Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: HOA fees

[Mac Thomson (macthomson]

Our HOA fees are based on 50% per home and 50% per person.

You can see details in our Budget and Assessments agreement 
<https://www.heartwoodcohousing.com/budget--assessments.html>.


-- 
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he 
hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music which he hears, however 
measured or far away."
       - Henry David Thoreau
**********************************************************



> On Oct 30, 2022, at 7:57 AM, Denise Tennen via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Our community HOA fees are based 75% on SF of unit, 25% equal across all units
> 
> Denise
> Monterey Cohousing Community - Minnesota
> 
> 
>> On Oct 30, 2022, at 5:16 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:
>> 
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>> Today's Topics:
>> 
>>  1. How to assess HOA fees? (karen kitchen)
>>  2. Re: How to assess HOA fees? (Joel Bartlett)
>>  3. Re: How to assess HOA fees? (Henning Mortensen)
>>  4. Re: How to assess HOA fees? (jmcarle [at] gmail.com)
>> 
>> 
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2022 19:37:18 +0000 (UTC)
>> From: karen kitchen <grcamom [at] yahoo.com>
>> To: Cohousing-L Mailing List <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
>> Subject: [C-L]_ How to assess HOA fees?
>> Message-ID: <306942616.250261.1666813038643 [at] mail.yahoo.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>> 
>> Hi All,
>> Our community, Bozeman Cohousing, is in the process of deciding the best way 
>> to allocate HOA dues to each unit. We have heard that some communities base 
>> HOA dues on square footage while others have a flat rate for each unit.
>> We are wondering what basis other Cohousing communities use to determine HOA 
>> dues? If you have reasons for choosing a certain method? And, if you have 
>> run into any problems with the way HOA dues are distributed between units?
>> We will have 18 3-bedroom units, 22 2-bedroom units, and 3 studio units. The 
>> largest homes are about 1,450 sq ft. and the studios are under 600 sq ft.
>> Thanks in advance for any insight into allocating HOA dues!
>> Karen KitchenBozeman Cohousing
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2022 11:18:01 -0400
>> From: Joel Bartlett <altairecovillage [at] gmail.com>
>> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
>> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ How to assess HOA fees?
>> Message-ID:
>>      <CAEL1oedW7bdzvYeH9VwZTRqtzQuLNTRQT7kR02qhR2YXmpQ_ig [at] 
>> mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>> 
>> A suggestion: talk to Milagro Cohousing in Tucson.  They decided after a
>> while to make every household equal.  You might want to find out their
>> reasoning.
>> 
>> For our part, we have been able to convince our local utility company to
>> have just one meter for electric.  But, we still have to submeter for other
>> purposes - not necessarily billing.  The water company does not allow a
>> single meter.  We also will have electric car charging, and we have not
>> decided how to divvy that up.  To pay for the microgrid, each family will
>> get a bill - not for usage, but for a loan repayment.  Per the IRS and our
>> non-profit status, each homeowner is responsible for their exterior
>> finishes and roof.  There are no lot lines, so there will need to be an
>> agreed-upon landscaping maintenance that somehow will include common areas
>> as well as "limited" common areas such as front, side, and back yards.
>> Last I looked (years ago), only Trillium Hollow built common meals into
>> their HOA dues. So many decisions!a
>> 
>> Meanwhile, there are previous C-L emails about this.  Go back to your
>> emails in June, or I can send you threads - quite good information shared
>> back then.
>> 
>> Yours, Joel
>> 
>> On Sat, Oct 29, 2022 at 10:18 AM karen kitchen via Cohousing-L <
>> cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi All,
>>> Our community, Bozeman Cohousing, is in the process of deciding the best
>>> way to allocate HOA dues to each unit. We have heard that some communities
>>> base HOA dues on square footage while others have a flat rate for each unit.
>>> We are wondering what basis other Cohousing communities use to determine
>>> HOA dues? If you have reasons for choosing a certain method? And, if you
>>> have run into any problems with the way HOA dues are distributed between
>>> units?
>>> We will have 18 3-bedroom units, 22 2-bedroom units, and 3 studio units.
>>> The largest homes are about 1,450 sq ft. and the studios are under 600 sq
>>> ft.
>>> Thanks in advance for any insight into allocating HOA dues!
>>> Karen KitchenBozeman Cohousing
>>> _________________________________________________________________
>>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>>> http://L.cohousing.org/info
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2022 10:10:20 -0600
>> From: Henning Mortensen <hmortensen [at] gmail.com>
>> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
>> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ How to assess HOA fees?
>> Message-ID:
>>      <CAJ5CLqQj=AUguLvvu2sHt06BfHhoRxo=drJmYSwf15Tr74hJgQ [at] 
>> mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>> 
>> Hi Karen,
>> Our community, Prairie Spruce Commons Cohousing, also has a large
>> difference in unit sizes which means that using a square foot calculation
>> means a big variation in condo fees. In the end we ended up deciding that
>> some budget items be split by square foot and some items be shared equally.
>> Some of the things that we shared equally:
>> - Our membership in the Canadian Cohousing Network
>> - Internet fees which were offered at a price per unit
>> - Accounting fees which we argued were the same per unit
>> and some others.
>> 
>> In total we pay about 95% of our condo fees based on unit size and about 5%
>> based on equality. In our case there is still a huge difference between
>> what the studios pay and what the rest pay. Still there is also a
>> difference in the amount that the studios can afford to pay and what the
>> rest of the unit holders can afford to pay. I think our little compromise
>> made everyone feel better while not raising the studio condo fees more than
>> about 10$ a month.
>> 
>> Henning Mortensen
>> 
>> ps. I lived in bozeman in 1976. It was a beautiful little town with lovely
>> people living there.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Sat, Oct 29, 2022 at 8:19 AM karen kitchen via Cohousing-L <
>> cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi All,
>>> Our community, Bozeman Cohousing, is in the process of deciding the best
>>> way to allocate HOA dues to each unit. We have heard that some communities
>>> base HOA dues on square footage while others have a flat rate for each unit.
>>> We are wondering what basis other Cohousing communities use to determine
>>> HOA dues? If you have reasons for choosing a certain method? And, if you
>>> have run into any problems with the way HOA dues are distributed between
>>> units?
>>> We will have 18 3-bedroom units, 22 2-bedroom units, and 3 studio units.
>>> The largest homes are about 1,450 sq ft. and the studios are under 600 sq
>>> ft.
>>> Thanks in advance for any insight into allocating HOA dues!
>>> Karen KitchenBozeman Cohousing
>>> _________________________________________________________________
>>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>>> http://L.cohousing.org/info
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> Message: 4
>> Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2022 11:20:01 -0700
>> From: <jmcarle [at] gmail.com>
>> To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
>> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ How to assess HOA fees?
>> Message-ID: <102e01d8ebc3$0fa4fa90$2eeeefb0$@gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"
>> 
>> Skagit Commons opted for an adjusted-square-footage approach.  Each unit is
>> assigned its own square footage plus 1/30th of the common house sf (we have
>> 30 units).  This slightly compressed the spread of HOA fee responsibility.
>> We felt that uniform assessments were inconsistent with the true burden of
>> cost for building maintenance -- particularly exterior siding, roofs,
>> windows -- since we had a spread of unit sizes from 600 sf to almost 1300
>> sf.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l-bounces+jmcarle=gmail.com [at] cohousing.org> 
>> On
>> Behalf Of karen kitchen via Cohousing-L
>> Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2022 12:37 PM
>> To: Cohousing-L Mailing List <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
>> Cc: karen kitchen <grcamom [at] yahoo.com>
>> Subject: [C-L]_ How to assess HOA fees?
>> 
>> Hi All,
>> Our community, Bozeman Cohousing, is in the process of deciding the best way
>> to allocate HOA dues to each unit. We have heard that some communities base
>> HOA dues on square footage while others have a flat rate for each unit.
>> We are wondering what basis other Cohousing communities use to determine HOA
>> dues? If you have reasons for choosing a certain method? And, if you have
>> run into any problems with the way HOA dues are distributed between units?
>> We will have 18 3-bedroom units, 22 2-bedroom units, and 3 studio units. The
>> largest homes are about 1,450 sq ft. and the studios are under 600 sq ft.
>> Thanks in advance for any insight into allocating HOA dues!
>> Karen KitchenBozeman Cohousing
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>> http://L.cohousing.org/info
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> Subject: Digest Footer
>> 
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>> http://L.cohousing.org/info
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> End of Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 225, Issue 21
>> ********************************************
>> .
> 
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