Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Do any communities defer dues?

[fergyb2 (fergyb2]

     At Swans Market we established a “Brother can you spare a dime” fund 
during the 2008 financial meltdown when we worried about what might happen if 
someone couldn’t pay their HOA fees.  There wasn’t much appetite for the 
traditional remedy of fines and liens on property.  Each household contributed 
an extra $10 a month for about a year to establish it.  The fund is 
administered by the treasurer and it’s available to make interest free loans to 
households who have a temporary cash flow problem (usually due to job loss or 
illness) to cover HOA fees.  It’s been accessed several times over the years 
and has always been repaid.  We often discuss eliminating it but so far have 
always decided to keep it as is.  It seems to work well as a kind of community 
insurance program.  
     I would worry that outright forgiveness of HOA dues would breed 
resentments within the Community over time, due to the extra financial burden 
everyone else would have to carry.
        Bonnie Fergusson
       Swans Market Cohousing
       Oakland CA


Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 4, 2019, at 4:44 AM, Alan O'Hashi via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Sunny - Deferring dues and assessments until sale, I suppose is possible. The 
> problem I see with it, is keeping your doors open. HOA dues and assessments 
> are for the day-to-day upkeep and short and long term maintenance of the 
> property and if you let too many people do that, everyone else will have to 
> pick up their slack for 20 or 30 years, potentially.
> 
> 
> At my place, failure to pay dues and assessments is viewed as a not-so-good 
> thing to the extent that it is possible for a member to lose voting rights 
> and a lien placed on their property.
> 
> I know cohousers are supposed to be empathetic and compassionate to other's 
> plights and keep the "we're all in this together" spirit, but cohousers are 
> also running the huge business of a community association.
> 
> There are some communities that have set up a "Community Chest" funded as a 
> part of the general HOA dues. Everyone chips in something with the idea that 
> the money can be used for households that may need a "hand up" for maybe 
> medical bills, or paying dues because of a job loss, etc.
> 
> If you do decide to allow people to generally defer, there should be some 
> means to encourage them to pay up front, like, compounded interest, and 
> personal guarantees, etc.
> 
> 
> Thx
> Alan O.
> 
> 
> *******************************************
> Alan O'Hashi - ECOS
> EnviroCultural Organization Systems
> http://www.alanohashi.com/ecos
> Colorado 303-910-5782
> Wyoming 307-274-1910
> Nebraska 402-327-1652
> ******************************************* 
> 
>    On Sunday, August 4, 2019, 04:16:22 AM MDT, <cohousing-l-request [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2019 03:42:08 +0000 (UTC)
> From: Sunny Sabbini <oneshinysun [at] sbcglobal.net>
> To: cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: [C-L]_ Do any communities defer dues?
> Message-ID: <485333817.52917.1564717328702 [at] mail.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> 
> We'd like to know if any communities have allowed their owners to defer some 
> or all of their assessment increases (due to increase in reserve funding or 
> for other reason) to the time of their home sale?  Does anyone here know of 
> any communities, cohousing or otherwise, or have any leads to find any that 
> do some version of this?  Interested to know the details of how this has 
> played out. 
> 
> Thanks much,
> Sunny
> Pleasant Hill Cohousing
> 
> 
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