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

[Mac Thomson (mac]

Maybe we're naive, but we don't put hardly any energy into what's  
legally enforceable in our CC&R's.  I suppose that could come back  
and bite us in the butt some day.  Where we do put a LOT of energy is  
in trying to nurture a close knit community supported by our  
agreements, which are really only enforceable by our mutual goodwill.

IMHO, if we're looking to resolve conflicts through legal means, we  
ought not have even bothered with a cohousing community.  Getting  
lawyers and the legal system involved is not likely to build trust  
and relationships.  That's not to say we don't have good CC&R's.   
They're just way in the background for a very rainy day, which  
hopefully never comes.

The way that manifests with new members is that we want to make sure  
that prospective members are thoroughly familiar with our community,  
know what they're getting into, and have carefully considered their  
decision to live here.  To that end, we have them complete a  
checklist, which includes attending community events, meeting  
members, reading the Cohousing book, answering some questions about  
them living here, discussing that with a couple of current members,  
etc.  The whole thing is detailed in our Membership agreement:

http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com/AGREEMENTS/MEMBER.html


Cheers,
Mac

--
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


"And if I should die in a car wreck,
 May I have Van Morrison in my tape deck."
       - Frank Orrall
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On Oct 9, 2007, at 5:25 PM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:

> Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 10:40:32 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Ken Lewis <kenlewisjr [at] yahoo.com>
> Subject: [C-L]_ what info do new/prospective owners need?
> To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID: <42023.97327.qm [at] web30204.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> 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?
>
> For the first one, our CC&Rs document mentions three types of  
> information that all owners are bound by: a) CC&Rs, b) By Laws, c)  
> Community Agreements. For the latter, I'm taking that to mean any  
> of the community policies that we have developed and agreed upon  
> (e.g., pets policy, participation policy, etc.). Does that sound  
> right? If so, I imagine we need to bind those together to be able  
> to convey them to folks in a more official manner. What have other  
> communities done?
>
> Thanks very much in advance for your feedback.
>
> Ken
> Nevada City Cohousing in California