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As the renovations to Lido Towers draw to a close (so I am told), the total budget for this project is in the neighborhood of $18 MILLION DOLLARS. What I cannot understand is what portion of this large sum has gone to improving the lives of handicapped residents?
My mom has been a resident for OVER 7 YEARS. I have Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, in January when it became unsafe for me to live alone I moved in with mom. Shortly after that, it became necessary because of MS for me to use a Power Wheelchair.
IDEALLY I would like Lido Beach to be my now & forever home because when my mom passes the condo will revert to me HOWEVER living here is so bad that after only being here 4 months I am considering a NURSING HOME.
For 184 UNITS (realizing MOST have more than one car) & a LARGE NUMBER of VISITORS particularly during the summer there are 5 HANDICAPPED PARKING SPACES. 1 in the "A" lot (near the pool) 0 in the "B" lot that would be considered the MAIN LOT since this is MOST residents & ALL visitors enter & where the Lobby is located & 4 in the "C" lot. When you enter the "C" lot from the "B" lot there are 2 IMMEDIATELY to your right then there are 2 a long distance away by the BBQ area. The spaces I am told are on a first come first serve basis for resident & guests alike so if a resident such as myself REQUIRES handicapped parking space because of accessibility & they use a wheelchair they still have a 1 in 5 chance of getting a handicapped parking space otherwise they need to park in a regular space which in my case IS NOT wide enough for my van. I WAS offered another regular space that is "slightly" larger because it is an end space but it is almost in the BBQ area.
The lobby IS NOT accessible to the handicapped from the parking lot. Nearby is the service entrance. By law the service entrance CANNOT be the ONLY MEANS of wheelchair access yet this is where they want to put a ramp for me (currently that entrance IS NOT accessible because of a "lip" at the door). Going around the bend a bit on the way to the "C" lot is d another door this door ironically is almost in my apartment but it IS NOT accessible. Then if you go all the way thru the "C" lot over by the BBQ grill (where the 2 handicapped spaces area) is the ONLY DOOR currently accessible (sort of) to a wheelchair. It DOES NOT have a "lip" preventing the chair from entering HOWEVER it has a very heavy fire door then a small hallway & another heavy door.
I submitted a LETTER OF REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION as the law requires. As I said, I was offered a regular parking space all the way by the BBQ grill. They also said they COULD put a ramp at the Service Entrance so I WOULD NOT have to go around the world to get in (though I still might have to go around the world to park). Additionally they AGREED to make the door with the ramp (service door) AUTOMATIC (as I requested) but it would be done AT MY EXPENSE.
Even the CLOSEST parking space is NOWHERE close to the Service Entrance where they want me to come in. If I COULD NOT find a handicapped parking & needed to park in the regular space they want to assign me near the BBQ area I would need to pack a suitcase to get to the Service Door, which they would put a ramp on & I could pay for an automatic door too. Furthermore, law says they CANNOT designate the Service Entrance as a handicapped entrance.
The entrance that I am going in currently is accessed by going up a walkway that is barely wider than my wheelchair. When I need to turn to open the fire door with the key my back wheels go off the path (it is not wide enough) & into the dirt & gravel. The “trick” is then for me to hold the fire door open, get my key out, direct the chair out of the gravel, hold my service dog & get in the door. Rarely is anyone in this area to help me. On average, it takes between 15 & 20 minutes for me to get in the building. In ONE MONTH: I destroyed a brand new cup holder & a beautiful large button of my Service Dog & I from the door slamming closed on me. I broke my reacher & badly dented my coffee cups the same way & my saddlebag is TORN from getting caught in the door. Not a lot of people use this entrance particularly in the off season so if I should fall – or worse – it would be RANDOM when help would arrive.
There is another whole issue with my Service Dog, which is equally ridiculous, but irrelevant here.
What I am talking about & hope someone can answer is – how can Lido Towers justify spending $18 MILLION to repair & renovate a building & grounds & exclude handicapped residents?
the neighbor above has a slow leak they believe to be toilet bend leak damaging my ceiling. he is in process of divorce and apt sale and refuses to get leak fixed. coop wants to just plaster up my ceiling and let me paint before the leak is fixed. does this make sense? they sy they will not use th toilet.
meantime my insurance has paid for some work but coop trying to do the plaster anyhow and the super does sub-par work.
If I donate money to my co-op, can I get a tax deduction? As I understand it, cooperatives are supposed to be not-for-profit organizations.
What percentage of units in a coop will make a bank think twice about granting mortgages to new purchasers (or refinancing the coop's mortgage)?
Put another way, what percentage of owner-occupancy do banks want to see before they will grant mortage loans in the building?
i have been in this co-op since pre conversion in the early 1980's.
80/20 has always been the ratio of owners occupiers to non owner occupied, including unsold shares.
i noticed the building was going downhill and there were very few people that wanted to get involved, in anything. i also saw that all the shareholder committees ,such as garden, decorating ,garage, no longer existed
i had to argue with the Managing agent and i refused to take no for an answer, or the "he has 20 years experience and he knows the rules not me, etc. i stood my ground and got the shareholder list.
recently another long term shareholder requested the shareholder list and was giving the same bs no by the same MA, she had spoke to me, and stood her ground and got the list.
i see about 50% owner occupied now, and the board president is trying to get another friend of mine , who is trying to sell , to consider renting rather than selling, since his kid is getting married and need an apartment . in the non owner occupied that aren't classified as subleases or unsold shares, the shareholder is the parent , who never moved into the apartment, their child did.
however per out proprietary lease,par 14 states shareholder "and" , not "or", for those that know this issue and the deciding court case.
The board president and managing company, say this is OK, i have noticed that most of the recent sale of co-ops have been to this arrangement. Investors , which are not good for a co-op
They do not pay sublease fee's, however the shareholders that have permission to sublease, have to pay these sublease fee's.
Any thoughts on how i should deal with this? any legal action i can take? all those sublease fees not being paid, and we have been getting hit with assessments back to back.,
The building has gone downhill drastically in the last 10 years. That is when the new board got into play and allowed all this .
i was injured and became disabled 10 years ago, so i had my hands full, i still have my hands full,
But i don't like living in a building where no one cares., which is what we have now, more like a low level rental building. When the building converted we had all kinds of committees,grounds and garden, garage,even a monthly bulletin, and this was before the Internet.
Now we have zero , due to a board president who i consider shady, refuses any transparency, doesn't like questions concerning financial s, and who is constantly self dealing regarding parking spaces, which are golden in this area. Even the board president and wife no longer live here, nor are their address on the shareholder sheet listed as the the co-ops address. His adult kids occupy the apartment.
thanks for any help
I'm a renter and my co-op board goes up on my rent every year by $20. The start of this year I got a $50 increase, is that legal? And they never want to take care of my repairs, I have a faucet leak for a year now.
Hi Everyone,
It has been a long year as we drive our co-op to a higher standard. Using experienced gained on different boards, I have tried to create an atmosphere of transparency for the serving officers of the board, building staff and our managing agent. Our managing agent is our sponsor and despite attempts to make a change, it’s not going to happen with the current board makeup.
Change is in the air, and I might just be part of it.
I want to get your feedback about the actions, processes, and procedures that work for your boards. I understand what works for one building, might not apply to another, but best practices will make all of our communities stronger.
I’m listing some of the issues
Here are some issues for concern at my co-op
1) Board meetings are held with the managing agent at the building weekly during working hours – no exception – Makes it difficult to actively participate and discourages others from running for the board.
2) Minutes have not been recorded in years even though our Prop lease designates the secretary to “cause” minutes to be recorded. Our secretary is the sponsor and managing agent.
3) Bids, documents, violations, anything co-op related are often times only provided for one or two board members, which are then, suppose to copy or pass to the other members.
4) Managing agent contacts don’t use email.
5) Financials are only given to one member of the residential purchasing board members usually at the third Friday, meaning we don’t receive financial information until two months have past...
Things have gotten better in the year since we joined– several new members such as myself are playing the managing agent role – reaching out and meeting with vendors, suppliers etc, and taking off time from work to be involved – however this is not sustainable.
We want to continue to make progress, so suggestions, feedback and comments about things that work are appreciated.
It will help keep up the pressure for change, because at the end of the day we love our building, and recognize that we want it to be a home and we want to be involved and do the right thing.
Thank You all and I hope you have a great weekend.
Hi all
Has anyone any experience with those systems for boiler/heat during winter season. Ours is kinda old and not very efficient.
One sensor outside and only one inside to pick up heat on one steam pipe.
Has any of you recently upgraded ? did it live up to your expectations in terms of savings etc ...
thanks
ps: i watched the "ask the experts" on this site.
We are a 200 family garden apartment complex sitting on almost 14 acres of land. One of our shareholders is requesting to have the Corporation's maintenance personnel do a door to door distribution, during regular working hours, at Corporate expense, of a newsletter put out by a non profit group. The shareholder in question is of course involved with this particular organization.
In the past we have been reluctant to allow the distribution for the following reasons:
*The co-op has no affiliation with this group.
*The newsletter contains advertising. It might appear that the board is endorsing those businesses or services.
*There is also concern that shareholders may perceive the board as being responsible for or endorsing the newsletter's content.
*Many of our shareholders are involved in different organizations. Where do we draw the line on this type of distribution? How do we grant one request and refuse another?
*These various groups do of course have the right to distribute any materials at their own expense or using volunteer labor.
Taking all the above into consideration, do you feel these distributions using Corporate personnel should be permitted and does your co-op/condo have a policy concerning this type of activity?
Thanks in advance for your input.
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This is just wrong, wrong, wrong.
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