I live in a building with a live-in Super, building manager and a Board of 5 directors, of which I am one. Can anyone tell me protocol on how you handle when the building Super goes on vacation? I would think the building should have ample notification of the vacation and that the entire board should be made away of this vacation by the manager. I'm sure there are emergencies when a Super needs to take care of something that comes up and may not be able to give ample notice, but shouldn't the Board know when the Super is in and when he is away? In his absense our senior maintenance guy was on call.
Also, isn't a live-in Super technically on call 24/7? I've heard ours does not allow our front desk to call them at certain times. He has a wife and a small child and they live just off the lobby. The wife is employed in our office, which when she was hired, was thought by the building manager to be a good idea. Many shareholders were very upset by this and felt it a conflict of interest. She had the baby in the office with her at times.
In our 300 unit co-op conversion, one of the units owned by former sponsor had a heat pipe break and flood his renter's unit. Mold and asbestos was then discovered and remediated by the Board, who paid the costs, and now we have issues related to the shoddy repairs done by the contractor who put back the insulation, walls, sheetrock, and somehow, did not put the walls back plumb in one of the rooms. The result is that room grows narrower to the east wall, and anything put against it is crooked. How could this happen? Who is responsible to repair this defect? Also, there are damages to the tenant's personal property and improvements that cost above his policy limits to repair such as replacing his carpet, which we had to pull up after the floors got destroyed by the flood, cleaning his lighting fixtures from the dust and paint caused by the repairs after remediation. Are we responsible for this or is the owner of the unit?
Thanks for advice!
A 48 unit co-op in Queens has a mortgage of $1.73 million. At an annual meeting the accountant stated that the sponsor in order to attract banks added $350,000 to the existing loan. I don't understand this. Can someone explain to me why would a bank lend money to prespective byers with such a large underline mortgage.
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My coop is in NJ. When I moved in 5 yrs ago it was made VERY clear in my admissions interview of the strict "no-pet" policy. I was thrilled, having just left an apartment building where my neighbors cat played in a hallway nxt to my bedroom, usually around 2am!
Unfortunately I have since seen someone on the first floor who sneaks his small 12-15 lb dog out the service elevator & side of building, where there are cameras. He used to put it in the baby carriage,then go for a walk. The building manager told him he was in violation, several SH having complained, but the owner threatened a lawsuit as he said we are allowing other pets and the building manager backed down. I was uncertain of another dog, which came onto the elevator with a young girl, and these suspicions have been confirmed as well. I do know that people have walked away from buying, having been told about our policy.
Now, I'm on the board and we have a possible new sale of a PH unit that has been on the market for some time. The new buyer says he has an old golden retriever that is probably in it's last year. I"m sorry, but we have a policy in place and like others before him, he should make arrangements for the final days of his beloved pet to live with other family. Needless to say, as a former pet owner, older dogs in their final days, tend to have accidents.
We polled the maintenance staff and they say they know of 12 cats in our 150 unit building. This is going to be a conversation in the next board meeting, but I'm 100% against this new buyer with the pet and feel we should take action against the other owners now. There are at least two SH, who gave up pets to live in our building and it isn't fair to them and that is why we have rules.
Anyone know if that 90 day rule exits in NJ if pets are known and not addressed? It is apparent that our building has been lax.
How would you handle this? I'm not afraid of sending letters to each SH and reminding them of the strict policy and then penalizing them if we can, ie instituting a fine for each month they do nothing about the pet.
Hi all...I received some very helpful responses when I first asked about absentee owners...and our board is considering some of the suggestions.
I have another question. We have four owners who rent their units. One owner lives in the area, another lives in Washington, D.C, and two others are some distance away. None of these owners comes to their units to check on them regularly, nor are they physically present at annual meetings (but they do phone in). The board is thinking about requiring the owners come into town at least once a year (maybe even for the annual meeting) to take stock of their units, building issues and repairs, and essentially be involved to a greater extent. Otherwise, they essentially have no role other than paying their monthly maintenance fees. I wonder whether this is something a board can mandate, of course, probably with a shareholder vote? Thanks.
I have had a problem with ants for 2 years. The super instructs some shareholders to purchase ant traps, while he panders to others (like board members). At our annual board meeting I asked a board member if he was experiencing the same thing. He informed me that he had in the past. I then asked him how he resolved it, and he informed me the exterminator took care of it and he has no more problems. Prior to this I had run into a board member in the lobby and asked if he was experiencing the same thing. He told me that he was not and it would be taken care of if necessary. He then said “Well they are not harmful are they?”. I replied “I do not like it when they crawl on me”. Finally the exterminator was called to take care of the problem (I am not the only with this issue) and I waited all day for them to show, unfortunately they did not. I called the exterminating service only to find that my apartment was not on the list. I do not allow the super access to my apartment because of problems I have encountered with him. Today I called the service again and they told me they would be here today again my apartment was not on the list. The woman who answered the phone added my name to the list so I may finally be getting some relief.
I am not very well liked in the building because I reported the super to the managing agent in regard to damage in my apartment and subsequent refusal to correct the problem. These issues include:
• Losing the key to my door and then breaking my lock in attempt to get in. I was going to call a locksmith but he insisted he could do it and I allowed him. After giving him 4 or 5 months to correct the problem (2 attempts) I called a locksmith. The board denied my request for reimbursement saying “I hired him”. Eventually I did get some reimbursement from them, but it did not even cover half of what it cost me because of his negligence.
• I have also seen him remove equipment from the building, loading it into one of his associate’s trucks for side jobs outside of the building.
• When I first moved in my tub was not draining properly and he told me to purchase a liquid drain opener and that he did not know what happened to the snake (it disappeared). He also read me the riot act regarding placing peels in the kitchen sink. I assured him it was not something I did and could see that he was seething over tenants who did this. I poured 3 bottles of the stuff down the tub drain to no avail. Finally (I year later) I got the plumber who serves the building to take care of the problem. I don’t put peels down my kitchen sink and I certainly have never placed them in my bathtub.
I could go on about the treatment I am receiving from him and other tenants in the building because of this and at some other point in time I will. I have been documenting these events with emails to the managing agent and my own personal log. The situation is very hostile and I hate living here because of it. What is most frustrating is that when I told him I was going to inform others of what he has done he said “they won’t believe you I have been here too long”. He was right and in fact 2 board members have accused me of dishonesty. I find their devotion to him bizarre especially since prior to this fallout he had many derogatory things to say about them.
Of course I have never repeated this information and if I did I know that they would just call me a liar. I have one more year here before I can sell, but I am very distraught and would like to leave today.
How would you handle this type of situation.?
My building is now trying to bill repairs to shareholders and keep our maintenance staff from doing work on the side, ie their lunch break etc. I'm asking my fellow board members to come up with a list of billable repairs vs those we would not bill for, ie furniture moving, cleaning of balconies, changing light bulbs etc. What can be billed vs what is customary for the building to just do for a shareholder, maybe unclogging a drain? There also appears to be no consistent scale for what is charged and who is charged. Any ideas??? Being new to the board I've been asked to see where we can improve and I think this needs addressing.
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Is every non-eviction plan different or is there a general rule on the changing of unsold shares to shareholder shares,which have to follow the rules in effect for the other shareholder units. The regular shareholders have to pay sublet fee's ,need approval to sublet, buyers and subletters must be approved by the board. To name a few .
I uncovered some self dealing where the rented apartment was being treated as unsold shares for about 25 years . Family members lived in the apartment for about 5 years prior to it being rented out. The by-laws and proprietary lease state that once. Family member occupies unsold shares it ceases to be unsold shares. I want to check and see if other units should be off the un-sold share classification.
Hi, does anyone know if when maintenance fees are raised do they go by how many shares you own? Mine is being raised 15% so is it figured out 15% of the shares I own or by how much I am paying now which is $590 a month so 15% of 590
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My Board is trying to figure out the cost effectiveness for converting from #2 oil to gas from ConEd. I know what we pay per gallon of oil and how much oil we use each year, but trying to (1) convert how much oil we use into how much gas we would need to maintain the energy usage, and (2) figure out the price per therm for gas. ConEd's website has tons of tariff numbers, but it's hard to make sense of what their price per therm is (rough estimate) for a brief cost analysis.
Anyone familiar with the gas rates? And any talk of how much the price of gas will probably go up in future years as demand will continue to go up with the new rules eliminating #6 and #4 oil?
Any help is much appreciated.
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I am a resident manager/superintendent and any time I go on vacation I inform the BOD, and also the property manager. I make sure the staff have ample supplies to carry out their duties and also go over what they should do in case of an emergency. (supers are entitled to vacation). In addition I post emergency contact numbers at the desk (which would also include some supers close by).
As regards on call 24/7 technically yes, for emergencies. Regarding the super his wife and child, not a good idea to bring baby to work. I would say is the work being done or are you just micromanaging?
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