Five years is still five years, with little or no communication, resolution, plan or remedial action. As a Board President I can tell you that it doesn't take anywhere near that long - (assuming the worst scenario - a very complex and expensive engineering/architectural issue which would take us (3-4 Board + good management Co.) 3 months for a report and 1-3 months for a final plan of action given reasonable scale of issues. It could be 9 months if larger and 1.5 years if very, very large -maybe; remember that the larger the scale of issue the larger the team you apply in managing and coordinating the engineering, facilities committee proposal review and report, financial solutions (paid out of reserves, refi, line of credit, phased assessment, finite term maintenance surcharge etc.) and communicating it to your shareholders); to solicit, select, and hire a consulting Engineer/Firm to analyze and issue a report, establish choices and plan(s) of action based on the Coop's finances, and put a capital project, funded one way or another into play, or at the very least find a temporary remediation to protect the property while moving forward at a slower pace due to complexity, or financial reasons. One of the things that would concern me is the collateral damage: rot, infrastructural damage, and potential mold issues over five years of nothing. While I agree with Michele that there are possibly many complicating issues potentially involved, the biggest issue by far is the lack of decisive planning and action to protect the property and keep a shareholder(s) informed. This is a failure of leadership, a freeze up due to being out of their depth and not making any decisions, a definite failure on the part of the Management Co. to stay on top of critical issues, or maybe they are moving and have failed utterly in their responsibility to keep affected shareholders informed. How many election cycles have come and gone by with no word, no action, no posted solution? May is coming and that is annual meeting season for many coops. A good time to publicly demand some answers. Why not start doing some committee volunteer work or run for the Board, get involved? Steve is right, get a good Coop RE attorney, and do a letter, try not to go it alone, however there is a potential negligence issue that they can work with as well due to the habitability issues involved. The Coop's legal costs should only wind up on your maintenance IF your issues are not legitimate. The base line for your legal action when dealing with a Coop Board is that there is a legitimate basis for a cause of action under the law as defined by the court. Both what Michele said above, and Steve here should be paid attention to.

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