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Old 08-07-2020, 10:15 AM   #48
mneck1814
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Hartford, VT/Moultonborough
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I guess our family is in the minority for making joint ownership work. Our camp was originally our family homestead, built in 1814, and has been passed down through 7 generations and used only seasonally since 1971. My mom and her siblings are the first generation to own the properties as a group and since they took over in 1997, things have run fairly smoothly.

I think there are several contributing reasons why things have worked. The first being they all genuinely care about the house and its place in our family history for the last 2 centuries.

Another being that before my grandmother gave her kids the house she invested a significant amount of money into it (new siding, windows, roof, foundation work, etc) to make sure that it did not become an immediate burden to her children. Additionally, when my grandmother passed a few years later, some money was put aside to help with expenses.

When the siblings took over, an extensive list of rules was put in place to define everything from how you schedule your time at the lake to what is turned off or left on when you leave. This has been very helpful to reduce potential conflict points.

I think the most difficult decision was how to fund operations. The siblings worked through many different scenarios, and ultimately decided that they would set a budget for the upcoming year and everyone would be assessed to same dues, regardless of their usage. They also decided that renting it out would not be an option to raise funds.

I think the rule that creates the most tension is that the "cousins generation" (spanning in age from 31-53) is not allowed to occupy the camp overnight without an owner present. 20 years ago this was rooted more in nobody wanting their children/nieces/nephews having huge parties at the lake, these days it has more to do with the owners being retired and each wanting as much time as they can have at the lake and don't want to be competing for scheduling with the next generation. For our branch, this isn't an issue as we enjoy being their with my parents for our vacation weeks and weekends - we are also close with our Aunts and Uncles and get invitations to join them regularly. My feeling is they pay the bills they should get first dibs for use.

One sibling (my mom) is the manager and collects all of the dues, pays the bills, schedules and coordinates maintenance, and keeps the master calendar.

I do think there will be some issues when it comes to deciding who it gets left to in the next generation. But, not everyone has an interest in the house/lake or the means to support it. Thankfully I have never heard anyone, in either generation, talk about camp as a financial asset, in fact, one sibling who didn't use the property signed off and gave his siblings his portion.

There have certainly been squabbles and bumps along the way, but, so far they have been able to work it out.
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