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i was a shareholder at the conversion oer 25 years ago. i was a board member during the first 10 years. The board always kept the ratio of shareholder to subtenent/unsold shares at a strict 20% magamum to ensure the financialaqnd skin in the game wellbeing of the co-op.
I have found out that many of the new people that have moved into the buiding are not shareholders. but children,grandchilren of the shareholder. The shareholder never moved in and the board with the approval and support of the manging compsany has promoted this. A couiple of the board mebers, are directly involved. Board members we assumed were shareholders were actually violators of the proprietary lease"par 14". We knew which apartments were unsold shares. Found out from a disgusted board member this previously undisclosed information. Ine of the new Board members bought two apartments, both 1 bedrooms and moved his adult children in.
i Am trying to do a count, but ti know the real owner occupuied apsartmernts are possible lessw than 50%. I couldn'tfigure out why more new owners ( i assumed) were not getting involved in the running of the co-op. There were no owner occupiers.
The presdienr is also violating the proprietary lease par:14, he and his wife no longer live in the building, his son occupies their apartment.
the addresses on the BOD voting profiles for the last 10 years list the coops adrress as their address.
At this years annual meeting i asked for the board members contact information to be posted someplace in the building or in the minutes or in a memo, one board member stated she refused to have her info given out, the rest remained mute, and my request along with other request for transparency were ignored and not in the minutes.
This is only one of a multiple of large problems that i have uncovered since a flag went off when a $27k mathematical error in the 2007 budget caused by a dropped zero was not told to the shareholders until after the 2008 election in which the president was running.
I have questioned the BOD president in the 2009 annual meeting, as to when the budget error was discovered, he refuses to give a answer. The board member i spoke to said he was not informed of the budget error until the week of the annual meeting. the president is super controlling and
doesn't share info with the BOD, yet they do nothing to correct this.
actually i havent found any by laws, i have the proprietary lease and house rules, but i looked and never saw any bylaws.
In many of the co-op articles i have read, there was a nys court ruling that upheld the wording of the proprietary lease concerning the occupancy of shareholder apartments, specifically paragraph 14 of my proprietary lease states that the shareholder "AND" etc,
It doesn not say "OR"
The key word being AND.
i have read on quite a few NY co-op discussions that Boards have been successful in evicting family members that were living in the apartments without the shareholders due to the proprietary lease.
If i was buying an apartment here today, i would be thinking fraud, if i was told the building was 80 percent owner occupied.
in one case the occupant is a real problem , the non-shareholder occupant has caused extensive noise/ water flooding/ physical harassment for over 5 years for the downstairs shareholder. The board and management company refuse to do anything, i have heard them state at the annual meeting that it is this shareholders problem, not the buildings or co-ops
My take, is the occupant should never have been allowed to move in, It was known at the beginning that he was not the person that went to the interview, it was his mother.
A new twist was added yesterday, I spoke to the shareholder, he said that the mother/shareholder is a friend of the board member that does the interviews. i do not doubt the claim that the mother is a friend.
thinking back, there were quite a few prospective buyers who the board turned down. However after one or two board turn-downs, the board allowed these people to buy, who were never planning on moving in, since their adult children moved in.
All violations of the proprietary lease, and really screwed the building up as far as owner involvement.
doesnt seem like they did their fiduciary duty to the building, they just self dealt themselves to the detriment of the building.
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We cleared up the messes in our building with Shareholder EmaiPower. Communication with the other Shareholders is vital, and by starting to, in a businesslike manner, ask direct questions, to both the board and MangCo, in Email, (cc: those not on email with hard copies, will create an Email trail -- which -- if your MangCo or lawyer is smart -- they will recognize and you will give the power BACK to the Sh.
What do your bylaws say in regard to the children etc. In ours, the sponsor nor thier family is allowed to live in the apartment. But, for SH, their children, parents and siblings may live in the apartment.
It takes courage -- but if you start to keep everyone informed, document everything and send out emials and hard copies to everybody -- you will get results. VP
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