Long-term guests – Woodsworth Housing Co-operative

How guests get long-term guest (LTG) status

Everyone living in the Co-op must have a relationship (status) with the Co-op. Members and long-term guests (LTGs) all have a legal agreement with the Co-op. Members sign an Occupancy Agreement, and LTGs sign a Long-term Guest Agreement. These clarify individuals’ expectations about their role, responsibility and rights in the Co-op. This also allows the Co-op to deal with any problems that might arise from that household.

Casual guests have no status and are not considered part of a household. A casual guest may not stay at the co-op for more than three months in any year.

Teens who live in Woodsworth before they are sixteen years old do not have to apply for long-term guest status. When they turn 16, they automatically become long-term guests. No long-term guest agreement is necessary if they live with a parent or guardian. They are encouraged to apply for membership. There is a special procedure for those Turning 16 (ages 16-19).

What is a Long-term guest (LTG)?

A non-member who is approved by the Board of Directors to live as a part of a member’s household. An LTG is not a member and has no member rights or privileges. The Occupancy Bylaw has the rules about the long-term guest process and rights. The long-term guest agreement is an attachment to the bylaw. Long-term guests may apply for membership as an internal applicant but there are time restrictions in place for relocating to their own unit.

Becoming a Long-term guest:

The Board of Directors is responsible for approving long-term guests and Management helps with the procedures and updating files. The Membership Committee has no role in approving long-term guests.

Woodsworth members can make a written request to the board of directors to approve someone as a long-term guest. Use the application form for long-term guest that is available online or in the Photocopy Room.

The request must be signed by all co-op members in the household. The proposed guest must also sign the request.

Once completed, if this is given or emailed to Management, the Manager can ensure it is on an upcoming Board agenda. The Board agenda is done by the Board and the manager. Keep a copy of your request.

Application form: Request for long-term guest status

Approval by directors of long-term guest status:

The board may choose to approve a long-term guest for a fixed period or for a maximum period or for an indefinite period. This must be stated in the board’s approval motion. If approval is for a fixed or maximum period, the person will no longer be a long-term guest at the end of the period. The board of directors can cancel long-term guest status or change the terms of long-term guest status at any time.

Sign a long-term guest agreement:

For long-term guest status to be in effect, all members in the household and their guests must sign and comply with a long-term guest agreement.

The agreement is signed only after approval by the Board and witnessed by Management.(Long-term guests do not sign the Occupancy Agreement.)

Talk to Management after Board approval about going to the Office to sign your agreement. A staff member will witness your signatures. Keep a copy of the agreement. This agreement will be necessary if the LTG wishes to become a member in the future. There is no waiting period for applying for membership, but the required information sessions are held just once a year.

Impact of long-term guest status:

Long-term guests have no right to occupy the unit independent of the members, no right to occupy any other unit in the co-op, and no right to a place on the co-op’s internal waiting list. Long-term guests also have no voting rights.

The member is still responsible to the co-op for all housing charges and all the member’s obligations to the co-op. The long-term guest cannot pay anything to the member, such as key money, and the only payment permitted is a fair share of the housing charges. Any other payment is against the law.

However long-term guests (LTGs) are considered occupants with co-op status when the member(s) apply for a larger unit, thereby helping to meet the Occupancy Bylaw’s occupancy standards. The co-op agrees that the long-term guest can live in the member’s unit and the guest is entitled to written notice if they are asked to leave. The long-term guest must immediately leave the unit when the member’s occupancy rights end.

Members who receive rent subsidy (RGI) should know that the LTGs income may be used in the calculations. Talk to Management.

Membership:

Members may propose membership for long-term guests. The applicant must have a signed long-term guest agreement on file with Management.

Help and information:

For information on Long-Term Guest status, contact Management.

The Occupancy Bylaw covers the basic rules about becoming a long-term guest and their rights.

For information about membership for long-term guests, see How a long-term guest becomes a member

How a long-term guest becomes a member

How a long-term guest becomes a member:

Members can propose their long-term guest for membership in Woodsworth. There is no waiting period after becoming a long-term guest before they start the application process.

Applicants must be at least sixteen years old to become a member.

There is no requirement for long-term guests to become members.

Members should be aware that after the applicant becomes a member, they share the rights and responsibilities for the unit. They also gain the right to live in a unit in Woodsworth, to use the common facilities of Woodsworth, and to be involved in the governance of Woodsworth, including voting at members’ meetings.

Do you qualify for the Turning Sixteen process?

Those who live with parents or guardians in Woodsworth between the ages of 16 and 19 can apply for membership using the Turning 16 process.

Those who missed the Turning Sixteen window of ages 16-19 but lived at Woodsworth before they were sixteen years old can apply as long-term guests, but they will not need a signed long-term guest agreement. The regular process is followed apart from that.

The membership process for long-term guests:

The Membership Committee holds an internal information session annually. Watch the Weekly for an announcement. This session is a compulsory part of the process to becoming a member.

In order to apply for membership,
– there must be a long-term guest agreement (LTG agreement) properly signed and witnessed in the Management files and
– Woodsworth must be the long-term guest’s principal residence. The applicant must show two pieces of proof of their address to attend the session.

If these two requirements are not in place, the person cannot attend the required information session.

At the information session, the long-term guests will receive an application form which must be completed and returned to Management within three months. All members of the household must sign the application form since they are agreeing to share rights to the unit.

Once the completed application form is received, Management will do a credit check on applicants and income verification.

Two members of the Membership Committee will interview the applicant and the Committee will make a recommendation on membership to the Board of Directors.

At a Board meeting, the Directors will make a motion to approve membership, request more information as needed, or deny membership.

Management will notify the applicant and members of the Board decision. The members can appeal adverse decisions to the Board.

After approval as a member, sign the Occupancy Agreement!

Once approved, the new member must sign the household’s Occupancy Agreement. This completes the process of becoming a member. Signing the Occupancy Agreement is necessary for all members – the Turning 16s, the long-term guests, returning members (former members), external members. See Management to do this because a staff member must witness your signatures. Keep a copy of the agreement. It is an important document since it gives you rights.

The new member shares equal rights and responsibilities for the unit with the existing members, with no priority for any member in the household and the new member is eligible to participate in democratic decision-making by voting at members’ meetings or joining or being elected to the Board or committees.

Special rules:

A resident who has become a member by living with existing member(s) must wait two (2) years from the date of becoming a member to take sole responsibility for that unit or to apply to relocate independently of that member.

They cannot join the internal waiting list until the required waiting period of two years has elapsed. Any period of time before Board approval as a member is not included in the two years. However, they may be eligible to move with the rest of the household.

There are two exceptions: Those on the waiting list prior to approval of Bylaw 84 on Sept 26, 2023 must wait 1 year only (based on the old bylaw). See also: Occupancy Bylaw, Article 10.4 Death of a member.

For information on membership and the process, contact the Membership Committee.

Bylaws:

The Occupancy Bylaw covers the rules about long-term guests. The Membership Bylaw covers the rules about long-term guests becoming members.

The Membership Bylaw covers becoming a member as a long-term guest and membership for sixteen to nineteen year olds (Turning Sixteens). This is a less formal process geared to teens. The bylaw also covers unit allocation and waiting lists.

Periodically, the co-op will invite people to apply as external members. That process is in the Membership Bylaw as well.

Woodsworth’s confidentiality rules are in the Organizational Bylaw.

Who is responsible for what?

The Board is responsible for approving of long-term guests and approving membership.

The Membership Committee is responsible for holding information sessions, interviewing and making recommendations to the Board about applicants. The committee does not deal with getting long-term guest status. Email address: woodsworthmembership@gmail.com

Management oversees applications for the long-term guest process, including receiving requests and getting long-term guest agreements signed, tasks related to membership such as credit checks, tracking Board decisions and approval about status (long-term guest and member) and for occupancy agreements.

Management is also responsible for unit allocations, based on the Membership Bylaw.

If you want information on becoming a long-term guest, see How guests get long-term guest (LTG) status

Long-term Guest Agreement

This agreement is for non-members who live with members in Woodsworth. The Board must approve long-term guest status.

Once approved by the Board of Directors, the new long-term guest and all members in the household must sign the Long-Term Guest agreement with the co-op. It must be witnessed by staff on behalf of the co-op.

Management is the contact for long-term guest status.

Requesting long-term guest status:

The LTG agreement is only signed by approved Long-Term Guests (LTGs), members in their household, and witnessed by Management.

First, members should make a written request to the board of directors to approve their guest as a long-term guest in their unit.

Please use the long-term guest request form (in the Photocopy Room and on the website.) Return it to Management so staff can make sure that the application is on a Board meeting agenda for approval.

The request must be signed by all co-op members in the household. The proposed guest must sign the request as well.

Long-term guest agreement.

Occupancy Bylaw Schedule B Long-term guest agreement

Source: Occupancy Bylaw, Schedule B

For your convenience, there is also a sample showing what a completed form looks like:

https://www.woodsworthcoop.ca/index.php/sample-of-long-term-guest-agreement-heres-how-the-completed-form-should-look/

You can compare your long-term guest agreement with that sample to ensure that it was done properly.

Be sure to get a copy of your completed and witnessed agreement. You will need that if you decide to apply for membership in Woodsworth.

Application form: Request for long-term guest status

This form is used by Woodsworth to apply for long-term guest status for non-member residents in your household.

Those who are aged 16-19 do not have to apply for long-term guest status. They should apply for membership though.

The request has two steps:

– Submit the completed application form to the Management. The manager will put the request on an agenda for Board approval

– Sign the Long-Term Guest agreement in the office, witnessed by staff after approval by the Board.

Keep a copy of the completed form and the Long-Term Guest agreement for future reference.

It may take some weeks for the Board to review your application and for staff to notify you of the outcome. (The Board normally meets twice a month.)

Don’t forget – after approval of long-term guest status, all members and the new long-term guest (LTG) must sign the Long-Term Guest agreement. Otherwise the process is not complete. Make an appointment with staff.

For information on long-term guest status, see How guests get long-term guest (LTG) status

request for long-term guest status UPDATED

Sample of long-term guest agreement: here’s how the completed form should look

If you have a long-term guest agreement with Woodsworth, it must be signed after approval by the Board of Directors, co-signed by all members in your unit, and witnessed by a co-op staff member.

This completed form must be presented to the check-in desk at the information session by those applying for membership as an internal resident. You will not be given an application form if you do not have this form.

(This does not apply to Turning 16s or those that grew up in Woodsworth and still live in Woodsworth. See the Occupancy Bylaw Article 8.3.)

sample filled in form long-term guest agreement

For a blank form, ask Management or see here: https://www.woodsworthcoop.ca/index.php/occupancy-bylaw-schedule-b-long-term-guest-agreement/