Joint ownership lake use agreement - anyone with experience, please help

[RLW]

Anyone willing to share some advice on provisions for a joint ownership lake agreement? I am planning to purchase a lake with two other people. We will likely meet with a real estate attny to hash out the details of an LLC, but are starting from ground zero. Thanks.

[A_B]

I have owned one for alomost 30 years with 2 other guys.

We have language that says skiing is first and foremost and trumps any other activity.

Also state split of expenses and how to resolve if one guy doesn't want to spend money.

We also say if an owner does not share in cost, an appraisal will be made at time of sale and if he didn't participate in the capital improvement, he won't get the benefit.

We (I) run everything in Quickbooks so easy to send out reports of expenses and income to owners. We always talk about what we want to improve or spend money on outside of taxes insurance and normal pond stuff like dye and stone.

 

Things that can cause some grief are who cuts grass of common areas, or if one owner doesn't keep his grass cut, or shoreline right for backwash. We don't live on lake, but I know this has come up on other lakes.

 

Only 2 of my 3 owners ski, so the 2 that ski pretty much handle the course, grass cutting, and stone work, the other guy just pays in for it. The non-skier hunts and fishes, and occassionally camps out in summer.

 

If someone wants full use of the lake on a weekend, it has to be approved by the other owners.

 

The biggest thing to discuss is what happens when someone wants to sell out or dies. You may like the current owner, but hate his kids. We have first rights to buy out the deceased owner or selling owner.

 

That should be enough to get started...

[Marco]

On our lake we:

*Mandated that only inboards are allowed:

*Banned wake enhancing devices

*Skiing takes priority over all other water activities

*Set up rotation rules for when the lake is busy (never have had to implement them)

*Mandated sweat equity for all the common chores, or the right to "buy out" of work requirements. (We have only 1 person who doesn't do the sweat equity)

*Established homesite locations and home design guidelines

*Allowed trailers on each lot only for a given amount of time. If a home is not built within X years, the trailer needs to go.

*The HOA, then individual owners, have rights of refusal as @AB mentioned above

*Established minimum standards for home and lot maintenance

 

There are many other things but these are the important ones that come to mind. If I think of any others, I'll post them.

[Kelvin]

Provide for an easement of 25 feet or so along the shoreline for common access for tournaments and other HOA activities.

 

Don't leave the shoreline maintenance to the individual home owners - some won't do their part. Make this an HOA responsibility that is shared equally among all lot owners.

 

Specify that all boat docks, etc can be accessed by the HOA/Ski Club for tournament use.

[Tim Vaio]

All of these are good practices that are excellent. I have been involved in multiple lakes as a group that leased a lake, as an owner and as a head of an HOA. The biggest common item in each situation that came in extremely valuable at some point was the clear definition in the agreement, by-laws or CC&R's that the lake is purposed for 3 event waterskiing. Only AWSA approved waterski boats without wake enhancement devices are allowed.

[BraceMaker]

@ski38 - all of those things are excellent if you have a small group of people who can cover the entire costs of lake ownership/upkeep. If you need more than say 2-4 people to afford the lake, then it gets statistically harder to find a group of like minded people that does not include a few wakeboard boats, and a few surfers etc to contend with.