Legal Structures

Cohousing Topics

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Community Values and Legal Structures: Pros and Cons of LLCs, Co-ops, and Community Land Trusts.

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Sunday 8:30 – 10:00 am
The session will use Robina McCurdy's work with Mandalas to first explore our deepest values related to community, ownership, land stewardship and sharing. Then we will review the differences between LLC and Co-op legal structures and examine how well they support our deepest communal values. We will also discuss Community Land Trusts and what they might offer regarding implementing our values.

AUDIENCE: forming groups

PRESENTER: Kees Kolff, retired physician and former medical director of SeaMar Community Health Centers, is a co-founder, along with his wife Helen, of the Port Townsend EcoVillage. He is also former mayor of Port Townsend, Washington.

Legal Questions

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Getting started: The first eight steps

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by Rob Sandelin, Sharingwood Cohousing

These are some of the elements to consider working on in the first months you spend together. This assumes you have brought together a core group of at least two or three households. Three or four households is even better.

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How is home ownership legally structured in cohousing communities?

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Most cohousing communities in the U.S. are structured as condominiums or planned unit developments (PUDs). In the “lot development model,” residents jointly own the common property and facilities, and are the sole owners of the lot on which they build their single-family detached house. Sometimes residents in attached townhomes own just the land directly under their homes (the footprint), or perhaps the footprint plus a small back or front “private” yard.

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Is there a screening process? Who decides who lives in cohousing?

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Most forming and developing cohousing groups do not screen new members. Potential members learn about the community and the expectations for participation and decide for themselves whether or not the community will meet their needs.

To help potential member households make an informed decision, groups usually require attendance at an orientation, several regular business meetings, and perhaps some involvement with a committee before they can apply for membership. Specific arrangements for joining vary across communities.