Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: HOA fees

[Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizm]

Ours also is set by percentage interest, which I believe is the law in
Massachusetts? We'd wanted to do something else. Proximity to the
common house and size of home are the main components of that. Since
we have "moderately affordable" units, and the percentage interest is
based on unit price, those have the smallest condo fee.

We separate out all "optional" expenses of cohousing into our
cohousing fee. This we do on a sliding scale. We develop a budget,
then determine the average pledge needed. The minimum bid is 5% of the
average. Each household pledges the amount they can afford
(theoretically).
We have complicated rules for what to do if not if enough money is
pledged, but most years we either surpass or come close to the goal
and just fudge to make it work.
We move a significant part of our electric bill, which is not really
optional, to the cohousing budget simply to make more of the costs
part of the sliding scale.

We have very high condo fees (and a small water treatment plant that
it funds) so this helps, but it's not the significant cost to anyone.

My home (1050 sf small 3 BR, the middle of the options) pays a little
more than $670/month in condo fee and then we pledge around the
average of the cohousing fee which is $75-$100 per month depending on
the year (and whether my job is 3/4 time or half time that year.)

-Liz
(The Rev. Dr.) Elizabeth Mae Magill
Mosaic Commons Cohousing in Berlin, MA
www.elizabethmaemagill.com
508-450-0431

On Sat, Nov 12, 2022 at 10:58 AM David Heimann <heimann [at] theworld.com> 
wrote:
>
> Hi Karen,
>
>         We (Jamaica Plain Cohousing in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood in
> Boston) have a somewhat different allocation for condo fees than I've
> seen presented thus far.  Ours are based on the percentage interest
> shown in the Master Deed.  While they are higher for larger units than
> for smaller ones, they are not strictly proportional to area, nor is
> there an equally-split component.  Essentially, during development the
> initial prices were determined by our project consultant (Chris
> ScottHanson) and a couple of local realtors, and the percentage
> interests were set proportionally to those prices.  The lone exception
> was where one owner expanded their unit to add an extra bedroom, but for
> some reason not likely to be repeated, we did not change their
> percentage interest.
>
>         Hope this helps.
>
> Regards,
> David Heimann
> JP Cohousing
>
>
> >> 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
> >>
> >>
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