• @5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      262 years ago

      Then organise the renters, let them buy the house to transform it into syndicate or cooperative housing. Social apartment construction isn’t impossible.

      • @AdmiralShat@programming.dev
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        2 years ago

        The issue here is, in my country at least, the people who could possibly afford to buy one aren’t wanting to live in an apartment and the people who live in apartments aren’t capable of buying one.

        It’s not impossible, but it’s also very unlikely

        • @Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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          42 years ago

          It’s the only option though. Bulldozing nature to build more cheap low density housing is not a viable plan.

        • @orrk@lemmy.world
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          112 years ago

          ask yourself this: if the apartment is owned by a company who is in charge of bills?

          in the case witht he syndicate, the syndicate is in charge of the bills, the bills are split up among the members, this stuff all already exists btw.

          • @SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            No way, that’s cool! Where in the US?

            I guess I would’ve thought that the collective unit is in charge of stuff like property taxes, but you can’t have that many names on a property deed, right? Or can you?

            • @pqdinfo@lemmy.world
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              32 years ago

              Have you heard the term “Condominium”? Often shortened to “Condo”? Shared ownership, with an entity (usually organized as an HOA) shared by the owners who pay the shared bills.

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condominium

              Very, very, common throughout the US, probably the most popular way of dealing with the issue of more complex land/ownership than “single building on plot all owned by one person”

              As the sibling post mentions, there are Housing Co-ops too, but, for example, if you wanted to get a low cost property in Florida, ideally with someone else doing the maintenance, but with you owning the property itself, you’ll almost certainly want to buy a Condo.

              • @SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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                12 years ago

                I suppose but HOAs are dicks. That’s a single controller. The above mentioned many people paying into the fund for taxes but what if one does not pay taxes? Do the rest suffer?

                • @pqdinfo@lemmy.world
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                  22 years ago

                  I suppose but HOAs are dicks

                  HOAs are the name given to a type of legal association, there’s nothing in the law that says they have to be made up of “Karens” (and male equivalents), or even have the powers that you generally see in the suburbs.

                  Additionally, for an apartment block, they literally can’t have the powers you generally see in the suburbs that people complain about. How are you going to paint the outside of your 3rd floor apartment? What grass do you need to keep short? How is the deputy chief officer of the HOA going to sneak into your non-existent yard and fine you for planting the wrong sorts of flowers?

                  Literally all an HOA can do in this instance is pay for (and organize the) maintenance of common areas and pay the taxes. So for these kinds of situations, it’s a positive entity.

                  The above mentioned many people paying into the fund for taxes but what if one does not pay taxes? Do the rest suffer?

                  The HOA pays the taxes, you pay the HOA. If you don’t pay the HOA, then the HOA can get a lein on your property and ultimately force you to sell it, like a local government would if it was a single family home and you refused to pay your taxes. Which given it is, ultimately, levied for the same reason as local government taxes, seems appropriate. Do others suffer in the mean time? In theory, they could, in the sense that they’d have to pay increased HOA fees, but ultimately there’s no incentive to not pay the HOA, any more than there is to not pay taxes.

            • @5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 years ago

              I only the know the version of that in Germany and Austria where the property is being held by a GmbH, similar to a LLC, whose half owned by an e.V., a registered voluntary association acting as the united juridicial person of the inhabitants and half owned by a syndicate e.V. that acts as insurance and solidarity among the syndicate and makes sure that no one can overtake and profit from the property. Inhabitants pay off rent-like loans and but can leave anytime. Rent is usually really low and acts as solidarity towards other houses.

              It’s called Mietshaussyndikat

          • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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            12 years ago

            yeah the apartment I rent, bills are already separate so it wouldn’t be that different. We’d still all be paying the water company and power company. And for garbage. Like we already do.

    • @MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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      2 years ago

      Right? And the only thing adjacent to an apartment that you can own is a condo, which you still have to pay rent for, plus buy the damn thing, and on top of it all, you get to be forced into an HOA.

      Woo.

      • Jake Farm
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        32 years ago

        And fuck HOAs. Fucking little tyrants designed to enforce racial segregation.

        • toiletobserver
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          42 years ago

          While of course fuck hoas, they do serve a legit purpose for maintaining the building at a steady cost if managed properly.

          • Jake Farm
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            22 years ago

            The US needs to reign them in. They arent nearly as powerful in Europe.

            • @Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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              32 years ago

              They need regulation badly. Petty tyrants living off the fat of the housing crisis. They’re like employers during times of high unemployment.

    • @JulyTheMonth@lemmy.ml
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      62 years ago

      Not necessarily i don’t know about the situation all arouns the world but in atleast the herman speaking countries we have the concept to buy flats like one would buy a house and own it. So not all of it is owned by the same person. You still have the house maintainer which looks after the infrastructure but afaik you don’t pay them rent.

    • The Menemen!
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      32 years ago

      Maybe in the US. In Germany this defintly isn’t the rule. Many people own their own flats and a lot of people own 2-4 flats to rent them out as an extra income.

        • The Menemen!
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          2 years ago

          Where did I say “everyone”?

          But it is defintly not a given that an apartment has to be the tool of a slum lord, the way they portrayed it to discredit the idea that appatments are a more sustainable way of living…

          Apartments can be owned by the people who live in it and this is quite common in many countries.

          • @akulium@feddit.de
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            2 years ago

            If one person rents out 4 appartments, that means that at least 4 others do not own their home. It’s the same with houses of course.

            Germany is just a particularly bad example unfortunately. Low ownership is a problem because it increases wealth inequality, which is also worse in Germany than many other nations.

            • The Menemen!
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              12 years ago

              Low ownership is a problem because it increases wealth inequality

              True, but even here their statement that “all of those apartments are owned by one person” is far from a given. Especially with new developments this is rarely the case, even here.