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As a board member elected 5 years ago by shareholders to affect a change of management of our coop, I have come to a conclusion that there is a dearth of professionalism and true responsibility that resides within this industry.
Have some of the more long time board members within this forum found the same, and how is this challenge taken on?
there are a bunch of recent posts on this subject here.
the managing agent agent industry is rife with corruption and incompetence. most boards do not have members who know enough to stand up to the managing agents. sen. kreuger is trying to get a bill through the congress in albany that would establish an ombudsman for shareholders. letting your reps in albany know how important that bill is to correct pervasive management abuse is a way to take action.
btw, christine quinn is in the pocket of the real estate industry and a few years ago would not let a bill get to the floor because it required boards to give a reason for rejecting co-op applicants. the real estate industry flooded her office with letters against the bill.
You are totally incorrect regarding the real estate industry and intro 188 the City Council bill requiring the reason for rejection in purchasing co ops. The NY State Association of Realtors has been working long and hard to get a version of this bill passed. There may be some, mainly co op board presidents who do not want this bill, but I can assure you that NYSAR has representatives working with council members trying to get the necessary support for the bill. I am one of them. Don't blame an entire industry when there might be some factions that are for or against a particular policy or bill.
it’s good to know the new york state assoc of realtors is working to get support for the bill requiring co-op’s to give the reason for rejecting a buyer. is the nysar also working to get sen. kreuger’s ombudsman bill passed?
The above posted message looks like it came from me, which it didn't. However, I will respond by saying that NYSAR is a strong supporter of Liz Kreugers ombudsman bill.
i'm a more recent board member (going on 5 years) and from the moment i joined my board i've been pointing out issues with our management company. unprofessional, at times borderline incompetent, never in the least sorry for the errors they've made. i've even pointed out errors to senior management at the company and there's no sense of concern. it's a tough thing because we'd like to change but don't know that we'd get anything better.
Unfortunately we live in a world where we can go get ourselves a real estate license and then call ourselves a managing agent. There should be a list of worst managing agents and I'm pretty sure our elected officials don't want one due to the fact that's where all their $ comes from. There is a bill where managing agents would have to be licensed and it still baffles me that my hair dresser goes thru more state requirements to cut my hair then my managing agent who oversees numerous residents housing.
The building I live in we have allarea managment and I wouldn't recommend them at all. Why do I need to explain to the managing agent various building codes issues? Why do I need to remind him the elevators need to be inspected? I could go on and on...and this company should be closed down but they have given $$ to our elected officials.
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I've been on the board in my builiding for over 15 years. We're on our 4th mgmt co, not counting a merger. After about 20 agents, 3 or 4 were worth the money. The rest had trouble writing a decent letter, doing a weekly walk through of the building, staying on top of the required inspections, filings, etc. We're going through a second bout of late elevator inspections with hefty fines. Typical follow up of issues presented during a board meeting occurs 2 or 3 days before the next meeting, resulting in a continued list of unresolved items. I spend several hours a week myself talking to contractors, reviewing tasks with building staff, checking for new finance dept charges, violations, water meter charges, etc. to try to avoid late fees, etc. when the bills get lost.
Insurance proposals came in 4 days before current policy expired. All you can do is keep a checklist of things that they need to do and follow up to make sure that they are done timely. Know who the back office staff is that handles your building, deal with them directly if you can, copy in your manager on emails, scan/copy/date everything you send to them.
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