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

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> Denise Tennen <denisetennen [at] gmail.com>
> is the author of the message below.  

> Our units range in size from under 400 sf to approx 1600 sf. 
> Our dues are charged 25% per household and 75% on square feet
> 
> The smaller units end up paying the most per square foot but the
> optics are that they pay approximately half of what the larger units
> pay and so this leads some in the larger units to feel like they are
> subsidizing the smaller units

But the small units at 400 SF are 1/4 the size of the larger units at 1600 SF, 
so small units should pay 3/4 less.

Anytime the dues are equal regardless of the size of the unit, the small units 
will be subsidizing the larger units.

I have looked and looked for the theoretical foundations of condo fees — What 
is fair? — but have found nothing.

I think the clearest basis is to stick to costs related to the operation, 
maintenance, and repair of the property — buildings and grounds. The greatest 
portion of your budget will be these costs, not any costs related to 
“cohousing” activities. Those are too small to bother separating and you don’t 
want to encourage anyone not to participate in these activities to save money.

Their portion of the buildings and grounds is what people buy and sell, and 
what has to be maintained in optimal condition to serve residents in the 
present and preserve value over time.

Unless there is something unusual about the design, using square footage is 
probably the best way to levy proportionate fees. 

I don’t think there is a way to do it by the number of persons, children vs 
adults, swimmers vs non-swimmers, if you have a pool, etc.

If there is a feature that is only used by a few people because it requires 
expertise — high level workshop machinery, a special workout machine, a beer 
brewing set up, etc — then a separate fee can be used to pay for those and 
charged only to those who use it. 

One example that demonstrated the SF logic to some people here is to envision 
the costs of replacing the roof. A 2,400 SF unit with 3 floors will have ~ 800 
SF roof. 3 flats of ~800 SF will also have 800SF of roof, but three units will 
be paying for it.

The same can be done for balconies and decks. It is most cost effective to have 
all of them maintained or repaired at once by one company. Then you know all of 
them are being maintained equally well. Unless there is a huge difference in 
the size of balconies and decks per unit, just dividing the cost equally is 
probably fair because companies will usually give you an estimate based on the 
time and costs for the whole job, not charge you for each balcony or deck 
individually (unless they are all the same).

Trying to figure all this out over 25 years revealed to me the reason condo 
buildings are usually cookie cutter with identical one bedrooms in one 
building, two bedrooms in another, and 3-4 bedrooms in townhouses.  It makes 
figuring out the fairness much easier. Starting with a basis that is unfair (or 
unequal) will haunt you forever.

When possible, using exact measurements for things like water usage, 
particularly where water is very expensive, is better than assuming that all 
adults use this much water and all babies use this much water. 

From my experience at Takoma Village, there is no way to predict that more 
people will live in a larger unit than a smaller one or that a unit with more 
people will use the common house more than a unit with a single resident. And 
large units do not necessarily have nore recycling than small units. 

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