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Managing Your Business

Housing co-operatives are small businesses formed to provide housing for their members. They prosper best when they are fully occupied and members pay their housing charges in full and on time.

A housing co-op is not a complex business, but it takes work to keep it going. As the steward of your

You can never get back the money you lose when a unit stands empty. Whenever a member gives notice, it’s important to get the word out, which is usually the responsibility of the manager. As soon as a prospect gets in touch, your co-op needs to follow up promptly. Otherwise, they will go elsewhere.

Get Paid

Your co-operative is in the housing business, not the lending business. It has bills to pay and a building to keep up. You should keep this in mind when members don’t pay on time.

If a household doesn’t pay what it owes and moves out, the co-operative is left with a bad debt, which will have to be

Budget Well

To avoid running out of money, your co-op needs to adopt a well thought-out operating budget every year. Without one, you could find yourself facing a deficit, paying your bills late, cutting back on repairs to units and unable to update and replace worn-out building elements.

Begin the process by

Protect Your Assets

Your co-op has three main assets, although only one appears on the audited financial statements.

Your money and buildings

Protect your co-op‘s property by buying the right insurance in the right amounts. All housing co-ops need five kinds of insurance: property, loss of housing charges, public

Borrow Money

As you come to the end of your mortgage, or earlier, your housing co-operative may need to borrow new money. The property may need more work than the capital replacement reserve can fund. Or you may have been looking forward to updating the older elements of your buildings and units. Some co-ops

Annual Health Check

Making Data-Driven Decisions for Housing Co-ops

The directors of Canada’s housing co-ops are elected to make the big business decisions for their co-operatives. And good business decisions are based on good information.

The Agency’s Annual Health Check service is your best source of the information

Plan for the Future

Good planning is the secret behind a building that doesn’t look its age. Without a plan, your co-op can’t know how much you’ll need to save for major repairs. Until you know this, you don’t know what your housing charges should be.

Your plan begins with a recent building condition assessment that

Our Story

Early in 1992, the federal government announced the end of its last program for developing new housing co-operatives. One year later, the other federal housing programs came to an end. The federal Budget of 1996 offered control of these legacy housing programs to the provinces and territories, but