Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Right of First Refusal

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Dec 8, 2023, at 10:41 PM, Sunny Sabbini <oneshinysun [at] sbcglobal.net> 
> wrote:
> 
> Here at FrogSong, some community members are interested in the potential 
> benefits of adding a Right of First Refusal to our CC&Rs. 

We have had a right of first refusal since 1999 and never had to use it. It has 
been used as a reason why a seller needs to work with the community when 
selling a unit. 

There were two cases in which it might have been invoked but explaining it led 
to not having to use it. In one case an owner died and left her unit to family 
members who did not live here. There was a fairly tense process of explaining 
to them that they couldn’t just use it as a pied-a-terre in the city for 
friends and family. They were also unreasonable about their expectations of a 
sales price which complicated things in other ways. But eventually, they 
understood that this was not like selling or owning another condo and all was 
well.

In another instance, owners had been renting their unit for three years and 
planned to sell it to the renters. Unfortunately, the renters had been 
uninvolved in the community. In this instance, three members were ready to 
purchase the unit in the name of the community if necessary so the renters 
wouldn’t become permanent residents. But when this was explained to the owner, 
they agreed not to sell to those renters.

So push has never come to shove and the existence of the Right may have been 
important in negotiations.

Personally, I don’t like to have bylaws that are not enforced or are 
enforceable or may or may not be enforced. The way the sales process 
communications are now held between the owners, purchasers, resale team, and 
the board, the rest of the community may not even know a unit is up for sale 
until it is a done deal. This has rarely happened but it happens in a way that 
we couldn’t enforce the Right unless you were a  part of that process. I prefer 
a governance system that includes full information for all owners, not just 
those on the board or a certain team.

But in fact, what we do has worked so far.

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