Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Pet policy

[Diana Carroll (dianaecarroll]

On additional thought:

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 7:24 PM, RPD-Comcast <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:

>
> Or, what if member is growing pot, or belladonna, or poppies in your
> communal garden?  ... Is your Association's Managing Board obligated to
> take a course in controlled substances, and patrol the garden more
> carefully?
>
>
While your HOA is, in fact, likely legally responsible for drugs grown in
your community garden...do you really think this means that your Board
needs to "patrol the garden more carefully"?!

This is still cohousing, which means (in my world view) a greater amount of
trust between neighbors.

While you may have only learned in today's email thread that you
(collectively) might be found legally liable for what your neighbors choose
to do, I've ALWAYS known this, and yet have never felt the need to police
my neighbors because I *trust them*!

I rarely step foot in our community garden, so I would have no idea of
there was pot growing there.  But I'm not really worried, even knowing that
I'd be on the hook for their decisions.  I love living in cohousing because
I have a personal relationship with *each and every one of my
neighbors*!!!  I trust them to be smart and community-minded enough to not
put me and my family and our community at risk by doing such a thing.

My question would be, if you are so paranoid about your collective
liability because you think your neighbors might f___ you over...why are
you living in CH in the first place?

I was on our community's insurance team for awhile, and I am still on our
board of Trustees, so I am in a position to make sure that our collective
arses are covered, by insurance and by policy and, in part, by helping set
the community culture and values.  I am WAY more concerned about accidents
happening (a visitor slipping and breaking a leg, and deciding to sue us),
or someone's emotional blind spots resulting in harm (a dog they think of
as part of the family going haywire and biting someone), than I am that my
neighbors are going to blatantly disregard the law and common sense and put
us all at risk.

So i try to encourage risk-conscious policies ("make sure your walk is
clear of ice", "the HOA will keep swingsets in good repair", "keep your dog
on a leash") and not spend a lot of emotion or energy trying to anticipate
ways for others to be evil.

-Diana