Cohousing-L Mailing List: Ownership of more than one unit

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Nov 3, 2020, at 11:45 AM, Melanie Mindlin <sassetta [at] mind.net> wrote:

> Recently, one of our members has purchased a couple of the homes when they 
> came up for sale and rented them to people who were interested in 
> experiencing our community before deciding to buy. 

We have policies that prevent absentee owners, who are assumed to be investors 
not interested in cohousing, but the question has arisen about a resident owner 
owning 2 or more units.

What affect has that had on other communities? 

In condominiums, the issues relate to the percentage of ownership because votes 
are apportioned on that basis. Larger units have “bigger” votes and owning two 
units would mean a very big vote for that owner. 

We have a voting back-up that we have never used but if we had a major 
conflict, I can see it happening. And in a major conflict is where the weight 
or number of votes make the difference. Only the owners would be voting, which 
is not true in most of our decisions.

The question is being raised in a review of our Bylaws but we don’t know what 
to do with it. What do we need to consider?

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org