Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Condo docs - private or common ownership of porches, decks, patios and balconies

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Oct 10, 2023, at 3:06 PM, Mayhew Seavey <mayhew650 [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> Hager Homestead is finalizing our condo docs and looking forward to moving in 
> to our community in a few months.
> 
> A question that is concerning to our members is whether to have the porches, 
> decks, patios and balconies attached to our units be part of the unit or a 
> Limited Common Element jointly owned by the community but with exclusive use 
> rights to the unit owner.

First, check the legal requirements of your state for limited common elements. 
They may specify default meaning “unless otherwise specified in the condominium 
documents LCEs are the responsibility of the Association to maintain.”  The 
advantage of the association maintaining them is that a community standard is 
easier to require. 

Are you happy allowing each person to decide what color their porch will be or 
if they will paint it at all? If the Association does it, they just do it. No 
discussion beyond community-wide consent to the standards and costs. 
> 
> We're interested in what other cohousing communities have done and why.  What 
> are the pluses and minuses of individual household ownership of these 
> elements versus common ownership.

There are discussions in the archives on the problems LCEs pose to monthly fees 
to cover operating costs. Attempting to establish fairness in fees is the 
quickest way to understand why most condos are cookie cutter — it isn’t just 
because they are easier to construct, they are also easier when trying to 
apportion costs fairly. 

If everyone has a deck and the same size deck, everyone pays the same fee for 
the maintenance of decks. The major part of your expenses will be for 
maintenance, replacement and repairs, and operating costs related to taxes, 
certificates, legal fees, etc.

With the desire for diversity in all things, this makes fairness difficult. If 
you can figure out how to have the LCEs for small units in proportion to the 
LCEs for large units, the calculations are easier.

We have units with no LCEs, more expensive to maintain LCEs, and with a larger 
number of LCEs. We also have LCEs that technically require no maintenance, like 
small backyards on ground floor units, that add greater value to those units. 
“Technically require no maintenance” unless you assess these units for drainage 
costs so the yards can be used and not become mosquito heaven.

One argument is that the balconies, porches, etc. contribute to the 
attractiveness of the property and thus every benefits in terms of resale 
prices whether they have a balcony or not.

If anyone is looking for a PhD dissertation, this is it: How can common 
interest properties be designed so that maintenance, repair, and operational 
costs are shared in proportion to the cost to maintain that unit? When it comes 
time to replace the roof and it is going to cost $100,000 minimum, how much 
should each of three stacked units pay in relation to one 4-story unit with the 
same square footage of roof to be replaced. 

The number of adults living in the unit isn’t going to be a fair measure of the 
cost to replace the roof.

Should large units pay more monthly because they cost more to maintain over the 
years? When sprinkler heads are replaced and some units have 7 sprinkler heads 
and others have 27, should that expense be reflected in monthly fees? Or 
charged separately per sprinkler head?

In some states, the sprinkler heads are LCEs and the unit to which they are 
assigned is supposed to pay the repair and replacement costs.

So the long answer is that this is something best decided when designing the 
community but it rarely is unless you are a developer and have built a number 
of communities. Otherwise, it sort of smacks you in the face when you begin 
doing an annual budget and establishing reserve funds to cover all the LCEs.

I have looked and looked for research and theories of fair condo fees and found 
nothing. If you know of something, please let me know.

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