Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Dues and other expenses

[Kelly Bachman (happyvalleykelly]

We charge all dues by square feet with 2 exception. (We might be tempted to
try to change this if it would help our families with children. But since
all of our families are in either the largest or smallest units, any change
in dues structure would help one family at the expense of the other.)
1) Exclusive use - when only one unit benefits from optional activities, we
charge them. Like The electricity used for the EV charger, meals that
people sign up for, covered parking, coffee subscription for morning coffee.
2) Funding by donation - when we want to buy a big new amenity, we fund it
with donations. This helps us deal with the wide variety of ability to pay
for dues. We did this to pay for a heat pump in the common house (or rather
the difference between just replacing the old gas heater which was covered
in reserves vs a heat pump) and the $16k to bring in enough electricity for
EV chargers, a new fence to create a dog park, and a hot tub.

Kelly
Bellingham WA
33 units, townhouse style, 25 years old