Exit and asset-division procedure

Exit and asset-division procedure

Purpose

A right to leave is hollow if leaving means losing everything one has built up. A right to leave is also destructive if a departing member, or a departing group, can strip the community of assets that others depend on. This procedure sets out what leavers take and what stays, first for individuals and, from version 1.1, for groups that wish to separate.

Definitions

• Personal property: things a member owns individually, including tools, savings and possessions brought in or acquired personally.
• Capital account: the record of each member's contributions of money or capital to the common fund, with credited returns and debited losses.
• Indivisible reserve: common assets that belong to the community as such and are not divided among members on exit, such as land and the reserve fund.
• Departing group: members who seek to leave together and take a share of common assets with them.

Article 1. Individual exit

1. Any member may leave at any time by written notice. The notice period for settlement is 90 days; it does not delay the member's freedom to leave.
2. Personal property leaves with the member.
3. The member's capital account is repaid in full within 12 months, or in instalments over no more than three years if immediate repayment would endanger the common fund. Unpaid balances carry interest at the rate earned by the reserve fund.
4. A member who has contributed labour to the community for at least five years without a capital account receives a resettlement grant from the common fund equal to a set number of months of the community's average living allowance per year of membership, up to a cap.
5. Shares in the indivisible reserve are not paid out.

Article 2. Homes and occupancy

A leaving member who occupies a home held in common may remain for up to six months after notice, or longer by agreement, at the ordinary occupancy charge. Improvements paid for personally are valued and credited to the capital account.

Article 3. Group exit

1. A group of at least 10% of members, or the members living in an identifiable district, may propose to separate and form a new community.
2. The proposal opens a negotiation of up to 12 months between delegates of the group and of the remaining community, assisted by a mediator.
3. The negotiated settlement covers: land and buildings; a share of movable assets and the reserve fund; debts and contracts; pensions and other long-term obligations; access to shared infrastructure; and the rights of members on each side who wish to stay with the other.
4. The settlement is approved by a majority of the departing group and by a majority of the remaining members in separate votes.

Article 4. Default division

If negotiation fails, the division is decided by a panel of three arbiters (one chosen by each side and a chair chosen by the two) applying these defaults:

1. Land and buildings in the group's district go with the group, with compensation for assets whose cost was borne mainly by the whole community.
2. Movable common assets and the reserve fund are divided in proportion to the number of members on each side, adjusted for years of membership.
3. Debts are divided in the same proportion as assets.
4. Infrastructure that cannot be divided (water, energy, roads) remains jointly operated under an agreement on access and costs.
5. The arbiters give written reasons. Their award is final, except for review of procedure by the independent review body.

Article 5. Protection of individuals in a separation

1. Every member on either side may choose, within six months of the settlement, to belong to the other community, taking their individual entitlements with them.
2. Pension and care obligations to older or disabled members are honoured in full by whichever community they choose, with transfers between the two communities to match.
3. No member may be forced to move home as a result of a separation for at least two years.
4. Both communities remain bound by the entrenched rights of this charter for five years.