My 111 unit co-op is in upper Manhattan and we are not a wealthy population by any means. We save up over 12 months and pay off the Real Estate Taxes all at one time in July. So in August, we start savings up for the following July’s annual real estate taxes. We got our bank to drop the escrow requirement for the mortgage (NCB) and they allow us to do this internally. There are three benefits: the co-op receives interest each month as we save up; we get the discount on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters of early paid tax (the 1st quarter is considered paid ‘on-time’ and not eligible for the discount); and we have created a working capital reserve in case of emergency. We estimate that we either save or earn about $4,100 per year.

There is an additional benefit. This assists in creating a Board culture of saving up ahead of time for expenses and projects (fiscal discipline). For example, we are completing a $500k roof replacement project without assessment or loan as we already had funds on hand.

Finally, we also self-escrow the annual insurance charges. This allows us to pay off the annual worker’s compensation and building insurance policies fully when due to avoid paying the insurance premium finance fees. We used to self-escrow for the annual water/sewer bill (frontage) but since we switched to quarterly billing (meter), we save up for the quarterly bill.

> Join the conversation Comments (1)

Seems like you are in a well-run coop. What other tips do you have? Maybe Habitatmag can do another article on $ saving methods and tips.

> Join the conversation Comments (2)

congratulations, sounds like your in a winner

> Join the conversation

Our roof was repaired sometime in 1997-1998 (checking our records for the exact date). It was obviously not a great job as we had to repair them again in 2012.

The Board took the approach that this is a once in a 20 year job and it should be done “right”. We engaged Rand engineering to be our engineer and to develop specifications for the roof repairs. Our management company, Blue Woods, provided management oversight. The Board also wanted to perform every item of roof maintenance all at one time so as to not have to go back up there (for a repair) for the near future. We adopted a do it once and do it right approach.

The job entails parapet repairs, replacing the cockloft vents, hazardous material removal, replacement roof access doors, new skylights, repairs to the elevator room masonry and roofs (bulkhead), removing old insulation and re-insulating, repainting the vent pipes, some lintel repairs and a 20 year seamless cold fluid applied roof painted white. This cost $4,500 per unit and we had the funds on hand.

Well, when we opened the roof to pull out the old insulation and put in new insulation, guess what we found? We found only a very thin layer of foil and little insulation (some units had none over them). Stunned, we continued with our plan and placed 8” of new insulation and then resealed the roof.
Well the initial impact was visual. On the 10/31 snowstorm, the building which had the roof re-insulated had a layer of ice and snow on it, un-melted. The other two buildings where the re-insulating process had not been completed yet were clean and dry as a bone; you never knew that it had snowed. The escaping heat had blasted that show away.

Since then, we have turned down our boiler to the lowest setting and we have more heat in the units now than ever before. We are even getting complaints that the buildings are too hot! We are investigating heating control solutions now.

The Board is stunned with the revelation of how many dollars were wasted over the years by our lack of insulation. Our savings on gas alone may mean no maintenance increases for two years.

I guess what we learned is that was doing a repair job on the cheap, like our original roof job in 1997-1998, ended up costing us a lot in the long run.

> Join the conversation Comments (1)

Hi Steve,
Your building's repairs sound so similar to our proposed roof repair.
It has been proposed by our Engineer, and originally estimated at $300,000, that our 1980's, wood constuction, non fireproof building, flat roof, with cockloft vents, on Long Island, put a second roof covering on. It will be the forth and final layer before a total new roof has to be put on. Our last roof covering was put on in 1989. The roof has been leaking since at least 2005. We have sustained considerable damage to our apartments over those years.
The 4 bids came in considerably higher at between $450,000- $600,000.
And as you experienced we have no true idea what we will find, even though drill hole tests were done. They were minimal.
My question to you is. Did you evaluate the cost effectiveness of a whole new roof repair as opposed to a new last layer before you went ahead? The bids we received were on a single layer, inner-tube thickness membrane with placement of plywood and fireproofing material underneath and a 15 year NDL warranty.What are your thoughts about us considering a whole new roof as opposed to this recommendation by the architect?What was your initial budget and final monetary expense after all was said and done?We have only $500,000 in our reserve and will have to raise maintenance and the reserve to do either and maintain that very important reserve fund to draw buyers with mortages and allow us to refinance our Balloon mortgage in 2016.
Please tell all.
Dee Dee-Long Island

> Join the conversation