Outside help

For urban CoHousing there are tons of tasks that need to take place to maintain the building and some are worth doing yourself while others are not.

General cleaning

Can be done on a rotating basis or done by a committee .it's very labor intensive even with machines so extremely busy people probably aren't the best candidates.

You can have one person physically do all the cleaning or have somebody create a cleaning system that involves everybody doing a small part. A cleaning company isn't THAT expensive tbh so if you all decide to chip in you could raise the HOA fee to hire weekly or biweekly cleaners

General building maintenance

There are a lot of benefits to having a superintendent for the building and you can save a ton of money getting stuff taken care of before it comes a big issue. In Jersey city / new York there is a bit of an expectation to give a live in unit ( a 1 bed. nothing crazy ) and a salary to your superintendent so if your project is in that area you should discuss the pros and cons of having a non community member possibly living in your community. It's not required but gives you an advantage on who you hire .

Also generally even if you live with somebody that has been working on building for 30 years , you still want outside help with stuff like plumbing , heating , cooling , electricity and the like. there are certain things you can't afford to mess up and hiring a professional gets rid of liability and insurance risks on your end ( you can hire your community members and friends but the money should be exchanged from the buildings LLC to their company and you gotta be ready to call their work into question if it's not good enough. Especially for insurance reasons if things go wrong. ) general rule , if the damages can affect the entire building then id lean towards having the entire building pay for it. Even if it's in the private home.

Garbage

In the big city you can have a committee in charge of managing the garbage to do an initial check of the garbage / recycling but id have a professional give the final say on the garbage system. You want community members to be informed but having that final company/ person to take the garbage out , manage the bins and check for recycling error cuts down on the number of fines you guys get in the long run. if you guys get a rhythm it's possible to fire the garbage person but mistakes are bound to happen and it can be an unnecessary stress point for y'all.

Small repairs and not consequential work

I think you should DIY and elbow grease Alot of stuff that your group is physically mentally capable of and have training in . Anything you can task rabbit it might be worth learning.

im thinking Ikea level stuff that might not even require power tools

Think putting together a bookshelf , using a plunger for the toilet , using a very basic plumbing snake , cleaning an AC , hanging a picture, or if there are common shared bikes maybe chain cleaning and tire replacement,

This is based off very anecdotal experience and there's plenty of stuff that you can do by yourself that isn't listed.

Car maintenance

People can do whatever they want for their personal vehicles but going to a mechanic is the safest thing for most situations. If you happen to have like professional 10 car mechanics in the same building that are willing to invest into proper equipment I guess it's possible to service cars yourself but it's extremely unlikely

Furniture moving

If you invest in the proper equipment it's possible but id also advise against moving heavy furniture without professional help.

Until next time 😎

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