What a cottage or cabin sharing agreement should cover

1. 1. The place and the people on the deed

   A cottage usually arrives with a history. Write down where things stand today, so the agreement starts from facts and not from how it was when your parents ran it.

   • Each owner's full name and the share they hold. Siblings who inherit tend to hold equal shares; friends who buy together sometimes do not.
   • How title is held: all names on the deed, or a trust or company that owns the property. What happens to a share when an owner dies depends on this choice, so it is the first question for a lawyer where the property is.
   • Whether there is a mortgage or a line of credit against the place, whose names are on it, and what each owner pays toward it.
   • What comes with the building: furniture, the dock, the canoe and the tin boat, the generator, the tools in the shed. Say whether these belong to everyone or to the person who brought them.
   • Family things with no price on them, like the guest book and the photos on the wall, and who decides if they ever leave the building.

2. 2. The bills that arrive whether anyone visits

   Property tax and insurance do not care how many nights you spent there. List them once and the yearly figure stops being a surprise.

   • The list of fixed costs: property tax, insurance, electricity and internet kept on, propane or oil, road or lake association dues, mowing and plowing.
   • One shared account that pays those bills, with every owner able to see the statements.
   • Each owner's monthly contribution and the date it is due.
   • A repair fund built into that contribution. One percent of the property's value a year is a common starting figure.
   • What happens when an owner falls behind: how long before the others step in, whether what they cover is a loan, and whether that owner can still book.
   • A yearly look at the numbers, with a date. The weekend you close up works, since the bills for the year are known by then.

3. 3. The nightly charge

   An even split of the fixed bills is fair to ownership. A small charge per night is what makes it fair to use as well.

   • Whether you charge for use at all. If every household is there about the same number of nights, you may not need to.
   • The figure per night, and what it is meant to cover: propane, power, firewood, wear on the septic and the linens.
   • Who keeps the count of nights. It should come from the booking calendar and not from anyone's memory.
   • When the charge is paid: after each stay, or settled once at the end of the season.
   • Whether a night with guests costs more than a night with only the owner's household.

4. 4. Summer weekends and the long weekends

   Most of the year nobody competes for the place. Then there are about fourteen summer weekends and a handful of holidays, and those are what the agreement has to ration.

   • How many summer weekends each household can hold on the calendar at one time. Three is a workable cap.
   • The long weekend rotation, written out by year for at least five years. In the United States that usually means Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day; in Ontario, Victoria Day, Canada Day, the August civic holiday and Labour Day.
   • Christmas, New Year and Thanksgiving, if the place is open in winter, and whether they join the same rotation.
   • How far ahead a stay can be booked, and the longest single stay allowed in July and August.
   • What happens to a booking that is cancelled, and how much notice counts as fair.
   • Whether two households can be there at once, and who decides when that is fine.
   • The one calendar that counts. A stay that is not on it has not been booked, whatever was said at dinner.

5. 5. Guests, lending and renting

   Families tend to argue about this before they argue about money, usually the first time somebody's friends turn up without an owner.

   • Guests who come with an owner: any limit on numbers, and who is responsible for what they break.
   • Lending the place to friends or to adult children when no owner is there, and whether that counts against the owner's own time.
   • The age at which the next generation can book in their own name.
   • Renting to strangers: allowed or not, who handles it, and where the money goes. Ask the insurer first, since a policy written for family use may not cover paying guests.
   • Pets, smoking, and anything else one household does that another would rather it did not.

6. 6. Opening, closing and looking after it

   Somebody puts the dock in every spring. An agreement that never names that person ends up with one owner doing the work and resenting it.

   • Who opens the place in spring and closes it in fall: one owner, a rotation, or a hired service.
   • Whether the owner who does that work is credited for it against their contribution, and at what figure.
   • The handover standard between stays: beds, fridge, garbage, fuel level, boats pulled up, doors locked.
   • A log, on paper by the door or in a shared note, for anything that broke or ran low.
   • One named contact for the plumber, the septic company and the neighbours, so tradespeople hear from one voice.
   • Where the keys, the alarm code and the instructions for the water system are kept.

7. 7. Repairs, improvements and insurance

   A leaking tap and a new roof should not need the same conversation. Three tiers of spending cover most of what comes up.

   • The amount anyone can spend from the fund without asking, the amount that needs a majority, and the amount that needs every owner.
   • What happens when the fund is short for a large repair: how much each owner can be asked for, and how much notice they get.
   • Improvements that one owner wants and the others do not, such as a bunkie, a hot tub or a bigger dock. Say whether they may pay alone, and whether that changes anyone's share.
   • Damage caused by an owner's household or guests: who pays, and who covers the insurance deductible.
   • Every owner named on the insurance policy, and the insurer told how the place is owned and used.

8. 8. Selling a share, passing it on and disagreeing

   This is the section families skip because it feels unkind to raise. Skipping it is also the usual reason a cottage ends up sold to settle a dispute.

   • The notice an owner gives before selling their share.
   • How the share is priced: one appraisal both sides accept, or the average of two.
   • The other owners' right to buy first, how long they have to decide, and how long they have to pay.
   • Whether a share can go to a spouse or to children, and whether the other owners have a say in that.
   • What happens to a share on a death, a divorce or a bankruptcy. The tax that can come due when a cottage changes hands is a question for an accountant.
   • The vote it takes to sell the whole property, and how the money is divided after debts are paid.
   • How a disagreement is handled: a family meeting, then a mediator, and court only after both.
   • A date each year to read the agreement again and change what no longer fits.

From alldibs.com/cabin/sharing-agreement-checklist. A list of questions for people who share a cottage or cabin. It is not legal advice and not a contract; have a lawyer where the property is write the agreement itself.