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Addendum to Proprietary Lease - JBM Jun 09, 2011


In revisiong the sublet policy on a an original PL, do we need to create a new PL or is there a legal procedure to change the policy with an addendum. Also what form would it take and where would it be physically placed in the PL

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We did an addendum last year. After taking a shareholder vote, the corp attorney wrote up the addendum and mailed it to all shareholders. No special form, just a legal letter. Yours would be put next to the original page for subletting.
Make sure the shareholders vote on your revision!

Just a thought...are you revising the entire policy or just adding a fee, length of lease, residency prior to leasing or anything like that. If this is the case, then you just have to adjust the house rules not the PL.

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The sublet policy is part of the House Rules and may be modified by the board at any time. I would strongly suggest to have these reviewed by the legal counsel before distribution. The Proprietary Lease only contains wording to the effect that subletting of units may be permitted or not permitted and may mention recovery of reasonable fees if no sublet fee is specified as part of the PL.

If you wish to incorporate sublet fee into the PL, which is the way to go, you need to amend the PL. Your counsel will help redact the most comprehensive wording, but you need to submit the amendment to vote by the shareholders (majority or supermajority)according to your Bylaws and PL.

AdC

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Con Edisons Multifamily Energy Efficiency Program - Eric Michaels Jun 08, 2011


Con Edisons Multifamily Energy Efficiency Program (MFEEP) is offering one of the most aggressive incentives in the country for the implementation of a Building Energy Management System in buildings with less than 75 Units. The MFEEP incentive covers 70% of the total project cost up to $20,000.00. The average systems cost between $24,500.00 and $34,500.00. Thus average out of pocket for management/ownership is between $7350.00 and $14,500.00. Payback is less than 24 months and incentive is issued within 60 days of verified installation. Yearly energy savings range between 15 and 25%...depending on an assortment of variables. There is NO other investment that offers returns that are as high as investing in energy efficiency.

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Any incentives for building that have more than 75 Units?

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sponsor renovaions - matty Jun 07, 2011


our prop lease says sponsor may renovate his apartments but must follow all city codes. He is not doing this and has some violations. How can a coop force the sponsor to follow city codes?

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Have your super stop the work and let them know if they do not follow the renovation policy, you will call the buildng dept.

Have your counsel contact the sponsor ASAP to demand compliance with the Rules and Code.

Sponsors have no immunity regarding following renovation rules and building codes; they only have the ability to renovate or combined units without your formal approval.

AdC

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FANNIE MAE RESTRICTIONS ON SPONSOR OWNERSHIP - jbm Jun 07, 2011


A recent article in HABITAT's June issue said that FANNIE MAE backed lenders won't finance underlying mortgages where sponsors own more than 10% of the units in a building. Our 32 unit co-op in Brooklyn needs to refinance to pay for several capital improvements, including a new boiler, but the sponsor still owns 6 units (only 2 are rent stabilized, 4 others he rents at market rate). Any advice on how we can force sponsor to sell 3 units to get us below 10% and would his listing for sale of 3 apts be in compliance with the FANNIE MAE guidelines

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Hi jbm,

First: try just assessing the full amount. This may intice the sponsor to sell to raise cash if they don't already have it.

Second: try NCB.

Good luck!

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Owner presence at meetings - Malamu Jun 07, 2011


Hi all. If owners are given the appropriate lead time about and owners' meeting, and are asked to attend so they can vote on several issues, are they required to attend the meeting? If they do not RSVP and simply do not show up, is their vote automatically ceded to the President? How does it all work? Thanks.

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Depends on your by-laws, but at most co-ops and at ours, you would need a quorum to change anything. What are they being asked to vote on? Unless you are changing by-laws or making an addition to the property, you shouldn't need the regular shareholders. They elect the board of directors to make all the big decisions.

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Apathy in community when things are going well - FW Board Jun 05, 2011


Our co-op has been in disarray for almost 20 years. I got elected to the Board two years ago and President this year. Since I actually project manage for a living, I used my experience to revamp everything. We now have a website that allows shareholders to submit work orders and easy for the management company and superintendent to track orders so nothing gets lost resulting in increased satisfaction. Our capital improvement projects are moving along well. We renovated our pool and got new furniture and grill at the pool, which has made it a popular social spot in the community. My wife sometimes hates when we go to the pool, because people only want to talk about what a great job I am doing, instead of letting us relax. The older folks call me JFK since I am the youngest President we have ever had at age 31. There is no drama on the board anymore. We fired our old superintendent who once for 11 days did not do work at the co-op and instead did side work off the property with the old president who used the superintendent to make his own contracting company. The new Superintendent by comparison is a dream, who with his talents saves us money since projects we used to contract out he is able to do.

My point is we have so much apathy in the community since things are going great now. We have quarterly open shareholder meetings that used to be packed with 100 people. We now average about 6 per meeting. For our election we did not have a quorum and were short by about 14 units. We don't have to do a re-election, but we plan to on June 21st to do the right thing.

When things are going well, people strangely care less. If things are going well at your place don't be surprised if there is apathy.

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In my experience, apathy starts at the top. The President needs to push the agenda - if they won't, who will? Stop patting yourself on the back. You need to institutionalize the new culture: raise up good & honest Board members. How are your reserves? How is your resale value (we had 2 record high sales this year). When was your Proprietary Lease amended?

Stop jabbing and get back to work ;)

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Steve-Inwood,

You don't have a clear picture of our co-op. I care the most about the place and put the most into it. I'm the only person to have created Agendas for board meetings and open shareholder meetings that I am aware of. Our meetings are always on Power Point with the agenda clearly there. Every meeting is announced via e-mail, newsletters and posted in common places prior to the meetings which was never been done in years past. I have already raised a new culture here of honesty and good board members. In fact we had two dishonest members. The community finally became wise to what was going on and voted them off. Thats what started the turn for the positive in the community. None of our units have declined in value through this economic downturn and our reserves are as healthy as the have ever been. We effectively communicate weekly via e-mail to the community and quarterly for Newsletters. Residents are very informed with what is going on so that is one of the reasons they feel they don't need to attend out open shareholder meetings, since they are already informed. In addition our Board Minutes are posted on our website and in laundry rooms, so that shareholders have ready access to them.

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Dear FW Board,

Perhaps you misunderstood the intent of my post: it is to keep YOU motivated. Sounds like you are doing great things there - keep at it :)

Steve

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No problem. Misunderstandings can happen easily in a online forum due to lack of verbal and non-verbal cues. Just found this website, so I'm trying to be involved so I can share and learn from other board members.

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Always hire a lawyer to create contracts for large projects - FW Board Jun 05, 2011


This is just a warning to all boards trying to save money. Before I lived in Fishermans Wharf Cooperative of West Babylon, NY the board at the time was having one of our bulkheads on our lake replaced. They saved about $500 at the time writing the contract themselves. The bulkhead collapsed in 2006 6 months after construction. The contractor advised he would pay to fix, but not pay our legal fees. The Board at that time tried to save $500 and write the contract themselves. Well, in NYS the other party in a lawsuit is not responsible for legal fees of the other party unless it is contract and our contract was vague on that point. Its now 5 years later and we are still litigating. The court made a motion on the contract this week and stated they will be responsible for legal fees if we win. Our lawyer thinks they will now settle, but if it was written better, it would have been settled in 2006.

My warning is to always have a lawyer write your contracts for large capital improvement projects.

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No Quorum at Board Meeting - Curious May 30, 2011


We recently held our annual meeting to reelect two board members and to vote for an amendment to renew a loan. Most owners didn’t want these board members to be reelected (and were hoping someone else would step up) nor did they want to vote for the amendment (as no first hand bank information was submitted only a memo from management company re bank fees, interest, etc.) so they didn’t show up and the meeting ended without a quorum. Now days after the meeting, management says they were able to persuade some owners to vote and now they have enough votes for the amendment and management also says that since the board members ran unopposed they are automatically reelected. Is this true or should another meeting be held?

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It depends...but seems highly unlikely that what transpired is OK.

If you didn't reach quorum at the meeting, no business could be transacted & you didn't have an election. If you were told to submit ballots anyway, & if the meeting was properly "held open," it is possible a legal quorum was later reached & proxies counted.

HOWEVER--an amendment usually requires a supermajority, typically 2/3, voting in favor. If you had trouble reaching a quorum, & if, as you point out, many owners were opposed to the proposed amendment, management's claim sounds fishy.

Even more striking is management's statement that the incumbent board members were "automatically reelected," yet there were votes for the amendment. If people voted, they voted for board members, too...which means the "automatic" claim makes no sense. Was there a vote, or not?

More info is needed on what did, & didn't, transpire. If I were you, I'd press the Board to open the vote count on the amendment only & demonstrate that the required supermajority was attained. If they refuse, I'd immediately begin circulating a petition to call for a special meeting & election [which likely requires just 25% of owners/shares].

Once you have even one Board seat, you have full access to all records, can ascertain what happened & can report to owners.

If you're not willing to run for the Board yourself, stop reading these posts & take up knitting.

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Well if the ran unopposed you don't actually need an election.

However in the situation they were running against someone and their wasn't a qourum you would need to check your proprietary lease. In ours we don't need to have a re-election and the Board would stay as is. However we actually have that issue right now and decided to have a re-election to avoid any controversy and do right by the new people running for the Board. However, we made it clear in the letter for the re-election that if there is no qourum again, the Board will stay as it.

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Can a shareholder sue board members - Billy Joe May 29, 2011


I have been trying to get some documents from the Board and managing agent about their attempt to evict me. We went to court and they said they were going to provide me with documents. I have mailed the board and the managing agent certified letters requesting the documents and they have not provided me with the documents. Can I take legal action against the board members?

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NEED MORE DETAILS OF WHY THEY WANT TO EVICT YOU BEFORE YOU CAN BE PROVIDED WITH ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION.

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You cannot sue individual board members, but you can sue the Corporation, I did for simular reasons. I won a large amount. What I would do is go to the court you are taking board to, and take out a supeona for the documents you are seeking using the same index number that you filed for.You must supeona the documents or you will never get them. If they don't provide the documents they either will be in contempt of court or will lose the case forthwith.

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Dear DD,
Please give more details, such as where to see the case you had and the lawyer who was able to help you. According to a state senator's office..."You will not be successful suing a co-op unless you have a lot of money because of the BCL under which they, the board, usually get away with a lot of illegal dealings."

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Rogue Former Board Member's Unit for Sale - APayne May 27, 2011


One of the units for sale in our co-op belongs to a Shareholder/former board member who passed away last year. This individual was on the board for many years (even before I moved in) and used to be such a stickler for everyone following the rules, especially when it came to renovating your apartment. Now that his unit is on the market, we have learned that through the years, he has done a NUMBER of renovations to his apartment -without Board or Management approval - some of which have created functional obsolescence and therefore made it extremely difficult for his daughter to sell.

The unit also violates the stipulation in the Proprietary lease that 80% of the unit must be carpeted. His daughter finally found a buyer whom we have to interview. My question is, in addition to putting down the required carpet, can we require either the buyer or the seller to correct some of the issues with the unit (like modifying the kitchen so that it can once again accomodate a full sized refrigerator; either removing the wall that was erected in the dining room - or requiring them to get a certificate of occupancy from the town?)

And if the buyer decides to walk away from the sale, can this man's daughter bring an action against us for causing her to lose the sale of the apartment?

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The board can and should seek counsel from their building's attorney. They can demand that the building be put back to it's original layout, unless the current owner can produce permits thats the work was approved by the Department of buildings. Usually when you have a board member who is hell bent on everyone following the rules, they usually are the ones who break them and seem to think that everyone else is also breaking the rules.

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Non-structural changes do not need Dept. of Buildings approval. However, I'm afraid the daughter almost certainly WILL have to produce documentation saying that the board approved the renovation.

I gather permission was never even applied for, let alone exists, so most likely the daughter will have to return the apartment to its previous state.

But that might work out for the best. It sounds as if this apartment would need at least a modest renovation to be in any sort of shape to be sold. She might not get much for it in this condition -- so, as some other buildings have done, perhaps the board should buy it, renovate it and flip it at what could be a windfall profit.

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I think being realistic is important, after all, the unit is sold in "as is".

I do not know what you mean by functional obsolescence. I would say that if a small refrigeerator is a problem to the potential shareholder, this is not the co-op's problem. The new shareholder may wish to do renovations and will then apply to for alterations as per policy in place. If an interior non-bearing wall was taken down to make a closet smaller or larger, the new shareholder will have to re-evaluate the space according to need.

I would only be concerned as a co-op as far as violation to code. If none were made such as making a room without appropriate ventilation or adding plumbing where nothing existed w/o board approval or making a full electrical upgrade, it would be pointless to make life miserable to daughter and buyer. As a co-op you may demand inspecting the unit in order to note deviation from original as you may only wish to maintain as a co-op those areas that were original to the building v. those that were added that could change the responsibility of co-op /shareholder.

Selling a unit without carpet is not a sin nor anyone demand it. Just make sure the new shareholder installs one when it moves in or escrow at closing the money to install one.

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