💡 In simple words: A way for people to share and run housing together fairly as a community.

⚠️ Not yet approved. This page describes a proposal that is still under community review. It is documented here so it can be discussed, improved and endorsed.

Use Case: Cooperative Housing — Shared Living & Community Land Trusts

📋 Use Case Overview

TypeCooperative housing agreement

Maturity⭐☆☆☆☆ (concept phase)

User Group(s)Housing User Group

Ring(s)Eco-Living Ring

Active funders6 (illustrative)

Contracts signed0 (pre-launch)

Cash/Miles ratio20% / 80% (Boost-dependent)

Avg. satisfaction— (pre-launch)

DeploymentLocal

ProgrammeReal Estate Programme

All figures are illustrative unless otherwise stated.

Table of Contents

1. Context & Problem

Cooperative housing is one of the oldest responses to urban housing crises. Housing cooperatives, community land trusts (CLTs), and coliving communities offer an alternative to speculative real estate — land and housing held in common, governed democratically, with affordability protected for the long term.

But managing a cooperative housing community is administratively complex:

Cohabitation agreements: Who is responsible for what? How are shared spaces managed? What happens when a member leaves?
Shared resource allocation: The car, the tools, the vegetable garden, the laundry machines — how are shared resources scheduled, maintained, and accounted for?
New member onboarding: What do new members commit to? How is their integration managed? What rights do they have from day one vs. after probation?
Conflict resolution: Noise, cleanliness, guests, lifestyle differences — conflicts are inevitable in shared living. Without clear agreements and processes, they escalate.
Governance participation: Meetings, votes, decisions — how are they documented and how do absent members participate?

Most coops handle this with a mix of informal agreements, word-of-mouth rules, and occasional community meetings that become emotionally charged. The result: burnout among the most engaged members, unequal application of rules, and departures that feel unfair to everyone.

The WikiDeal opportunity: bring contract clarity and governance tools to cooperative housing communities without imposing corporate-style bureaucracy.

2. The WikiDeal Concept

WikiDeal offers cooperative housing communities a modular governance and contract toolkit:

Community Charter: A living document — the community's constitution. Covers values, decision-making rules, conflict resolution process, and the rights and responsibilities of members. Published on WikiDeal's open wiki, adaptable under CC BY-SA.
Cohabitation Agreement: Signed by each member upon joining. Covers private space vs. shared space rules, noise, guests, pets, cleanliness standards, and financial contributions.
Shared Resource Protocols: Individual mini-contracts for each shared resource — the car, the workshop, the garden plot. Who has access, how is usage tracked, who pays for maintenance?
Member Onboarding & Exit: A structured process for new member integration and graceful exits — including a transition period, knowledge transfer, and deposit return.
Governance Log: All decisions made by the community are recorded on WikiDeal — time-stamped, searchable, and accessible to all members. No more "we decided that at the meeting in March" without a record.

WikiDeal's role is contract Infrastructure and governance memory. The community retains full autonomy over its own rules — WikiDeal provides the tools to write them down, agree on them, and remember them.

3. User Journey (7 steps)

Community Registration

The housing community registers as a WikiDeal user group. An administrator (rotating role) is designated. The community's founding documents (statutes, charter) are uploaded and linked to the WikiDeal profile.

Charter Creation

The community uses WikiDeal's Charter Builder to create or import their community charter. The builder provides standard clauses (conflict resolution, meeting rules, financial contributions) which the community can modify. Once finalized, the charter is voted on by all members and published on the community's WikiDeal page.

Member Onboarding

New members go through a structured onboarding: they receive the charter, the cohabitation agreement, and a community welcome document. They sign the cohabitation agreement digitally. A 3-month integration period begins, during which a mentor member is assigned.

Shared Resource Management

Each shared resource is registered on WikiDeal with its own protocol: booking calendar, maintenance schedule, cost-sharing formula. Members can book shared resources via the WikiDeal interface. Usage is logged automatically.

Governance & Decisions

Community meetings are logged on WikiDeal. Decisions are recorded with vote counts and reasoning. Absent members can cast weighted asynchronous votes within a defined window. The governance log is accessible to all members, past and present.

Conflict Resolution

When a conflict arises, any member can initiate a WikiDeal mediation request. The conflict is first addressed through the community's own process (defined in the charter). If unresolved, a WikiDeal human intermediary steps in — with access to the governance log and cohabitation agreements for context.

Member Exit & Continuity

When a member leaves, the exit protocol activates: knowledge transfer checklist, shared resource handover, deposit calculation, and a farewell document acknowledging contributions. The departing member's governance log remains accessible for continuity.

4. Model Contract (simplified)

📋 Cohabitation Agreement — Cooperative Housing (WikiDeal Template)

Article 1 — Parties The Community: [Community Name], WikiDeal User Group ID [XXXX], located at [address]. The Member: [First Name Last Name], WikiDeal ID [XXXX], room/unit [X].

Article 2 — Private Space The Member has exclusive use of [Room/Unit X], area [X m²], from [start date]. Monthly contribution to shared costs: [CHF/EUR X]. The contribution covers: [rent share / utilities / maintenance fund / as itemized in Annex A].

Article 3 — Shared Spaces The Member has equal access to all shared spaces: [kitchen, living room, garden, workshop, etc.]. Shared space rules are defined in the Community Charter (Annex B). The Member acknowledges having read and agreed to the Charter.

Article 4 — Shared Resources The Member may use shared resources (car, tools, etc.) according to the resource protocols published on the WikiDeal community page. Booking conflicts are resolved by the rotating resource manager. Damage to shared resources is repaired at cost by the responsible member.

Article 5 — Governance Participation The Member commits to: (a) attending at least [X%] of community meetings per year, or voting asynchronously within [48 hours]; (b) taking on at least one shared responsibility role per year (rotating basis); (c) contributing to the governance log after decisions.

Article 6 — Guests Short-term guests (1–3 nights) are welcome without prior notice. Guests staying [4–14 nights] require notification to the community. Guests staying more than [14 nights] require community approval by simple majority.

Article 7 — Conflict Resolution Conflicts shall first be addressed through direct dialogue (with a witness if desired). If unresolved within [7 days], the community mediation process activates. If still unresolved, the WikiDeal Dispute Resolution Service is called in. The Member waives the right to legal action for disputes under CHF/EUR [amount] before exhausting these processes.

Article 8 — Exit Protocol The Member gives [30 days] written notice of departure. During the notice period: knowledge transfer, resource handover, and deposit calculation. The deposit [CHF/EUR X] is returned within [15 days] of departure, less any documented damages or outstanding contributions.

5. Concrete Scenario

🏠 Example: Ecopol Living Lab, Geneva

Situation: Ecopol is a cooperative living community in Geneva — 18 adults and 4 children sharing a converted farmhouse. The community has existed for 6 years. It has a charter, but it was written in 2019 and nobody remembers what it says. Three governance disputes in the last year were never formally resolved. Two members left over a conflict about the shared car. The community wants to formalize without losing its warmth.

The challenge: Update the governance Infrastructure without making the community feel like a corporation. Members are idealistic — they are allergic to bureaucracy. But they are exhausted by unresolved conflicts.

WikiDeal Migration:

Ecopol registers as a WikiDeal user group. The Ecopol living lab becomes one of WikiDeal's official test sites — the community gets free access to all tools in exchange for publishing what they learn.
Over two community evenings, members use the Charter Builder to update the 2019 charter. The new charter is voted on (17/18 in favor, one abstention). Published on WikiDeal.
All 18 members sign updated cohabitation agreements. The shared car gets a proper resource protocol — booking calendar, maintenance fund, cost-sharing formula. Three immediate bookings happen the same day.
Month 4: first conflict (noise dispute between two rooms). The mediation process activates for the first time. Resolved in 6 days — the fastest and least damaging resolution in the community's history.
Ecopol presents its experience at the WikiDeal Community Migrations Observatory. Four other coliving communities in Switzerland and France begin the same process.

Governance log entries (year 1): 47 decisions recorded, 12 shared resource bookings per week average, 2 conflicts resolved through mediation. Zero legal disputes.

6. Frequently Asked Questions

Does WikiDeal work for formal housing cooperatives (with legal registration)? Yes. WikiDeal's contract layer works alongside formal legal structures. For legally registered cooperatives, WikiDeal provides the internal governance and contract tools — it does not replace the official statutes but complements them with practical day-to-day tools.

What about community land trusts (CLTs)? CLTs have specific legal structures that vary by country. WikiDeal can serve as the governance and contract layer for the community living on CLT land, while the CLT's legal structure remains handled by specialized legal counsel. WikiDeal's libre licensed contracts can be adapted for CLT-specific clauses.

How does WikiDeal handle communities without internet access? WikiDeal is designed to work asynchronously. Decisions can be recorded by a designated member on behalf of the community. Paper versions of all contracts can be generated and stored physically — digital signatures are optional.

Can WikiDeal handle financial contributions and rent payments? WikiDeal records financial agreements and tracks contributions, but does not process payments directly. Communities can use any payment method — bank transfer, cash, internal credit — and record Transactions on WikiDeal for transparency.

What happens if the community dissolves? All governance records, contracts, and decisions are exportable in portable formats (PDF, JSON). The community can take everything with them. WikiDeal does not hold data hostage — this is a core principle of the platform.

📊 Success Indicators

Key performance indicators for the Cooperative Housing marketplace use case. These targets are indicative and community-modifiable as the programme matures.

Properties in Network

≥ 10 / region

Target for cooperative housing network viability per regional cluster

Average Occupancy Rate

≥ 80%

Proportion of available housing units occupied at any time

Member Satisfaction

≥ 4.2 / 5

Annual survey of cooperative members on housing quality and governance

Commission Rate

≤ 1.5%

Platform Commission on cooperative housing Transactions

Governance Participation Rate

≥ 60%

Percentage of cooperative members voting in annual assembly

New Properties Onboarded / Year

≥ 5 / region

Annual growth of the regional housing cooperative network

Conflict Resolution Time

≤ 30 days

Average time from dispute filing to resolution

→ See also: WikiDeal Socio-Economic Success Criteria

✅ Quality Criteria

ISO-inspired quality standards for the Cooperative Housing use case. Standards are reviewed annually by the community.

Standard	Dimension	Criteria	Target
QS-CH-001	Housing Standards	All cooperative properties inspected before onboarding. Habitability certificate required. Annual condition review.	100% certified habitable
QS-CH-002	Democratic Governance	All major decisions (pricing, new members, rule changes) put to member vote with ≥ 2 weeks notice. Results published.	100% democratic decisions
QS-CH-003	Financial Transparency	Cooperative accounts audited annually by independent auditor. Full financial report shared with all members.	Annual independent audit
QS-CH-004	Member Protection	Eviction procedures require unanimous officer approval + mediation attempt + 90-day notice minimum.	Zero summary evictions
QS-CH-005	User Satisfaction	Annual member survey including safety, maintenance responsiveness, community relations, governance quality.	≥ 4.0 / 5 on all dimensions

→ See also: WikiDeal Socio-Economic Success Criteria

Portal structure (model)

This portal follows the standard WikiDeal market-portal structure. Each market portal offers the same set of content types (the base contract, models, amendments, addenda, lawyer-validated contracts, legal references, compensation, etc.), even when some are still empty:

📋 Portal structure — how this market portal works
Rules of the game	Portal Main — the governing conventions for this portal
Base contract	Contract Base — the foundation contract and its clause cultures
Models	Contract Model(s) — concrete models built on the base
Amendments	Base Amendment · Model Amendment
Addenda (avenants)	Base Addendum · Model Addendum
Lawyer-validated	Contract Validated — contracts validated by lawyers
Legal references	Legal Reference — by country and language
Compensation	Compensation — Conditions · Pricing & Scales · Miles Credits
Use cases	Use cases — real pilot examples
Common errors	Common errors — frequent mistakes to avoid
Alerts & risks	Alerts & risks
Statistics	Usage statistics
Tutorials	Tutorials · FAQ
Debates	Debates (Talk)

Some sections may still be empty — they are listed so the structure is available and ready to fill.