Hi! HabitatReporter here! The short answer is that it depends on your building. The longer answer is that you'll have to check with your board and your own proprietary lease, and even then it might not be clear. Check out this Habitat Magazine article from our February Digital Edition, called "Inside, Outside, Whose Side?":

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/habitat/201002/#/32

You can also access the article in the Habitat Archives:

http://www.habitatmag.com/archive/p_view_article.php?article_id=3889&next_page=p_article_list.php?returning=true&print_only=

You might have to copy and paste the URLs; Board Talk is sometimes a little funny about hotlinking. Hope this helps!

You can file in either one according to the results you want, monetarily or otherwise, for a breach you can also file in Supreme Court.

never heard of them, but try Eisenstein Realty ask for harry, they are really good.

Stay away from All Area. We had them for two years and they never paid our payroll taxes. We discovered this when IRS sent us the bill

Feel free to give us a call too! (or e-mail - mblevine@ebmg.com)

Our experience was horrible - didn't pay property taxes on time and didn't pay withholding taxes and we got stuck with the bill

As a resident of a coop and having to deal with Allarea, I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THEM. Unprofessional, office staff not qualified, property manager had no idea about plumbing, electrical wires...let's say, he was no sparky. Tsao the president doesn't return phone calls and has no idea what his staff is doing.

Try contacting Matthew Adam Properties, Inc., Ira Meiter (212) 699-8900 They are excellent in property management.

Mike MacGowan, Resident Manager?

I always see you promoting Matthew Adams, is that the firm you work for?

No I work for the Co-op, Matthew Adam Properties, Inc. manage the building. They are a very good company.

We had take to court,plus they lied about certain facts,and kept our money we putting to special fund upkeep of the building. Parsons Plaza Condo.

We had take to court,plus they lied about certain facts,and kept our money we putting to special fund upkeep of the building. Parsons Plaza Condo.

You should look into Metropolitan Pacific Properties (www.metpacproperties.com). We would be happy to be of service.

Wow, so a bunch of mgmt companies are comenting on All Area. Nice. Very credible.

If you follow the thread the initial question was does anyone know of All area property mgt, so I am guessing most comments are in response to the question, are you with me. Something tells me you work for them.

MRM.

There is no credibility in this business. You have a bunch of mgmt companies writing lies about us. Yes, I am one of the owners at All Area. I would never do 1% of what is going on here.

Thanks everyone for showing your true colors.

And yes, one of my employees told me about this thread. Technically, this is for Board Members only.

Actually, anyone can comment on this board. It's an open-Internet site. Apartment buyers and sellers are on here all the time. I do sympathize if untrue things are being said, but you can trace identities pretty well through the IP numbers that come up on each top item. Do a Google search to find out how.

Thank You LeonardC. I know what you have mentioned. I do IT only, so I know all the tricks. I also know that most Cable, FIOS and DSL Subsribers on home plans use DHCP IP's and it would be very hard to track, so this would be very difficult. Our company uses a Static NAT'd IP so of course my comment can be traced back to me. But, I have nothing to hide.

My Recommendation would be not to allow this kind of talk, but I understand what Habitat is trying to do here. I know that an open forum like this can have its positives and negatives.

I was actually on this site yesterday, because we have not advertised with Habitat in over 10 years because our business grows via word of mouth and referals and not so much with advertising. Its just been that way lately.

I was just looking around and searched All Area to see how we come up in the Habitat. As I was doing that, a employee walked into my office and showed me a thread they saw weeks ago. Either way, I do hope people see through this. We have tripled in business since 2005 with no advertising whats so ever.

I do believe though that some advertising could be helpfull.

I don't know about management companies but I live in a coop that All Area managed and they did not pay our total employee withholding taxes for a long time, and the IRS charged us - they paid bills very late including our RE taxes which cost us over $6,000 in interest, and of course other bills late and otherwise were very bad managers - to get anything done I would have to call 311

If anyone is interested, there have been three responses to this thread in 2013. All of them were unsolicited replies to messages posted in 2010 and all of them were very uncomplimentary to All Area Property Management.

I will leave the drawing of any conclusions or conspiracy theories as an exercise for the reader... ;-)

In the real world board members are supposed to lead example (LOL). While it is easy to say sell and get the hell out of there it would serve no purpose. You have to ask yourself is it worth taking this person on?, Have others complained?

MRM

I think you should handle it just like you would if it were another shareholder, have mangement send a letter and then wait for them to respond to the letter. It don't matter if he/she is on the board or not.

Good Luck.

KITTY LITTER HAS BEEN KNOWN TO BE USED TO TRY AND COVER ODOR FROM DEAD BODY(ANIMAL/HUMAN). CONTACT BOARD OF HEALTH AND POLICE FOR IMMEDIATE RESULTS.
WORKED IN OUR BUILDING. SOURCE OF ODOR WAS DEAD CAT.

I agree with Mike. Have mgmt send your BM a letter. Also check your Proprietay Lease. If the BM doesn't reply or won't let mgmt inspect the apt, it's very likely that your Lease allows entry without a SH's permission if unsanitary conditions are strongly suspected or known to exist.

Our Lease even says if apt windows are excessively dirty and the SH won't clean them, the coop has the right to go in and have them cleaned. Pot, beer, etc. are a SH's private business, but bad pet and garbage odors from an apt are something else.

Some people aren't very clean and don't throw out garbage, soiled cat litter, etc. as often as they should. But as another poster said, there could be a more serious problem in your BM's apt. I wouldn't waste time checking this out.

offensive smells like garbage and kitty litter are one thing.
however if you have a personal issue against pot, well that is his own business, the same as someone having a beer of cocktail.
As the others have said , if it is that bad a source of offensive odor , everyone should man up and write the letter with your names. If the odor of mj was really that strong you might ask him to get a fan to blow sick it out the window and ask the super to put added draft control material on the bottom of the door or add sealer to the saddle if there is one.
i wouldn't put pot smell in the same category of rotten garbage and kitty litter which is a health/ vermin issue for the other residents.

Regarding your response, I feel that there is a great difference between someone smoking pot and someone having a beer. Having managed many properties, I have received complaints regarding "pot odor" on particular hallways. Nobody has ever called me to say that Mr. Jones is drinking a budweiser in his apartment. Simply put, if I have a beer at night nobody knows. If I smoke pot the odour/smell, more than likely will be detected and someone will complain.

MRM

Um, the building shouldn't have to put up with disgusting drug addicts. The smell (skunk weed) smells like the name and the pot smoker should make adjustments to his addiction. The managment has to send a letter siting Warrant of Habitability and that they are in default.
Just because some think it's o.k., look the other way or think it's someone elses problem, it's not. Get tough man!!! Stand up for your rights.

Hi everyone! HabitatReporter here again, this time with a response from Elliot Meisel of the law firm of Brill & Meisel. He says,

"The first issue is whether the building in question is a co-op or a condo. Each has a very different way of dealing with such situations.

The most important issue here is that board members should be above reproach. They should not be guilty of anything that other shareholders should not be guilty of. It is the responsibility of the board to hold its members to a higher standard. The other board members can try to persuade the problematic board member of that responsibility. Failing that, he or she can be removed from the board either with or without cause by the other boardmembers or the shareholders, depending on the by-laws of the building.

If the building is a co-op, the Board should first check the proprietary lease as the offending board member can be found in default and afforded the chance to comply or be evicted. In a condo, there is no landlord/tenant relationship, and the by-laws are poor at enforcing non-monetary issues, but in addition to having the board member removed from the board the condo can go to court to seek an injunction against the offending conduct, but that is difficult, will take a long time and be expensive.

Calling the Board of Health is a possibility but is likely to result in the building receiving a violation, not the individual unit-owner, leaving the building, rather than the board member, with the responsiblity for rectifying the situation though the owner may be backcharged for the fine..

When litigating quality of life issues, such as noise, odors or vermin, several things are important. Have more than one complainant; have the complaints in writing, have them documented over a period of time and have the complainants willing to go to court to testify as the courts will respect a personal appearance over signed affidavits and letters. "

Hope this helps!

I worked with El Tech numerous times and I think they're excellent. I managed a 6 story building on the Upper West Side where the elevator was 50 years old and they maintained it and when it came time to modernize it, they won the bid and came in a week ahead of schedule. They're back-office is very good and easy to deal with as well.

our original sponsor is still the managing agent, i always wondered how common this is.
27 year conversion here.
i see it as a no lose gravy train for the sponsor/managing company
if they still have a lot of units for the first 10/20 years after conversion, they don't do the required maintainance, because they want their cost kept down. By the time the problem is evident, the sponsor doesn't own anything, and are just collecting managing fee's, and now they are dealing with big $$ projects which can be padded very easily. The owners are tagged with assessments.
our roof had to be encapsulated doors replaced, a lot of work that would have been avoided with normal maintenance. Now it is a big job, since no agent did roof inspections in 27 years

you gotta switch agents asap!!

Two words: Jennifer Realty. Google it.

Hello David,
You are part of the solution not the problem so hang-in there. Here are some suggestions:
1) Get a lawyer
2) Make sure you have personal liability insurance.
3) You may need to set-up a shadow Board.
4) You have got to find the leverage to unhinge them. I would suggest finding a way to alter the flow of funds.
Just some thoughts...

Consult the corp attorny, call the Attorny General's office and inquiry about your rights. But be prepared for push back.

My engineers charge about 250/195 and typically would provide a flate rate quote on the report and only the construction project would incur the hourly rate.

Best
~AR