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Superintendent/ Resident manager - super124 May 21, 2014

Hi.

Im a Resident manager on the upper eastside, Im looking for a building on the westside or lower eastside.

joserivera124@hotmail.com

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Natural settling of a building - malamu May 16, 2014

What is a condo board's responsibility with regards to the natural and minimal settling of a building that causes, for l, a slight separation at the seams in a unit (tape mostly or small cracks) but no actual structural damage?

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Unit mortgage issues - malamu May 11, 2014

HI...not sure if this is an issue for our building, but do wonder. One of our unit owners seems to have had some major problem with their mortgage. It looks like that when the banks were transitioning...well, somehow, their mortgage account, etc., was not properly filed, recorded and they seem to have not paid in a while. They have a lawyer who is trying to sort it out (it's been going on for a long time...they are trying to find the developer and the original backers...good luck!) but it has not been resolved. They have steadily paid their common charges. There are other issues not related to the mortgage, but which have building implications. So, my question is...if they have not paid their mortgage (and can't seem to find the paperwork?), what does that mean for the building? Are they the owners if they haven't actually been paying for the unit? What does that mean should we decide as a building to address other legal issues with the same unit? Thx.

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Management company and other - malamu May 11, 2014

Hi all...need your help again:

A reliable management company that works with small buildings (15 units) needed...SOON
A company that will contract with a small building to do gutter and check valve maintenance needed SOON.

We really need decent vendors...kind of at the point where another bad team of people providing "services" will put us all over the top.

Thx.

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I asked our management company, NMC Management, whether it would be interested in a small building, and our manager, Nancy Candelario, said yes. Although her office is in the Bronx, she effectively manages our 48 unit building in Manhattan. Nancy worked at Bellmarc and Douglas Elliman before going out on her own. We have found her to be highly competent and responsive.

Contact info:
NMC Property Management
2323 Haviland Ave
Bronx, NY 10462
nancy@nmcmanagement.com
347-621-3336

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electrical upgrades - ST May 09, 2014

A unit owner in our condo building wants to increase their electrical amperage. We have some excess amperage available, but not so much that all apartments would be able to do so in the future. We are considering charging the owner a fee in addition to the cost of construction, but are unsure how much to charge. I would appreciate hearing how other buildings handle this kind of situation.

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I would look at the current available amperage for the units to see if it's reasonable first. With continual improvements in technology, most items are using less electricity today - energy star appliances all use less than the old ones. Flat panel TV's use 10 watts instead of 350 watts for the crt's. CFL (spiral fluorescent) bulbs use 80% less power. In my building, we have single phase 80 amp service available in each unit, which can provide 220 v if needed. No one in our 30 years has needed to upgrade that. If the service currently available is borderline, maybe you need to consider upgrading the building service, or at least getting a cost estimate for it. How many units are there, how much excess capacity do you have? You could consider charging some % of the estimated upgrade cost and put it into a reserve for upgrade when needed. What is the likelihood others will want to upgrade as well?

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Thank you, JG. You provided some helpful information. I would still like to hear from anyone with experience of charging a fee.

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I agree with JG that you need to look at the overall bldg needs and possibly need to bring in more service overall. If you are borderline it might make more sense to do a building-wide upgrade so you can control quality, construction and compliance.
Remember that it also means possibly increasing the size of (all) the meters which replacement not only costs a lot to do, but the billed usage cost of electricity seems to go up as well, in terms of volume of usage, not the rate charge itself. At it's most basic, installing new breaker boxes with enough spare room for unknown future needs, bringing in separate AC lines to each apartment, and each room using AC units, on dedicated lines to each room is important. All bathrooms and kitchens need to have GFI outlets and sockets, You might want to install USB sockets as well. You can't plug computers and digital equipment into lines that have motors and heating units on them such as hairdryers, vacuum cleaners etc. So there is a need for separate lines even if the usage doesn't top 80 AMP service, the spread and distribution might cause you need to distribute 100 amps or 120 amps throughout each apartment.
Are you billing usage as part of maintenance or is everyone individually metered and paying Con-Ed directly? Is your building a prewar building with the old asbestos wrapped wiring that is all friable by now, or newer bx cabled? Are the apartments properly grounded? Are they currently 2-wire or 3-wire runs?

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Commercial Business in a Co-op - NYC May 05, 2014

What are the requirements needed to turn a co-ops extra storage space into a commercial business?

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Undercharged maintenance - JD Apr 29, 2014

We have undercharged maintenance for some units for 5-7 years. How far back can we go and collect the outstanding maintenance for? Is there a statute of limitation on what we can collect? The mistake was made on the managing agents site. Can they be held responsible as well if we cannot collect the entire amount from the shareholders?

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There is no simple answer. An attorney could advise you about a statute of limitations, if one applies or not, and couild also discuss the 'thoughts' which follow.
How many units are involved, and what is the % of all units/shares?
I guess your actions would depend somewhat on how much $$ is involved.
If it can be shown that the management co. is at fault, a conversation needs to be held with the principals there to see if they will cure the problem themselves or not, or will they attempt to contact the units themselves and work something out?
Shareholders should know what they are responsible for paying, but many don't read mailings and rely on the maintenance bills to be accurate, making the assumption that they are calculated correctly.
You can also look to your insurance company as well as the management's insurance company if you can't get satisfaction from the management co directly.
A simple check of the financial statements each year should have revealed a shortfall on annual maintenance received/billed, based on # of shares outstanding and the rates in effect.

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Hi JD and JG,

I have some additional thoughts. You definitely need a lawyer. My concern is that if you do not add the amounts to their bills and collect the undercharged amounts; the Board could unintentionally create a second class of stock. I mean that to say if you are a co-op, all maintenance charges are allocated by share. If you don’t collect, you have allocated them less than everyone else and could face accusations of discrimination by the shareholders that were charged correctly. (I would hate to think that you would have to refund everyone else just to make things equal if you don’t try to collect the undercharged owners). If you are ultimately having trouble collecting, one strategy is to charge the bills and collect the funds upon the transfer of the unit with the appropriate monthly late fees &/or interest.

Additionally, even if a Board hires a management company to provide services like billing and accounting, the Board is still responsible for the results (or an accounting firm and etc.). The Board must provide oversight. This does not preclude legal action if management does something wrong and the corporation suffers harm. However, Board oversight can often prevent errors in the first place.

Sincerely,

Steve

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I remember a few years ago that the Habitat Board had many postings on this problem and the consensus was not to do anything, except of course adjust the maintenance up or down. This made perfect sense to me because in order for the coop to be left revenue neutral you would have to charge the under payers to be able to pay the over payers which could be a major burden for some as the discrepancy could go back many years. I do not understand just charging the under payers, aren't there overpayers in the coop? However, I became aware of a situation that completely baffles me. A few years ago it seems the accountant for a coop found the same problem, but stated that only the Overpayers had to be reimbursed, nothing about the underpayers ; the lawyer for the coop agreed on this. Since the coop did not have the funds, the board passed a 13% assessment in order to repay the overpayers based on the accountant's schedule. This seemed ridiculous to me as the underpayers are not paying as much as they would if they were charged; but the overpayers were being charged to pay back themselves increasing their burden; however the underpayers were not paid back. Then the next year it was again decided that the overpayers must be reimbursed and in order to do so, the board passed a 14% increase and assessment; again the overpayers were not reimbursed, but all the shareholders had paid the assessments, what happened to the funds was not disclosed. At this point the accountant is still including the original liability on the financials, as a payable to shareholders ,with a note attached, I can't understand this as a lot of the parties on both sides have moved so the liability at least should be adjusted or removed Neither the accountant nor the lawyer has commented on the fact that the overpayers have not been repaid, even with the 2 assessments. Could anyone explain this .

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Hiring Superintendent or Maintenance Man for Renovations - H. Apr 25, 2014

It seems that there are two sets of rules for minor renovations like painting, installing flooring, kitchen countertops. If a shareholder obtains s contractor, deposits have to be made, insurance and license documents produced, agreements signed. If the Super or Maintenance Man is hired (on their own time) the Co-op ignores these requirements. Is this a sound business practice?

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My question on this is the Super or Maintenance Man a contractor with either a license and/or Certificates of Insurance for their companies? If they are hired, just like any other contractor in the building on their off time and something should go wrong or someone should get hurt, etc. it could put the building in a bad position. All contractors who are paid to do work in an apartment should carry insurance and name the building and the agent as additional insureds / certificate holders.

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Resident License Plates - NBYonkersCoop Apr 23, 2014

Hello!

A recent shareholder was informed by the Board and management that they need to change her out-of-state license plates to NY within 90 days. They're not taking it well at all, as you can imagine.

From my understanding, when you move into NY and purchase a home in the state you have 90 days to change your plates and driver's license. However, is it an insurance liability to the coop to have a vehicle parked in the lot with an out-of-state plate? Any experience/feedback is appreciated. I'm trying to formulate an appropriate response to the shareholder.

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It's none of their business. The shareholder could have other property out of state where they are registered, with lower insurance costs, etc. All that matters is that the car is registered, and insured. How, where, why is none of the Board's interest or business. The Coop insurance should not have any particulars on where a car is registered. All they care about is that it is properly insured while on the property. Once again, this is just Board busybodies at work, and overstepping their duties. There is an overabundance of Board members who substitute facts and knowledge for personal opinions, attitudes, and prejudices.

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If the shareholder in question has become a resident of New York State our understanding is the DMV typically requires that person to register his/ her vehicle in New York within 30 days.
Should the cooperative documents contain a provision that requires the shareholder does nothing illegal on co-op property, as our properties do, the 90 day timeline to register the vehicle in New York would seem appropriate on its face.
Should the shareholder be permitted maintain two residences---in this case, one in New York and one in another state---and the out-of-state address is the shareholder's primary residence, it then would seem the co-op's 90 day registration requirement is not appropriate.

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this seems very strange to me. if it's not a requirement in the house rules or the proprietary lease, they shouldn't have to do it. if it's in the house rules and they received them/signed that they read them prior to closing, they would have to do it, no matter how bizarre it seems to be.

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Super's job description, and extra work - krissa Apr 18, 2014

Hey everyone -- I've read back a few pages in the Board Talk archives without coming across anyone else dealing with this exact question, so I'm hoping I can get some ideas from you all, since I'm a new Board Member!

Our small, self-managed Brooklyn co-op has a wonderful relationship with our live-in Super, who lives rent-free in one of our apartment and earns a modest monthly stipend for his regular duties. We're looking to re-write his job description so that it more accurately encompasses what he does, because the job description that he signed ten years ago is from the 1980s and he does more than that these days, so we already know that we need to update the day-to-day description so that it's a fair representation of his labor.

But there's also the question of medium-sized projects that he's taken on for the building, above and beyond his listed (and soon to be updated) duties. He's a talented handyman and the board has relied on him to do odd jobs around the building. It's never for work that has to be performed by licensed contractors, but examples would be: replacing the wood awning above our doorway, building a bench for our courtyard, replacing broken panels in one of our entry way doors, repairing some cracked concrete in our back alley. All of this is work that our Super is willing and able (and happy) to do, and he quotes us pretty fairly for "extra" compensation for this, above the cost of supplies -- that gets voted and approved by the board.

Now, as many of you probably have faced, this is one things that's "how we've always done it" (informal quotes from Super, approved by board, paid via check) but I'm new to the board and I'm concerned about a few things. I have clearance from my fellow board members to clarify how we're doing this so that if there are any errors of precedent, we will take the steps to correct them going forward. Here are the basic areas of concern:

1) If we do "contract" with him above and beyond his job duties, should this be invoiced separately and documented each time -- or, should we state exactly what kinds of "extra" work we would expect from him, and what the hourly wage would be for "extra" work, in his existing job description?

2) I want to make sure we're paying him fairly and also that it's above-the-board, because surely it's not legal for us just to write him a check for "extra work" and have no one declaring that income. I suspect this means we either have to add these invoiced jobs to his reported W2 earnings every year, or we have to issue a 1099, but I'm not sure which is correct -- should we ask our accountant? It seems to me like we're only talking about a few extra grand a year in labor, but I want to make sure we're doing it correctly.

3) I want to make sure this labor is covered -- both for us, from a liability perspective, and for him, from a Workers Comp perspective. I also don't know much about this. Does anyone know what our responsibilities are for his safety? What are the limits of what Workers Comp covers, and how do we make sure that both HE and the BUILDING are within the letter of the law in case of accident?

I'd be so grateful for any feedback, insight, or resources -- even if it's "definitely talk to your lawyer, accountant, insurance broker" or a link to the right state laws that we must comply with.

(As a side note, does anyone have experience with the legality/liability concerns we should be aware of, if the Super's wife ever does any of his duties? One of our board members is concerned because she sometimes mops the floors and helps with the trash, and we're not sure that labor is covered.)

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