The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
(Cite as: 11 V.S.A. § 1598)
-
§ 1598. Limited equity cooperatives
A cooperative housing corporation may organize as a limited equity cooperative in
order to fulfill the public purpose of providing and preserving housing for persons
and households of low and moderate income at the time that they purchase their memberships.
In addition to safeguarding the foregoing public purpose, a limited equity cooperative
shall meet the following requirements:
(1) The articles of incorporation shall require that cooperative interests be sold at
not more than a transfer value determined by a limited equity formula contained in
the articles. That value shall be consistent with the object of maintaining long-term
affordability of cooperative interests for persons or households of low and moderate
income.
(2) A limited equity formula, once established by a cooperative housing corporation in
its articles of incorporation, may be amended only if that amendment does not make
the cooperative membership unaffordable for the class of low- or moderate-income households
for which the cooperative housing corporation was originally incorporated, as determined
and certified by the Commissioner of Housing and Community Affairs. A cooperative
housing corporation once organized under this section may not reorganize as other
than a limited equity cooperative without first dissolving.
(3) A limited equity cooperative shall not sell all or substantially all of its assets
if such sale is intended to circumvent the public purposes of this section.
(4) The articles of incorporation shall require that the cooperative housing corporation
shall have the first right to repurchase a member’s cooperative interest.
(5) The articles of incorporation shall require that the total distribution out of capital
to a member shall not exceed that transfer value.
(6) The articles of incorporation shall require that upon dissolution of the cooperative
housing corporation, any assets remaining after retirement of corporate debts and
distribution to members shall be distributed to a charitable organization described
in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, a public agency, or another limited equity cooperative whose formula
for determining transfer value shall be not less restrictive than that of the cooperative
housing corporation being dissolved.
(7) The articles of incorporation shall require that no sublease of a unit shall provide
for monthly payments by the sublessee in excess of 110 percent of monthly payments
for the unit provided for in the proprietary lease. (Added 1987, No. 254 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. June 16, 1988; amended 2023, No. 85 (Adj. Sess.), § 31, eff. July 1, 2024.)