Frequently Asked Questions
Eco-Friendly Design
Who's in charge?
All the members of ChaCo!
ChaCo is run democratically by its members and we make all our decisions by consensus. This means that if you want something to happen, you can make a proposal to the General Meeting and do your best to make it happen. We appreciate that some people have more time, confidence and energy to take responsibility for managing ChaCo. Still, the more members get on board the better our community becomes: more democratic, with many new ideas and perspective and many hands on deck.
Are there many rotas?
There are some! We expect all members to take part in running the community, and this includes keeping the shared spaces clean and tidy, cook shared meals and help run our general meeting.
This is what living in community is about: working with others to create this friendly, collective environment where we all belong. By doing your share you’ll get to know other members, have a real say and be part of the community. Members are expected to clean the common house 3 times a year, attend community decision making meetings and take part in one team such as Finance, common house, maintenance, learning, wider community and more. Getting involved in the running of the community is the best way to feel you belong, so the rotas are not just a burden but the stuff community building is made of.
Can I join?
We are currently not looking for new members, but you are welcome to join our mailing list and get notified of any vacancies.
Please be aware that we prioritise local people, and are likely to advertise locally before we approach the wider community. We also have a set of allocations criteria, which you can look at before making an application.
What's the difference between cohousing and a co-op?
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A cooperative is an ownership and management model, and cohousing is a model for community living. This may sound a bit confusing, because some cohousing projects may choose to be co-ops (or not), but cooperatives are not necessarily cohousing.
A housing cooperative means that the houses are owned by the cooperative and all members have an equal say in the management of the housing, regardless of their share in the properties.
Cohousing means that members have their own private space with access to shared facilities like the shared garden and common house, with shared meals and collective decision making. It has a stronger emphasis on social connection.
In most housing cooperatives members simply rent their houses from the co-op. ChaCo is a cohousing and a cooperative, but lets members own up to 99% of their home; our cooperative owns the land, our rented properties and a certain percentage of each house. This model protects our project from real estate speculations and secures its affordability for the long run.
What is the common house?
​The common house is the heart and hub of every cohousing community and ours is no exception.
In nearly all cohousing projects, many community interactions take place in the common house. Our common house occupies the 150m2 ground floor space beneath three of our 2-bed duplexes next to the car park. It’s designed to be within easy reach of all the houses and flats across the shared garden. This is where we have our kitchen and shared dining space, a laundry, post room, play room and guest rooms. It is also a community hub for exercise, chats, film nights, discos and parties.
We are now at the final stages of building a workshop near the common house for all our DIY projects.
Do you have your own kitchen?
Yes! All our homes are self-contained and have kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms. Many of us choose not to have a washing machine at home, as we have shared washing machines in the common house. We also designed ChaCo so that homes are not excessively large, and we have guest rooms in the common house which members can book for their guests.
The only residents who share a kitchen and a bathroom are those who’ve chosen to live in one of the single rooms at No.6 Leopold Park Road. This is our 5-bedroom shared house – not to be confused with our common house!
Do I get free childcare?
No. But you can expect your neighbours to want to help out if they can, and some of our members really enjoy looking after young children. But this depends on the relationships you will develop with other members and is not something we formally offer as part of ChaCo.
We do cover the cost of childcare during our General Meetings, to enable parents to participate.
Is it right for me?
Cohousing is not for everyone. Before joining ChaCo you will have an opportunity to visit, see the unit that is available, attend our meetings and socialise with us. We will make sure we share our core values - being open, supportive and inclusive. This will give you a flavour of what being a member involves. You should consider whether you enjoy working with others, if you are willing to chat with your neighbours more often than on most other streets, whether you are open to accept difference and have some capacity for making your community a nice place to live. A good way to test if ChaCo is working for you is to see if you can say how the community cares for you, and how you show your neighbours that you care for them. If you can't think of anything, it's probably not working.
How are the houses heated?
Nothing particularly unconventional. Every unit has its own combi gas boiler.
The government is planning to ban gas boilers in new homes from 2025, but we didn’t know that at the time we were putting our specification together, and gas was the most cost-effective solution for us.
We decided we wanted the most energy-efficient homes we could afford, so went for a “fabric-first” solution with the emphasis on insulation and air-tightness, with waste heat recirculated via an MVHR system. So although we’re burning fossil fuels, we’re anticipating a 70% reduction in carbon emissions compared with typical buildings of the same size.
How green is ChaCo?
ChaCo’s houses are being built to the AECB standard. Compared with typical UK buildings of the same size and type, carbon emissions are likely to be reduced by 70%. In comparison, the widely known Passivhaus standard tends to reduce carbon emissions by 80% – but is significantly more expensive to implement and somewhat beyond our budget.
We are also producing as much of our own electricity as possible, and all of our south-facing roofs carry solar panels.
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Our Transport Policy is written into the planning approval for the scheme and commits us to limiting the number of privately owned cars to about 8 and establishing a car-sharing scheme on site. Our aim is to promote low carbon modes of transport and each of our homes will have its own bike locker. We also share an e-cargo bike to encourage members to do their weekly shop more sustainably.
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We share many of our other resources: lawn-mowers, power tools, a bike trailer etc. Our communal laundry can cope with all our washing with just a few washing machines, freeing up planetary resources, cash and space in our homes.
Do you have your own garden?
Yes and no.
Some homes have direct ground-floor access (all the houses and all the 1-bed flats). These have a small area immediately outside the back door that’s private, even if it’s not fenced off.
People living in 2-bed duplexes have a generous-sized balcony that suits outdoor potted plants and bushes.
People in 3-bed duplexes need to be more creative to maximise what little growing space they have immediately outside their homes.
However, all ChaCo members have access to the shared garden and growing space.