The idea of the Syndicate of Collective and Alternative Ownership (hereafter SKAB) is to future-proof collective properties by counteracting incentives in the property market that make it difficult to maintain sustainable collective ownership in the long term.
Over time, the collective property will increase in value due to improvements (the result of many people's labour), possible loan repayments and general price increases. With the accumulated value, the incentive and temptation to liquidate the collective property also increases. In this sense, the oldest and most resourceful collectives are also the most vulnerable.
With SKAB, on the other hand, we want to support the capacity of the collective movement by securing the member collectives' form of ownership against speculation and private gain from sales.
SKAB endeavours to be as democratic, open and transparent as possible. We trust that through democratic reciprocity, we can hold each other firmly in the knowledge that the shared values of the member collectives remain in common hands.
SKAB ensures the continued existence of the individual member collectives by being granted a veto in the event of a sale. It is SKAB's primary purpose to actively utilise this veto. As a starting point, we do not interfere further in the ownership of the individual collective, and the collectives have full autonomy over land, buildings and other day-to-day operations. Our only requirements for the collectives are that they A) give us a real and legally valid veto that can block a sale and B) that there is a democratic structure in the collective. The rest is entirely up to you.
Technically, SKAB can accommodate many different forms of ownership. The actual security lies in registering the collective's articles of association. The registered statutes must state that SKAB has a veto in the event of a sale. We operate with full consensus, which means that all members of SKAB can block a sale.
We have chosen to create a very simple, flat and flexible structure. Each collective has one vote and all decisions are made unanimously. There is no management and no ceding of power. With this structure, we can control the development of the organisation together, e.g. whether we want to admit 0 or 20 new collectives this year, whether we want to buy land together, or something completely different. This structure has proven to be very strong and resilient, e.g. at the German Mietshäuser Synidkat, which we are greatly inspired by.
Read more in our Bylaws here.
