of 
sanctions. And generally there aren't any sanctions anyway.
To answer your questions Ken: 

1) I'd say new buyers need the CC&Rs, Bylaws, and Community Agreements AND a 
lot more besides - i.e. all the unwritten habits, customs, norms, expectations, 
hopes and fears of your community - recognizing that it is a dynamic living 
organization and things (i.e. the habits, customs, norms, expectations, hopes 
and fears) will almost certainly change with time.   
2) As soon as possible after the prospect has expressed serious interest. The 
seller is selling real estate: the community needs to be selling the community 
- realistically -  i.e. the joys and opportunities, together with the possible 
frustrations that community living can sometimes entail.

Michael Barrett
Who loves living at Shadowlake Village, Blacksburg, VA    

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Lewis" <kenlewisjr [at] yahoo.com>
To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 1:40 PM
Subject: [C-L]_ what info do new/prospective owners need?


> The first house in my community (less than two years old) is getting ready to 
> be sold. We have two questions: 
> 
>    1) What information do new buyers need?
>    2) When in the process of marketing, selling, buying should the requisite 
> info be conveyed to the new owner?