Stop wasting your- rent - set up housing Co-operative

agrinnall

mohawk wrote: »

And so far, here, all we have is a collection of people carping in snide ways about what a stupid idea it is.

Hardly surprising, for most of the people who use this forum it is a stupid idea, they are looking for a conventional lifestyle of one family/one home, not the model you propose. While there might be a few people here who would be interested in that the vast majority won't be, so this really isn't a good place to find such people (and I suspect would be against the Forum rules to try to recruit people anyway, if that's what you're attempting).

mohawk

Mrs pbradley936

You are completely wrong.

There are many co-ops owning large numbers of homes.

Nearly all co-ops are completely successful in the financial sense - far more stable and reliable than limited companies. Co-ops tend not to go bust as much as limited companies.

So, for these reasons, co-ops can't help but become wealthier over time and as they tend to use that wealth to buy more properties they just grow and grow.

The Nationwide Building Society is a co-op; it just doesn't rent houses; it merely provides mortgages instead, and recently went into banking too to make even more profit to distribute to its members, of which all mortgage holders and savers are. It is so big and bloated with billions of undistributed profit it looks as though it will surely burst soon and spew money all over it's members.

That bunch of hippies in the Ash or Argyle street co-op being sneered at in previous posts have already grown to 22 homes and are in the process of buying more right now. An Islington (London) co-op I know has about 200 properties.

Many local councils also have arrangements with existing co-ops who only take on tenants which are nominated to them from the local council.

I am still toying with the idea of setting up exactly the same idea as a limited company though instead of a co-op, where I and any other shareholders would have the total control of all decision making and the tenants would be at the total mercy of me and other shareholders as we would be in complete control.

However, the idea would still be to offer tenants a share in the profits AKA like the John Lewis partnership. The idea would still be to offer a means for tenants to build up a deposit to purchase their own home.

Profit might, for example, be split 50/50 - half to tenants. half to shareholders.

[Deleted User]

mohawk wrote: »

I am still toying with the idea of setting up exactly the same idea as a limited company though instead of a co-op, where I and any other shareholders would have the total control of all decision making and the tenants would be at the total mercy of me and other shareholders as we would be in complete control.

Read the Thread, thought great idea, sick of the way private LL's operate myself but this para is revealing and shows you don't want to set up a co-op at all. You want to be in control, not dealing with 'underlings', people who may be slightly different to you. You want to be a Landlord lol.., just don't have the money to do it on your own lolol.

I thought Lord Baltimore was being unpleasant but after reading that para I think he's got it in one lol.

Pixie5740

I agree with deannatrois, your talk of setting up a limited company so you can be in total control makes you sound like a landlord wannabe rather than an altristic promoter of co-operatives.

The co-op idea might work for some people providing everyone contributes but I have enough problems, in a block of 4 flats, getting my neighbours to put their bins out.

jjlandlord

Ah but he has been a landlord for 30 years!

mohawk wrote: »

By the way. I have been a landlord myself for about thirty years.

The Ghost of Christmas future must have visited him, showing him the sins of his ways as 'greedy landlord' (his words).
Surely, he immediately handed over all his properties to his tenants, and has been preaching ever since, travelling bare feet from town to town (quite a sight considering the mohawk), seeking shelter at cooperatives.

mohawk

I'll see if I can find a few spare brain cells for all you people to share amongst you who can't seem to understand what I have written. There will be no charge for this service and I don't need to have them returned, thanks all the same.

- I am only thinking of setting up a limited company because finding other people intelligent enough to understand what I am talking about and want to become part of it seems impossible. I would much rather set up a proper co-op & if a limited company is set up, the tenants would still share the profit - because that is the whole reason behind the idea in the first place, Doh !

Remarks like it is a stupid idea and that I am trying to promote a crowdfunding website are really quite weird. What that shows is that the writers of such drivel are so intent on finding a way of being nasty, they just dream of the first thing that comes into their head without realising how stupid it can make them look.

Pixie5740

mohawk, you're the one being nasty. Your opening gambit was, "I would like to set up a housing co-op but still haven’t found anyone bright enough to want to join me." Have you considered changing your pitch so as not to start insulting people from the off?

You've then gone on to call people stupid because they don't agree with you, a sure fire sign that you've lost your argument. Add that to your patronising and condescending tone and you're not going to get anyone onside.

As for you knowing what you're talking about because you're currently studying law at the OU; learning law isn't about isn't about learning a set of rules. Studying law is designed to tech you how to "think like a lawyer". Lawyers can always look up the law in a book but designing an argument and analysing a legal problem is a matter of reshaping the way a person thinks. Four key strategies will aid you in thinking like a lawyer are:

1. Accept ambiguity
2. Don't be emotionally tied to a position
3. Argue both sides
4. Question everything

Perhaps you haven't covered that in your course yet.

Cautious_Optimist

If these existing co-ops are successful and expanding, then why doesn't the OP join them?

And if the British people are not keen on housing co-ops, then how are the existing ones successful and expanding?

So the co-op owns several properties, but all in one location?

How does the co-op charge lower rent than a LL?
How does it reduce it's maintenance costs etc to enable this?

So if I wanted to join one, I would pay rent, but also own a share of the co-op company?

And what do I get for my shares? A dividend?

It sounds very complicated.

If I wanted to share ownership of a house with others, then why not just get together and buy a four bedroom house with three other people, each of us putting in 25pc?

It mentions a 10 bedroom house. Surely that can only exist as either a very large family house or as a hotel / B+B?
Anything else seems unrealistic to me.

British people don't even like flats, due to the lack of individual control.
British people want to own their own house.

mohawk

Pixie5740

Me saying I haven't found people bright enough yet is not an insult to any individual anywhere. It is a standard phrase many normal people utter in different situations without complete idiots making a special effort to go out of their way to imagine it is an insult to them as an excuse to hurl mindlessly childish & pointless abuse at others.

And people who do this are most definitely idiots - hence my exasperation being called nasty, & it's a stupid idea (plainly wrong as others are doing it so successfully) and all the other carping, silly, childish comments. Not one constructive comment anywhere.

And surely if unpleasant people are being gratuitously unpleasant telling me I'm stupid etc & what a lousy idea it is etc etc, then I am entitled to express my own views about such unpleasant comments. What is sauce for the goose is good for the gander too as the old saying is. And my comments haven't been as mindlessly nasty as those directed at me simply because I have a good idea to talk about.

Plainly all these carping posters here just don't like it when other people have good ideas and they enjoy trying to stamp them out with a bit of mental violence as opposed to them using physical violence - which I am sure they would do in an instant if they could.

And so far, here, all we have is a collection of people carping in snide ways about what a stupid idea it is.

And I can't really understand why you are giving me a mini lecture on how to be a lawyer & making a sarcastic remark that perhaps I haven't yet studied those particular skills in my Open University legal degree course yet.

I mention the fact I have studied law to indicate that I know a considerable amount more than a layman about the various legal issues concerning running a co-op, which is very relevant to understanding why it is such a good idea.

And as for me being a landlord wannabe, according to you, that is a clear item of carping abuse and presumably you haven't noticed that I mention I have spent about thirty years being a landlord & have had literally hundreds of tenants.

Cautious_Optimist

But are the "bright people" you seek, not already running the successful housing co-ops you describe..?

I think the most successful business model regarding housing is that of the mortgage lenders;
They make thousands of pounds in interest from each loan.
And given the security of the property, the chance of them needing to repossess, sell and make a loss is tiny...