Guest policy

I think there are a few scenarios you want to avoid

First is simply illegal behavior in the building . It creates a VERY bad look on your community if police show up to your building and you don't want your town questioning what you're doing. There are TONS of tricky scenarios with people which I am sympathetic to but the general rule i have is if police are called somebody's gotta move out / sell pretty quickly.

There shouldn't be a scenario where the victim of a crime and the alleged perp are sharing the same building space for a long period of time.

Second is unclaimed or " free loading " tenants

Most buildings outside of cohousing have a guest clause that says rent goes up with each person that stays over a certain period of time and the idea behind it makes sense . There are potential losses in privacy and potential inconveniences that can happen with each person above the original limit. Honestly this moreso applies to an Urban setting but can come up in more rural settings if, let's say, if someone is " temporarily " couch surfing for a full year and coming to common dinners , events etc...

You'll vote on it but my general rule would be to keep it to a 10 day guest policy but have people pay fee directly to the HOA or co-op for anything over that . Id keep it on the low end though because you can have people make the argument that their guest only stays in their private home and their effect on everybody else is minimal.

A range id feel comfortable telling almost anybody to pay is 30 - 50 dollars per person. ( All Kids under 16 count as one person ) It's low enough to be possible for almost anybody to pay at multiple points in their life but high enough that it offsets real costs Ex : somebody's long term guest doesn't throw the recycling out properly and you guys get a fine for 100 bucks

Third is Paying unvetted renters

You want to strike the balance between privacy and community so I would honestly try to keep some type of dialogue going to make sure a " just a couch surfing friend " scenario isn't a renter scenario. It's very tricky to navigate socially but I would try to talk about an appropriate time to vet renters together and what you're looking for from renters as a community. Maybe you look for standard renter financial stuff and one interview. Maybe it's no financial look but an interview process. It's up to y'all to decide .

Fourth scenario is temporary permanent guest bedroom users

I think having a rental / sign out system is probably the best move and you want to want to talk through the holiday season rules before the building is even built . What you don't want is a temporary person to turn that one room into a full on living situation that makes it hard for others to enjoy that room. In my opinion even if they want to pay money, long term tenancy shouldn't be allowed in the guest room ( Debatable if you're talking about late winter or spring time where visitors are rare. ) Mostly because you want to be able to vet people you live with and you want to lessen the impact on others . Having someone in the guest room where they potentially have to use the common house facilities Alot doesn't seem fair. What they can do is live with someone in their private home and go through that process

Until next time 😎

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