Feb. 8, 2010 — Thinking of refinancing your co-op's underlying mortgage to take advantage of lower interest rates? This may be a good idea — but only if you can avoid The Deadly Dozen Mistakes that create horror stories for co-op boards. Over the last 20 years, as a mortgage broker, I've conducted or participated in a myriad of seminars about underlying mortgages and other co-op finance topics, and I while no one can guarantee that avoiding these mistakes will get you the best deal, it will keep the horror at bay. Read More »

Feb. 1, 2010 — Your co-op or condo apartment building may be paying more for electricity than you legally should be charged. Because of an obscure fee that managing agents and others often don't think to look for, your building may have overpaid as much as much as $20,000.

Why is that? Because, says energy consultant Herb Rose, many New York City condos and co-ops are the victims of an incorrect, inapplicable sales tax rate on your utilities. In 1980, he notes, New York State eliminated the sales tax on utilities for residential buildings — but many condos and co-ops have been listed as commercial, thus paying a higher rates. Read More »

New York City: Feb. 8, 2010 — Recent news of note for co-op and condo boards. Updating last week's story, an Upper West Side building is so far refusing to fire its sex-offender super, despite residents telling newspapers he's propositioning them! (The residents, not the newspapers.) The Parkchester South Condominium has to pay a million-dollar settlement because its board hushed up a crime spree. Green cars are in, barking dogs are out, and a co-op/condo association president takes city and state government to task. Plus much, much more. Read all the latest co-op and condo news on Habitat's Monday News Roundup, which now also includes permanent archival links at WebCitation.org! Read More »

Feb. 3, 2010 — Your budget year is over, and you've a couple of thousand dollars left in your co-op or condo's annual operating budget. It's been a long year, and you've devoted a long of time and effort toward your building or complex. And, hey, how much difference can a couple of thousand dollars make in the long run? Maybe it's time to reward yourself — and your shareholders/unit-owners, of course — with a party.

That's a slippery slope, warns Matt Humphrey, president of HOAleader.com, an organization devoted to what its tagline calls "practical advice for condominium and homeowners associations" and co-op boards. Such groups sometimes "take leftover money in a miscellaneous or contingency budget account and fritter it away," he says. And there are consequences to that. Read More »

Feb. 5, 2010 — Occasionally we run a "Weekly New Product" that's not so much new as it is a new idea, at least to most co-op and condo boards. This particular new idea only applies to smaller, low-rise co-ops and condos, but the nice part is that it doesn't have to cost your building anything yet STILL might help lower your building's insurance rate.

How so? Let's say, heaven forbid, your boiler explodes or some mechanical or staff error results in a fire. If your shareholders or unit-owners are able to escape via one of these low-cost personal fire ladders that they can unroll, hook onto a window sill and climb down on, thus saving a life that might have been lost, then you've just dodged a whole heap of expensive liability issues. Many insurance companies already offer discounts for, as one puts its, "smoke alarms, deadbolts, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, burglar alarms or sprinklers," and emergency fire ladders seem like they'd fit right in. (Feel free to add your comments to the "Comments" section at the end of this column. We're curious as to what you think of this notion.) Read More »