Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Counting the # of Residents for Calculating HOA Dues in a Condo Building

[Peter Orbeton (peter.orbeton]

At Nubi (Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm), we provide heat & hot water to 30
units (mix single- and multifamily, and several others like our common
house) via a pellet-fired boiler system. Otherwise, unit owners pay
utilities - water, electric & sewer. A decade ago or so, we discussed dues
apportionment (condo docs by sq ft) using the number of residents. It was a
short conversation for reasons already stated. We did tweak the square
footage numbers to account for types of space - unheated, but finished vs.
unheated, unfinished, and inaccessible. Nubi is also self-managed and
contains a working farm, which we financially support. Some residents have
installed PV panels (HOA gave permission to use roofs, which are common
areas). We also have two community PV arrays to offset common area usage.

That said, nearly 70% of our budget goes to long term reserves, pellets,
insurance, and an equipment barn construction loan. The number of people
living in any one unit has such a miniscule effect on the 70% (or the
entire budget as much of the remainder is for contracted services -
repairs, plowing, etc.).

Peter Orbeton
Treasurer Emeritus
NN&F
Peterborough, NH



On Mon, Nov 29, 2021 at 7:27 AM Janet E. Boys <janet.boys [at] temple.edu> 
wrote:

> We have 3 parts to our HOA dues.
> 1 - WIFI fees - same fee for each unit
> 2 - We are part of a master association which has fees per bedroom.
> 3 - Our own HOA dues which covers insurance, our management company, and
> all utilities (gas, water, electric) except for electricity drawn by plug
> and socket inside the units. Even though the utility usage would vary by
> number of occupants, we charge by square footage. That is mostly fair
> because heating and cooling, our largest utility expense, varies by volume
> of the unit (among other things).
>
> Personally, I would love having individual meters for water, water heating
> and HVAC instead - but the developer did not do this. Our heating system is
> supposed to detect that one unit is cold and another is warm and move heat
> from one to the other. The only gas we use is for the common stove and
> heating our water.
>
> Changing the HOA dues by number of occupants would be difficult to do with
> our management company and would make budgeting difficult. Prior to
> cohousing when my husband and I were getting solar panels on our roof and
> wanted to qualify for a rebate, the installers were astounded that we used
> less electricity (not for heating) in a bigger house than their
> record-to-date skimping little old lady. Children are even harder to
> account for.
>
> Janet Boys
> Aria Cohousing Community
> Denver CO
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l-bounces+jboys=temple.edu [at] cohousing.org> on
> behalf of Alice Alexander <aliceanne4 [at] gmail.com>
> Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2021 10:19 AM
> To: Coho-l <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Counting the # of Residents for Calculating HOA Dues in a
> Condo Building
>
> A question for those cohousing communities that live in a condo or
> multiresidential building, and jointly meter utilities and building costs
> (or anyone who knows of other communities that are similarly structured):
>
> How do you count the # of residents in each condo for the purposes of
> calculating HOA dues? Specifically:
>
> * Owners (and when they are away, renting or not renting, does that number
> continue to be applied or is it increased or decreased?)
> * Children - do you count children and if so at what age?
> * Renters - how do you count those renting? or is it covered via # of
> owners?
>
> Many thanks.
> --
> Alice Alexander
> Durham Cohousing
> Durham, No Carolina
>
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