Overall, this Cooperative is below average at best.
Overall, I have a below average opinion of this federally-subsidized cooperative, where I currently reside. My pluses and minuses are below:
Pluses:
1) Their rent is a lot lower than the prevailing rent for apartments or senior housing facilities in my city of residence - Ann Arbor, MI.
2) They are located in a great city: Ann Arbor!
3) Their location is in a very low crime area on the outskirts of the city.
4) Their location is conveniently located to dentists, doctors offices, hospitals, restaurants, supermarkets, great colleges and parks.
Minuses:
1) They have way too many inspections.
2) There are too many very noisy young kids, who venture off into restricted areas, like parking lots and members' backyard areas.
3) Their Board of Directors is not that open-minded to members' suggestions. Some of the Board members have been downright rude to me in emails in the past, because they simply didn't like my very good suggestions. They need to be more courteous and open-mimded.
4) Some of their policies are unreasonable: 1) Too restrictive of a parking policy - 5 day limitation for everyone in open parking spaces, which is ridiculous! Should only apply to visitors! 2) Requiring residents with fences to stain their fences yearly. 3) Charging a $50.00 penalty if any smoke detector is found inoperable during an inspection. 4) Charging $5.00 to let a resident in who is locked out. It should be free!
5) The Board of Directors and Management staff waste a lot of money on unneeded maintenance, which makes our rent go up faster. Examples: 1) Contracting for mowing the lawns weekly. Biweekly is more cost-effective. 2) Replacing windows when they don't need it. This occurred in 2025. Our windows were just fine and did not need replacing. 3) Doing a power wash of the siding on all of the Townhouses. This occurred in 2025. Our siding was clean and didn't need it.
6) Double billing us for rent on April 10, 2026, which greatly impacted our ability to pay our MANY other living expenses in April - food, prescription drugs, auto insurance, life insurance, phone service, gas for our cars, Nutrisystem weight reduction Plan and others bills as well.
I contacted the management office by both phone and email, but they have totally ignored me. I had to enlist the help of my credit union to correct this snafu and get refunded the overcharge of $687.