Free family cabin sharing agreement template

1. Purpose and scope

This agreement sets out how the families who share [cabin or cottage name] divide its use: which weeks each family has, how holidays rotate, how the order changes each year, and how trades, guests and work weeks are handled. The families agree it before the season's weeks are divided.

It covers using and scheduling the property. Ownership, shared costs, and what happens when a family wants out or a share passes to the next generation are set by [the deed, trust, LLC operating agreement or other written agreement]. This agreement doesn't change that document, and where the two disagree, that document comes first.

Guidance: This template is not legal advice. Check your deed, trust or LLC operating agreement, and talk to a lawyer about how your family owns and pays for the property.

2. The families and the scheduler

• The families who share the property are listed in Appendix A. Each family names one contact, who picks for the family when its turn opens.
• The scheduler for the [season] season, [name], publishes the order, runs the turns and keeps the record. The scheduler doesn't decide who gets what; they run the order the families agreed.
• The scheduler's job [rotates among the families each season / stays with (name) until the families choose someone else].

Grown children. Choose one:

• Their family's weeks. Grown children use the weeks of the family they belong to.
• Listed as families. Grown children with households of their own are listed in Appendix A and take turns as families.
• Open calendar weeks too. Grown children use their family's weeks, and may also book shoulder weeks on the open calendar under section 4, if the families use one. Those bookings aren't counted toward any family's number.

3. The season and the weeks

The property is open from [opening date or week] to [closing date or week]. Weeks run [Saturday to Saturday], and changeover is at [time].

Every week of the season is listed in Appendix B and marked as one kind of week:

• Peak. [weeks, for example mid-summer weeks when school is out].
• Holiday. [holidays, for example Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day].
• Shoulder. [weeks, for example early June, September and fall weekends].
• Maintenance. Opening and closing work weeks and big repairs, under section 9.

Half weeks. Choose one:

• Whole weeks only. A week is used by one family, from changeover to changeover, apart from an all-family week under section 5.
• Half weeks allowed. A week may be split at [day and time], and each half counts as half a week and is recorded on its own. In a turn, a family takes one whole week or one half week, and a family with half a week left takes a half week.

Guidance: Settle the changeover day and half weeks now. They are much harder to change once families have planned around them.

4. How the weeks are divided

Peak and shoulder weeks are divided by one or more of these methods. Keep the ones you use, say which kind of week each covers, and delete the others:

• Fixed rotation. [Peak / Shoulder] weeks are assigned in a cycle that moves one family each year, so every family holds each of those weeks once in [number] years. The rotation is written out for at least [number] years and kept with this agreement.
• Picked in turns. Families take turns choosing [peak / shoulder] weeks from what is left, under section 6.
• Split the season. Each family holds a block of [peak / shoulder] weeks, [for example all of June], and the blocks rotate one family each year.
• Open calendar. Any family may book an open shoulder week, first come, first served. It is used for shoulder weeks only.

Before any week is divided, the scheduler writes each family's number of peak weeks and shoulder weeks for the season in Appendix A. The numbers are equal, apart from the extra weeks left when the weeks don't divide evenly. The extra weeks [rotate one family each year / (your rule)], and Appendix A shows which family has them. Shoulder weeks booked on the open calendar aren't counted. Holidays follow section 5.

Guidance: Equal counts are not always equal value. If your family doesn't rate an early-July week and a late-August week the same, split peak into two kinds, high and regular, and divide each one separately.

5. Holidays

Holidays are shared on their own rotation, separate from peak weeks, and counted separately. The holiday weeks are [holidays].

Choose one:

• Rotate each holiday. Each holiday moves one family each year. With more families than holidays, some families have no holiday in a given year, and over [number] years every family has each holiday once.
• Share one, rotate the rest. [Holiday] is an all-family week, and the other holidays rotate one family each year. For the all-family week, [who hosts and who sleeps where].

The holiday rotation is written out in Appendix C for at least [number] years ahead.

Guidance: Holidays carry the most feeling, and they are the part of a cabin calendar families most often remember differently. Writing the rotation out years ahead settles it before anyone asks.

6. Pick order and turns

The scheduler sets a pick order every season, even when every week rotates, because released weeks are offered in it (section 7). The first year's order is set by [a draw held in front of every family on (date) / a method any family can check afterwards]. Each later year, first pick moves one place: last year's first family picks last, and every other family moves up one place.

• Where weeks are picked in turns, every family has one turn in each round. Odd-numbered rounds run in the year's order, and even-numbered rounds run in reverse.
• A family may take one peak week per round.
• Rounds continue until every family has the number of peak and shoulder weeks written for it in Appendix A. A family that has its number of a kind stops picking that kind.
• Picks happen one at a time, in order. No family picks before its turn.
• Each turn lasts [length of time, for example 48 hours].
• If a turn runs out, the next family picks. The late family picks when it is back, from what is left.

Guidance: A shared calendar everyone can edit at once is first come, first served, whatever order you agreed.

7. Trades and released weeks

• Two families may swap weeks when both agree. They tell the scheduler, who records the swap before the first swapped week starts.
• A family that will not use a week releases it by [date, or number of days before the week starts].
• Released weeks are offered to the other families in the year's pick order, not first come, first served, and before any week goes on the open calendar. Each family has [length of time] to answer.
• A family that takes a released week [may go over its number for the season / counts it toward its number]. Releasing a week doesn't entitle a family to another one.
• A released week no family takes [stays empty / may be used by any family member].

8. Guests and house rules

Guests. Choose one:

• With a family member. Guests stay only when a member of the family whose week it is is there.
• Lent in writing. A family may lend its week to guests when it tells [the scheduler] in writing first.

No more than [number] people sleep at the property at one time.

House rules: [for example pets, quiet hours and what guests may use].

9. Work weeks and changeover

Opening and closing work weeks, and big repairs, belong to every family and don't count toward any family's share. Each family sends [at least one adult] to each work week, or arranges a substitute.

On changeover day, the departing family leaves by [time], follows the changeover checklist kept [where], and reports anything broken to [the scheduler or a named person].

10. Records and disagreements

• The scheduler keeps a record of the order each year, every pick, every swap and every released week, with the date.
• This agreement and the record are shared with every family through [shared folder, email or group].
• A disagreement about the schedule goes first to [the scheduler / the family meeting]. This agreement and the record decide what was agreed, not anyone's memory.
• If that doesn't settle it, [how it is decided, for example one vote per family at the family meeting].

11. Changes and review

• Changes to this agreement are agreed at [the annual family meeting] and take effect the next season.
• When a family splits or a new branch joins, the rotation is reset at the start of the next season, not mid-season.
• The families review this agreement every year by [date], using the season's record.
• Each family's contact signs Appendix D, with the date the families agreed it.

Appendix A: Families and contacts

Appendix B: The season's weeks

Appendix C: Holiday rotation

Appendix D: Agreed by