Forest Service Recreation Cabin Leases?

[Two Fister]

Anybody have a USFS Recreation Cabin Lease here in the NW? I've got an opportunity to pick up one with a decent, older cabin, on a lake that I really like to fish but I don't have any experience with the USFS in this capacity.

The downside that I see is that there is no guarantee that the lease will be renewed at the end of the remaining 10 years. The asking price for assuming the lease is a pretty substantial amount of money and as far as I can tell that money would simply be lost if the USFS says no to a renewal.

Anybody have any experience or insights?
Thanks!
TF

[1pump]

I've never had one, but I have have close friends that did. Both were in the Rhododendron area. I don't think there's much of a risk in the lease not being renewed, as long as you don't draw the wrath of the USFS by violating their restrictions. I'm not an expert in these matters, though.

One family that I've known for a long time has had their lease on the Zigzag River since the late 1950's. I have a lot of great childhood memories of that place.

[wthr4d]

my wife's uncle has had one down in california for about fourty years. He has only once in the 15 years Ive been around had an issue where he was concerned about it not being renewed. that was during a big governmental shake up (change of presidential administrations etc). they renewed without a thought when the time came.

paul

[Last Cast King]

My family has had a cabin on forest service land since the mid 70's. I'm not sure if it's the same sort of deal but we own the cabin and hold the lease for the land that the cabin is on, if the one you're looking at is the same way then the initial cost is probably to buy the cabin. These cabins are starting to get expensive, when we bought our cabin it was about as much as a nice car and now similar cabins in the area have been selling for the price of a decent house. From what I understand there are two ways that the lease can be an issue, the first is that the forest service can decide to change the cost of the lease dramatically the second is that you can lose the lease if you let the cabin get too rundown.

I remember a few years ago we were concerned because they were re-evaluating the lease rates nationwide and in some areas raised the rate by as much as 2,000%. Luckily they only raised our rate a small amount but at the time we had family discussions about whether we would rent the cabin out some or just sell it if the cost went up too much.

I have never heard of anyone losing a lease due to condition of their cabin but once every several years they go through an area to check if cabins are in compliance with the rules. Then they send out letters to the cabin owners with a list of any necessary repairs and a date that the repairs need to be done by(several months later). Last time they checked our area we were told to repaint the exterior which we already were planning on and that we needed to replace a window that had a small crack in it. They didn't seem to care about some of the other obvious issues we were planning on fixing that summer though.

In my opinion the biggest issue with these forest service leases is that they heavily restrict what sort of changes you can make to a cabin and there are silly little rules like what color of tarp you can use to cover your woodpile.

[Two Fister]

Thanks for the info guys! This one seems to be in nice shape, but it's hard to tell right now because of the snow around it. The price is definitely more than a new car (at least any car I'd consider buying), but less than a new house.

From what I can tell it's lease period will be up within 10 years. Is there anyway to find out from the USFS if there will be a problem with the lease renewal?

Seems like these could either be a great spot for friends and family or a really shakey investment if the rug could be pulled out from beneath you without any real rhyme or reason.

Thanks again!
TF