Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: allocation of reserve expenses

[evdavwes (evdavwes]

At Westwood Cohousing, we are using a formula which has four classes of house 
based on size.  Our formula works out to approximately 70% of the assessment 
being apportioned equally between the units and about 30% of the assessment 
apportioned proportionately to square footage.


We are considering changing to a more complicated formula in which the part of 
the assessment divided proportionately to size would take into account deck and 
porch size, as well as other factors such as a premium for being end-of-row.  
Rosemary, it would be helpful to have further details regarding your "standard 
adjustments for lower rates at which attics, basements, and porches are counted 
in the total
square footage."  I assume you mean that the square footage of  basement space 
is counted as 1/2 (or other proportion) of finished square footage.
Do other communities use other criteria such as being end-of-row or having 
more/better limited common elements (aka back yards) or other amenities?
?
Note that the use of square foot formulas may be relevant mostly to 
condominiums or other developments such as Westwood where the Homeowners 
Association maintains the houses.


David Clements 

Message: 4
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:51:10 -0400
From: Rosemary McNaughton <astromezzo [at] gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ allocation of reserve expenses
To: bryan [at] bryanbowenarchitects.com, Cohousing-L
    <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Message-ID:
    <k2vf0418ba91003312051y1dd80e2bqe431ec255fef0e97 [at] mail.gmail.com>
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We proportion our total condo fee including operating expenses and reserve
contributions by square footage only.  We have standard adjustments for
lower rates at which attics, basements, and porches are counted in the total
square footage.

We do not have any houses that are not market rate houses, but we did design
a few homes that are substantially smaller than the others and a couple
households ended up being rather large by square footage with two story
additions, finished attics, etc.  The spread in our condo fees is thus about
a factor of 4 last I checked, with the least expensive fees being under
$100/month (for operating and reserve combined, again).

-Rosemary
Rocky Hill Cohousing
Florence (Northampton), MA