Co-housing for stages of an aging Britain.

The use of diverse types of common interest or intentional communities has burgeoned over the past quarter century both in North America and in Europe, but especially in Scandinavia and the Netherlands. This paper will examine aspects of the particular legal environment for a nascent but growing CoHousing movement within the UK. Features of associated ownership, limitations on individuals’ land use through mutually binding contractual mechanisms and frameworks of positive mutual duties that characterise the legal documents used by or having potential utility for two different British CoHousing communities will be explored. The potential that emerging and adapted legal models of co-housing have for addressing issues arising from the housing and care needs of older people, especially older women and the attraction of CoHousing to families with children, will be discussed. Some potential future legal issues for UK CoHousing will be identified and its contribution to sustainable communities will be evaluated.