Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohesiveness of community after a sale?

[Bob Leigh (bobleigh]

Two quick followup notes about Cornerstone, where I live:

Our bylaws say units are intended to be owner- occupied, so we have avoided the 
investor issues so far.  Whole-unit rentals must not be short-term and need 
community approval after (I think) two years.  We don't restrict roommates or 
renting out a bedroom.

One family tried to finance a vacstion by becoming temporary AirBnB hosts but 
this caused considerable... lively discussion and  they dropped the idea.  

I'm looking forward to hearing more about how other coho's handle sales and 
rentals.  E have been here for almost 25 years so we're reevaluating many 
policies and processes.

Bob Leigh
Cornerstone Village Cohousing 
Cambridge, MA

On Mon, Jul 21, 2025, at 5:27 PM, Muriel Kranowski wrote:
> We just updated our whole-house (ie, owner absent) rental policy. The old
> policy already prohibited AirBnB-type rentals and our zoning agreement
> restricts us to a maximum of 4 whole-house rentals at a time. The update
> requires that the owner must reside in the house for at least 2 years
> before renting it out and can rent it out for a maximum of 24 out of 60
> months, and we included an enforcement clause similar to how we address
> non-payment of dues. We too want to discourage purchasers who are in it for
> the money and to encourage a mostly stable population of residents who are
> in it for the cohousing.
>
> We've had wonderful renters who fully embraced the opportunity to live in
> cohousing for a year, but that's not a given, plus we don't want to have to
> absorb and orient new residents too frequently, as that poses an undue
> burden for the Orientation team and really to all of us, and makes it
> harder to do it well.
>     Muriel
>     Shadowlake Village Cohousing
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