Updating Your Apartment-Alteration Agreement? Consider the REBNY Model
Oct. 29, 2013 — More and more, upscale buyers and even those of more modest means who plan to stay in their apartments into their retirements are renovating their places — and many co-op boards and condominium associations are finding that their current apartment-alteration agreement doesn't address a lot of the issues that arise with your more costly and complicated renovations. Devising a new agreement from scratch is a daunting process. Fortunately, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) has put together an alteration agreement many co-op and condo boards have adopted verbatim, and which others use as a starting point for tailoring an agreement to your building's needs.
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The REBNY agreement, originally In the 1990s, is currently undergoing one of its periodic revisions. "It's good to update it every once in a while," says Angela Pinsky, REBNY's vice president for management services. "What we want to do is create a document that will help co-op boards manage this process. They should have an architect reviewing the plans of the shareholder's architect."
The current 11-page REBNY alteration agreement includes a 22-point checklist. The goal is to be both thorough and expeditious. "There has been an increase in renovations," Pinsky says. "The longer the approval process takes, the crazier people get."
Michael Wolfe, president of Midboro Management, is chairman of the REBNY committee that is working on the revisions, which should be completed within a year. "We're looking at the entire document, trying to come up with a customizable [version]," Wolfe says. "We're trying to bring it up to date with current laws, building codes, construction practices, and other realities. We're trying to remove any ambiguity."
"The standard REBNY agreement is very complete," says Paul Brensilber, president of Jordan Cooper & Associates. "But some of my buildings pay lawyers to draft their own unique agreement. They tend to do this when they want to set penalties for running overtime on a renovation project."
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