Let me ask a few questions of your happy coop. 1. Do you still have the Sponsor on board? Hoy many directors he appoints? How many units he own? For how long has he been in the Coop? Name the Sponsor, please.
2. This idea of 4.5% maint increase camouflaged as permanent assessment, did it come from your managing agent? Name please, if possible.
3. Is your underline mortgage owned by the NCB (National Cooperative Bank)? How much he charges you of interest? Is it compounded monthly? When does the loan mature?
4. Is any of your directors qualified as a financially-knowledgeable person? Where did they study? Is any of them employed in a financial institution?
5. Did you take a poll about the acquiecense of the shareholders?
Carmen Bejarano - Concerned Citizens for Coop Reform -

Hi Carmen,

No, we no longer have a sponsor. We have 4 rental units left which are owned by the co-op and we sell them when the renters leave. No, I thought of the idea. The funds are transferred into the Capital Fund each month. Our NCB loan is self-amortizing and will be paid off in nine years (read no mortgage). The rate is 6.27% however the penalties to break the mortgage are too high to even consider a refinance (I was not on the Board when the mortgage was signed). Yes, I work in finance assisting to manage a large full funded pension plan. We also have a CPA as a treasurer. The permanent reserve is not used for operating expenses but only for capital projects.

You seem to have an agenda, your questions are accusatory and you seem to harbor a suspicion (or prejudice) against how co-ops operate. Not all co-ops are bad, Carmen.

Tell me, would you rather pay a $3,000 surprise assessment all at once or have a chance to pay it monthly where you can budget it? I know what the answer is for me - I would rather budget it.

If your bank is NCB (National Cooperative Bank), you are doomed. NCB is a usurious bank for losers, that is, those coops who cannot qualify for regular bank's rates, which should be between 2.5 and 3%, top. What your are paying, 6.27% is extremely high, considering that the bank borrows its funds from the Federal Reserve for less than 1%. If your loan is compounded monthly, probably the APR (annual percentage rate) is much higher than 6.27%. As for the effective percentage rate, which applies to the duration of the loan (in your case, apparently 10 years), is much much higher than that, in the 60's and 70' percentile.
Can you reveal, in a private email, the total amount of the loan (including initiation fees)? With this data, plus the total number of months, I could calculate the EFFECTIVE APR. You can also add the amount of monthly payments multiplied by the total number of months for the duration of the loan (if ten years, then 120 months) and you will be horrified to find out what the service of the debt costs your coop.
Your asertion that the loan will "self-pay in 9 years" is probable false, and a deception.
I advise you to study USURY. You can find several articles on the subject in Wikkipedia. Also in the books by Michael Hudson,especially THE BUBBLE and BEYOND:FICTITIOUS CAPITAL, DEBT DEFLATION AND GLOBAL CRISIS.
My "agenda", as you called, is to expose the gigantic fraud by deception that the Coop system constists off, and the horrendous financial exploitation that they are subjecting the shareholders class (more than a million New Yorkers), thus creating the next financial bubble, which will explode in the nex 5 years or so. My husband and I are committed to this cause, and will dedicate the last years of our life and all of our savings and assets to this endeavor, in an effort to preserve property rights the American citizens, and reduce the homelessness caused by unaffordable housing in New York City. May the gods of justice protect our efforts and lead us to a great victory.
Carmen Bejarano & Gerard Grosof - Concernedcitizens4coopreform@outlook.com- P. O. Box 568 -Bronx 10463

I think they often go fairly blindly with advice from managing agents, etc. and do not really sit and do deep research. It is very probable a majority of co-ops are paying way to much in various budget line-itmes. New Years Resolution: Co-op boards - do your research!

Steve and Carl, I am glads your coops are running smooth and I hope you if you are on the board you are complying with your fugidity duty to all shareholders. Unfortunatly, most coops are a fraud bigger than ENRON. They advertized a apt home for sale and they sold as a very expensive membership to a club where we are abused, intimidated, victims of usury charges, etc. But the worst is that we have the only that is not protected in bankrutcy court, neither is any institution protecting our home like HAMP protects other people's home. We can be evicted in housing court for not being able to pay the usurary legal and other fees charge by the board. They do not have to give any explanation. They created the law and elected the politicians and judges to protect them not our home. Do not be naive. Check COOPABUSE.COM to read about abuses and lack of laws to protect our home. Register to make changes and to fight together. Email me and I can give you a summary of all the abuses and corruptions and how in American coop home owner are second class citizens. My email is ROSA.NAZAR@GMAIL.COM

Carmen wrote:
>NCB is a usurious bank for losers, that is, those coops who cannot qualify
>for regular bank's rates, which should be between 2.5 and 3%, top.
>What your are paying, 6.27% is extremely high, considering that the
>bank borrows its funds from the Federal Reserve for less than 1%.

Carmen, I have no idea where you're getting those rates, but they're sheer fantasy. The average rate for a 30-year *individual* mortgage is currently around 4.5%. As corporations, co-ops don't qualify for that rate and typically pay more interest. Even the 10-year US Treasury note is just above 3% (as of this writing), so if you know a place where you could get a 10-year loan for 2.5%, please let the US Treasury know, as they would be most interested.

Banks do NOT get long-term loans for "less than 1%." That's a ridiculous fabrication promulgated by Elizabeth Warren, for whom I had a lot of respect before she made that outlandish statement. The 0.75% rate quoted by Warren is the overnight repo rate that applies to secured overnight loans. In other words, the bank gives the Fed $100,000 in US Treasuries to borrow $100,000 overnight to make their cash position meet requirements. The bank repurchases the USTs the following day for $100,000 plus 0.75% annualized interest. That situation is obviously inapplicable to any long-term loan that is not secured by liquid financial instruments.

And why in the world would you think that Steve's statement that his co-op's loan will self-amortize in nine years is "probably false"? Self-amortizing loans are perfectly well-understood and widely used. Why would you think that Steve's bank could violate the terms of their loan agreement and make his co-op keep paying money after their loan is 100% paid off? That's just crazy. Furthermore, the effective APR and total cost of the loan are always presented in conspicuous fashion in the closing documents for the loan, as required by law.

Finally, I really like Steve's idea about paying money into the reserve fund each month via capital assessment. That leaves his co-op well prepared to weather the expense of a major repair without a sudden large assessment. We did something similar a few years ago, but in reverse. We needed to overhaul our elevator, but the cost left our reserve fund lower than desirable. So we immediately instituted a long-term assessment to pay ourselves back the money we had borrowed from the reserve. We explained to the shareholders what we were doing. People seemed to understand and no one complained. And everyone was happy with an elevator that worked reliably for the first time in years!

Thank you for your informative and clear response, Carl. At times these Board Talk comments mirror what happens in co-ops. One or two board members make up data and disseminate misleading information, leading to unnecessary dissension among shareholders. One can only hope that the majority of board members will take their roles seriously and perform competently.

I don't see how this differs from a maintenance increase, other than appearing as a separate line item on a maintenance bill. You could just as easily transfer excess funds into a reserve account periodically.
A small advantage of assessing for specific projects is that it adds to your cost (basis) of the apartment if the work done is considered a capital improvment, such as pointing, parapet work, window replacement. This lessens your capital gains if you decide to sell and not invest in another property. A blanket assessment is not tied to a specific project and may not be considered a capital improvment.

Hi JG,

A capital assessment, of course, adds to the basis of each person's investment so that when they sell, their capital gains are less. The one truth about a building is that they will always need capital replacement items. This has the advantage of making the funds available ahead of time.

Cheers

That amount of increase, whether maintenance or assessment sounds crazy to me. With no inflation and only a 2.5% increase in costs, there is no reason for a 7.5%, and now 9.5% annual increase. I would not be surprised if shareholders are planning an overthrow of the board behind your backs.

Have you thought of trying to cut costs instead? If you're interested in cutting costs, we helped a building cut $250,000 in annual costs allowing them to keep the maintenance flat for 3 years in a row (and probably for at least the next 2 years as well).

i was talking t some guys today about the small increase in social security checks and the 2 years we received no increase.
I didnt know but the cost of living index that the govt uses does not include fuel, medical costs, cost of housing. It only pertains to the price of milk and food. I was wondering how they came up with no inflation when the gas tripled in price, and medical bills were skyrocketing. The rents were also going up in NYC and the metro area.