Family harmony and the shared family cottage

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for families to come together and share special moments. We cherish the food, the peace away from our usual lives, and the focus on some wonderful family time together. For those who are fortunate to spend that time at a family cottage, we are reminded of the opportunities to create better family harmony and the challenges that often come with shared vacation property. For some families, managing the shared cabin, cottage or lake house can be disorganized, overwhelming, and fraught with conflict. Between booking logistics, enforcing house rules, managing guests, and other necessary details, an enjoyable stay at the family property can quickly become a stressful headache if tensions start to rise amongst co-owners. These conflicts can spill over into other aspects of family relationships including the family business. As with most things, open communication and active management can help smooth through avoidable issues. This is especially important with multiple owners and multiple generations who use the same property. There are many simple ways to manage this communication such as spreadsheets or online calendars, but one tool we have come across does a nice job of helping to manage the shared family vacation property, called SharedKey.com. This online system was developed here in Calgary by two brothers originally to help their own family situation. After tweaking and perfecting it over the past several years, they recently launched the latest version and now are offering the service to other families who have the same need. Much of the tax advice given out there is focused on how to handle the sale of the family cottage. Perhaps with tools like this, instead it will be easier to find that right harmony and help preserve these special family properties for many generations to come.