They are required to remove their bridge only when they are finished with their work. In the meantime your costs will be lower especially if you complete your work before they finish theirs. If you can, use the same company they used for their bridge.

The company you deal with will be able to help you. They deal with this type of issue all the time.

For most building work that requires a sidewalk bridge, the bridge has top protect the first 20 feet on either side of your property line. You need to work with your contractor or sidewalk bridge company to see what the requirements are and then deal with your neighbors on both sides of your building.

Your property management company should be licensed through the NY Dept. of State. Their actions are not in compliance with what is expected of a licensee. You can draft a complaint and submit it to Dept. of State, Division of Licensing, Real Estate, in Albany or Manhattan. The manager has a fiduciary responsibility to act on your behalf as their client, which they have obviously not done. There is no cost associated with this, so it might be the place to start. Only problem, there will be an investigation and then a hearing which might take several to many months. You can always go the legal route, expensive but probably, from what you write, successful.

Hi,

You need a certiorari lawyer for real estate. Their specialty is challenging real estate taxes and they typically receive a commission on the amount saved. My co-op challenges our taxes each year as a best practice. We use and are happy with “Sonnenschein, Sherman and Deutsch” (Stan Russo is the legal assistant for our building).

Good luck!

I agree with Steve, you need to speak with a tax certiorari attorney about challenging the increase. We use Jeffrey Golkin.

You have a more serious issue, and that is your tax arrears. This is something you need to get resolved as soon as possible because taxes are not something to take lightly. You will definitely need an attorney to negotiate for you unless someone in your building has experience in these matters. Interest and penalties are accruing every day, so it is in your best interest to address this as quickly as you can.

1--what reason does the agent give for under-budgeting?

2--how does the agent suggest you actually pay for the elevator work?

3--most important, what does your accountant say? Most accountants I know would deem it ILLEGAL to assess monies for designated capital improvements, commingle those receipts w/operating funds, & use them to pay routine expenses.

Tread carefully here, & try to figure out the agent's motive.

I cannot give an opinion on whether something is “kosher” however your budget sounds unbalanced at best.

I am an accountant but not a CPA. Best practice is that capital assessment funds be deposited into a dedicated capital reserve checking account (while operational assessments can go into the operating account). This also communicates clearly to your CPA what amounts get added to your cost basis so when you sell your unit, if your sale is taxable, your profit and corresponding taxes are less. The assessment funds at my co-op get transferred on a one month lag into the capital funds from the operating account (i.e. after the previous month’s assessment funds are fully known).

My two words of caution would be to: check the loan payments to see if they went up (a loan may have been used to cover the project costs); and to check to see if your building already had reserve funds which are being used to cover the costs. It seems odd that if elevators are ‘being installed’, the contractor would do so without needing progress payments as the work is being completed.

If your suspicions are true, you may have a big budget hole. Assuming it was not an honest mistake, you may also need a new management company or a new manager. Even if it was an honest mistake, you still may need a new manager who understands building finances a little better.

Good luck!

The two previous posters are spot-on. Your treasurer should have been part of the budget-making process for 2013, and can hopefully provide answers to your questions. If not, you may need a new treasurer in addition to a new property manager.

Hello Patty
I live in NY, so I'm giving you the NY answer. If the tenants in question have a lease and their lease is up for renewal, you do not have to renew their lease.You have to let them know in writing that your do not plan on renewing their lease, and you do it 30 days of more prior to the lease expiring.
Also you go on the web and search LANDLORD TENANT NEW JERSEY.
I hope I was able to shed some light on your problem.

Hello Patty
I live in NY, so I'm giving you the NY answer. If the tenants in question have a lease and their lease is up for renewal, you do not have to renew their lease.You have to let them know in writing that your do not plan on renewing their lease, and you do it 30 days of more prior to the lease expiring.
Also you go on the web and search LANDLORD TENANT NEW JERSEY.
I hope I was able to shed some light on your problem.

Thank you Charles! I find this helpful. :) that's what I thought!

Charles, on the NJ Community Affairs website, we do have a right to not renew a lease if the tenant isn't paying. thanks for your advice on how to look into!

NO!!!!
One person per position. Since you say your have a number of people on the board, someone else on the board should either be the President or Treasurer

it depends on your by laws our by laws say one person can't hold more than 2 positions except the president and sec can't be the same person

You have a serious conflict of interest and a weakening of board checks and balances.

On our board, the corporate secretary is a board member, elected to the position by the rest of the board, and our managing agent is assistant secretary. The managing agent drafts the minutes for approval/revision at the following meeting. To my knowledge, this practice is customary. I hope this helps.

Yes, you are legally entitled to a list of shareholders. See this article:
http://cooperator.com/articles/1780/1/QampA-Disclosing-Shareholder-Information/Page1.html

See the caveat at the end of the article: you may be required to submit an affidavit promising you will not use the list for "improper purposes" (e.g., selling it to outsiders).

we are a no pet building that includes sublets
nyc has a pet law once a dog has been in the building openly for three months there is nothing thst can be done your staff has to be aware and notify management immediately if they see a dog

hope this will help you

not in nyc on long island no such law exists here

Hi,

I am a co-op President in upper Manhattan. Our Management company, Blue Woods, charges us a flat fee every month which includes managment of capital projects.

Good luck with your search!

Because you have an hourly management fee there is little to do about it until your contract expires. At that point DO NOT sign another hourly agreement. Agree to a monthly fee and stick to it. If you can get capital improvements included that's great, if not negotiate some kind of flat fee. By paying hourly you are encouring the manager to act at a snails pace instead of a Belmont winning horse. A flat fee encourages more rapid completion of a propject. Good luck

Thanks for your reply. We do have a flat rate monthly fee but capital improvements are not included. Capital improvements are charged at a fixed % of the cost of the project. This introduces a conflict of interest because there's no incentive for the manager to minimize costs. On the other hand, like you point out hourly rates provide no incentive to minimize time. We were thinking that management fees for capital improvements should be similar to other professional services like legal, engineer etc.. Our experience with other professional services is that they don't inflate the time taken to do the job but do charge a rate that adequately compensates them for their time. You raise an excellent point that I hadn't considered.

Depending on the scope, your property management company may not be the best person to managing the capitol projects to resolve your construction defects. Hiring any owner's representative firm may be a solution. Then your management company should be focused providing access coordination, accounting support and delivery of general updates to the unit owners.

Suggest the following schedule:
< $50,000 - $1,500
$50,000 - $100,000 - $2,000
$100,000 - $200,000 - $3,500
$200,000 - $350,000 - $7,000

If you management company is overseeing major capital work, you want to understand how they will be staffing the project. It is important that this person has the experience and the clarify their role during the entire process.