We ad a neighbor who thinks its OK to hold piano concerts and classes in him home. I had a company called REAP Construction come in and install a special wallboard and vinyl underlayment that has a sound attenuation of ?? (I do not know the actual specifications), and also on the ceiling. When they did the ceiling, they used a hanger system so the sound would not travel from the old to the new... works like a charm (A bit pricy though)

Sorry about all the typos!

T Place, thank you for this information. No biggy on the typo's I do it all the time. I will give REAP a call.

Thx... I dont know the owners last name but this is his contact:
REAP Construction
Anthony
877-799-6810
917-306-8903

Thank you :)

also look into Homosote!! might be less costly...good luck!

As a managing agent, we've been using www.resident-net.com as a provider for building websites (disclaimer: I own that company and adapted it for outside of our client base). If you'd like to get in touch on this, you can e-mail me at mblevine@ebmg.com

Thanks for the recommendations. These look nice. Neither seems to have a built in board email mailbox or calendar with the ability to invite people to attend. How are HOAs and Boards managing appointments, email, and task management?

we will be using verizon concierge it is free and offers support for management

Free sounds good we pay $100.00 per month by our managing agent. Thanks I'll check this out and bring this up as a cost effective way to cut our managing cost.

We've adopted Associationvoice.com for about $50/month. Nice simple design templates and easy to use setup and functionality. We tried athome.net which was kludgey and difficult to navigate for users. I saw something called Virtual Doorman at the NYC Coop & Condo Expo that sounded interesting. Not a website per se but a remote doorman like service.

Free sounds good we pay $100.00 per month by our managing agent. Thanks I'll check this out and bring this up as a cost effective way to cut our managing cost.

You may want to check out "HOASPACE.COM" to house your information.

I set a yahoo group for our building of 200 units. It works nicely. Unfortuantely, you will find a couple of people who use it to kvetch their issues and just are always negative. Same folks who don't go to the annual mtgs and hide behind their computers to complain. That is the only downside. On a more positive note, people have used it for play dates, train delays and to relay other good info.

It all depends on the need, the size of the coop, etc...

You would need to provide some information on the Coop, number of units, staff numbers, do you use part time employees etc? You need this kind of information to get an accurate response.

we have 90 units. we have plenty of staff - handyman 5 days a week and all-night porters. the overtime is mostly used fro one doorman to do painting/plastering in public areas.

why dont you hire someone part time to do the painting as you are currently paying time/half for the porter to do such work.

MRM

ABSOLUTELY NO!!!!!!!

ABSOLUTELY NO!!!!!!!

One might imagine that an undated contract would be invalid, but Googling around suggests that this isn't cut-and-dried. For example, suppose that you and Joe Schmoe sign a contract under which Mr. Schmoe will provide you services for two years for a stated fee per month. Mr. Schmoe does indeed provide those services for (say) six months and you pay during the same period. Then one of you becomes dissatisfied with the deal and tries to break the contract because it's undated. The law firm of Google & Google seems to imply that you couldn't do that since you have both implicitly agreed to the contract by your actions over the past six months.

I AM NOT A LAWYER and neither is Google. But "It's not binding because it's not dated" looks like an iffy argument at best.

Since this is a message board regarding real estate, my answer was narrowly framed. A contract for the sale or real estate must be in writing based on the Statute of Frauds, a lease for more than one year also must be in writing. Both must be dated. Oral contracts, which obviously are undated are valid in many areas, but not the sale of real estate. In your example you state it was a two year contract, when did the two years begin? Without a date it doesn't seem to be enforceable. However, if someone performs serfvices for another and there is an expectation of payment, oral or in writing, dated or not, if it can be proven that those services took place, payment would be expected. There are many examples of oral contracts being valid and, even undated ones when there are no problems. Real estate,however, is quite different.

Dianne, thanks for the clarification. In my example of a two-year contract for services, I would imagine that the two-year period would be determined to have started when the services began and when the first payment was made. Assuming both parties had cooperated for several months on those terms, it appears likely that the contract would be considered enforceable, even if undated. (But again, I Am Not A Lawyer.)

On further Googling, it turns out this identical question with its odd phrasing ("Does a contract signed by both parts without the date is valid, it has legal power?") has been posted to a number of discussion groups on the internet. In one case, the writer clarified what the contract was about: "The contract was signed between cooperative and cable company." If that is indeed the case, and the cable TV service has already been provided for awhile with payments made by the coop, then it looks like they're probably going to have to live with the contract.

Of course the bottom line is that the original poster's coop should CONTACT THEIR ATTORNEY and ask for a detailed analysis.

You are right on the mark with the "contact attorney", but sometimes these questions are just that, questions, not necessarily pertaining to real life problems and I like to answer anything about which I am knowledgable.. I would hope that anyone with a real contract problem would contact an attorney. You used two phrases which made me chuckle, ASSUMING BOTH PARTIES, and, IT APPEARS LIKELY. These are some obvious examples of why oral contracts or others that are not complete and might not hold up in a court of law are so dangerous. You are right, once again, CONTACT A LAWYER and PUT IT IN WRITING.

1. ask each one for recommendations... ask if you can contact satisfied clients
2. check Yelp & boards like that
3. use your intuition
4. if you're unhappy, change again later

alll good ideas, but consider something else. Do you want a large or small firm. Is your co op over 500 apartments with numerous legal issues resulting from varied tenant problems or a smaller ones with most of the problems typical real estate problems as opposed to litigation. if your problems are varied, a firm with several attorneys who specialize in different areas might be a good fit.

Thank you all for your input. Our co-op has 51 units. The only major issue we currently have is our present attorney is in court to remove a shareholder for illegal sublet. We do have shareholders in arrears (4) but they are paying up before the 3rd month. So I guess a small law firm would be good.

Response time and ability to articulate legal issues in simple concepts is important There should be chemistry between client and professional, i.e., ability to relate to the client and his general needs expressed as well as trust in his/her competence demonstrated through the interview process.

You are a patient person.

I would get a lawyer. Be careful though, the co-op’s legal fees can end up on your maintenance bill. As a result, I would have the lawyer write a letter first asking about the status of the repairs/re-pitch. Then if you got no reply, I would take them to court.

Don't go cheap on the lawyer - use an experienced real estate law firm too. Finally, hire a housing inspector and check for damage to electrical or mold issues. You would want to know those issues going in.

Five years is still five years, with little or no communication, resolution, plan or remedial action. As a Board President I can tell you that it doesn't take anywhere near that long - (assuming the worst scenario - a very complex and expensive engineering/architectural issue which would take us (3-4 Board + good management Co.) 3 months for a report and 1-3 months for a final plan of action given reasonable scale of issues. It could be 9 months if larger and 1.5 years if very, very large -maybe; remember that the larger the scale of issue the larger the team you apply in managing and coordinating the engineering, facilities committee proposal review and report, financial solutions (paid out of reserves, refi, line of credit, phased assessment, finite term maintenance surcharge etc.) and communicating it to your shareholders); to solicit, select, and hire a consulting Engineer/Firm to analyze and issue a report, establish choices and plan(s) of action based on the Coop's finances, and put a capital project, funded one way or another into play, or at the very least find a temporary remediation to protect the property while moving forward at a slower pace due to complexity, or financial reasons. One of the things that would concern me is the collateral damage: rot, infrastructural damage, and potential mold issues over five years of nothing. While I agree with Michele that there are possibly many complicating issues potentially involved, the biggest issue by far is the lack of decisive planning and action to protect the property and keep a shareholder(s) informed. This is a failure of leadership, a freeze up due to being out of their depth and not making any decisions, a definite failure on the part of the Management Co. to stay on top of critical issues, or maybe they are moving and have failed utterly in their responsibility to keep affected shareholders informed. How many election cycles have come and gone by with no word, no action, no posted solution? May is coming and that is annual meeting season for many coops. A good time to publicly demand some answers. Why not start doing some committee volunteer work or run for the Board, get involved? Steve is right, get a good Coop RE attorney, and do a letter, try not to go it alone, however there is a potential negligence issue that they can work with as well due to the habitability issues involved. The Coop's legal costs should only wind up on your maintenance IF your issues are not legitimate. The base line for your legal action when dealing with a Coop Board is that there is a legitimate basis for a cause of action under the law as defined by the court. Both what Michele said above, and Steve here should be paid attention to.

I do hear your pain. But, as a board president that has had to deal with this issue, I have to say that the delay could be a result of several challenges that do take time to mull over and resolve. It could very likely be a financial issue and a question as to whether to fix one roof versus an entire complex's roof; it could be that you are not the only one with the same issue and the board is figuring out whether, as above, to do this unit-by-unit or as a group project (several units at a time)...and whether this sort of issue fits within a larger capital project.

I think getting a lawyer involved makes things harder to deal with. Have you also asked about the possibility of laying out the funds for repair and then being reimbursed via some sort of payment plan, perhaps through credits to your common charges?

I say all of this because we have had to deal with these issues at our complex, and to the individual owner, it seems like we are dragging our feet. But from a board perspective, we are thinking about efficiency, finances, and all that comes with these ugly problems (especially when a result of poor construction.)

Five years is still five years, with little or no communication, resolution, plan or remedial action. As a Board President I can tell you that it doesn't take anywhere near that long - (assuming the worst scenario - a very complex and expensive engineering/architectural issue which would take us (3-4 Board + good management Co.) 3 months for a report and 1-3 months for a final plan of action given reasonable scale of issues. It could be 9 months if larger and 1.5 years if very, very large -maybe; remember that the larger the scale of issue the larger the team you apply in managing and coordinating the engineering, facilities committee proposal review and report, financial solutions (paid out of reserves, refi, line of credit, phased assessment, finite term maintenance surcharge etc.) and communicating it to your shareholders); to solicit, select, and hire a consulting Engineer/Firm to analyze and issue a report, establish choices and plan(s) of action based on the Coop's finances, and put a capital project, funded one way or another into play, or at the very least find a temporary remediation to protect the property while moving forward at a slower pace due to complexity, or financial reasons. One of the things that would concern me is the collateral damage: rot, infrastructural damage, and potential mold issues over five years of nothing. While I agree with Michele that there are possibly many complicating issues potentially involved, the biggest issue by far is the lack of decisive planning and action to protect the property and keep a shareholder(s) informed. This is a failure of leadership, a freeze up due to being out of their depth and not making any decisions, a definite failure on the part of the Management Co. to stay on top of critical issues, or maybe they are moving and have failed utterly in their responsibility to keep affected shareholders informed. How many election cycles have come and gone by with no word, no action, no posted solution? May is coming and that is annual meeting season for many coops. A good time to publicly demand some answers. Why not start doing some committee volunteer work or run for the Board, get involved?

I had a very similar experience when I moved into my building 6 years ago. Before I actually moved in, I hired an electician to install a light fixture and he discovered that there was water in the ceiling - the only thing above my unit was the roof. I immediately alerted the Super and Management. Management assured me that the problem would be resolved when I moved in. Three months later, we had a torrential downpour that resulted in water coming through my ceiling light fixture and ultimately created a hole in my celing and soaked my bed, brand new carpet, etc. For MONTHS the board and management ignored me and did not correct the problem. I finally consulted with an attorney who encouraged me to go to small claims court for the damages I incurred (because they were under $5,000). I did and won. Management refused to pay and I wound up getting a judgment issued against them - so they wound up having to give me even more than I actually was awarded by the judge for refusing to comply with the order. I had the Sherriff's dept seize the money from their account.

Later, I joined the board and learned that the board at the time of my leak was very aware of the problem. They knew my building had roofing issues all along and were told by Rand Engineering that they needed to replace the roof. For whatever reason they ignored the Engineer's report and instead chose to put $500,000 worth of new siding on the building instead to make it 'look pretty.' The property manager was eventually ousted for stealing the co-ops money and when our current management company came on board they worked to address the problems in the form of patchwork and we are now looking to do a complete replacement.

Since you have actually been dealing with this for 5 years, I would suggest going through your homeowners insurance because I'm sure you have way more than $5,000 in damage from water coming through your ceiling for 5 years. Have them do a mold inspection, because I'm pretty sure you have got to have some after that kind of moisture coming in your unit for so long. You can get your own attorney in the meantime, but your insurance company will go after the building regarding the roof repair because they don't want to spend thousands of dollars restoring the conditions of your unit only for the same thing to happen again because your management and board are too laxed to have the problem fixed.

It will probably take more time to resolve, but definitely shouldn't take you 5 years. Call the Dept. of Buildings as well and let them see your unit and they can order the building to fix it and possibly fine them for having you live under those conditions. Call the media too and shame your building into fixing that roof over your unit. Good luck!

You need to contact the authorities and report it should you want to make it formal. ... There are serious crimes being committed and the Attorney Generals office should be advised. be careful what and where you post.

Best
~AR

This guy has posted advertising here for his company before. If this really came from Con Ed, who did it go to? Con Ed commercial customers? If so, we'll get this without his help. I'm dubious

Can you give me examples of corruption here?

Why do you ask?
Let me see, where to start. Working on personal work during paid work hours. Making life very difficult for outside contractors who do not give him a cash payment. Using his own contractor friends inteh building and allowing work no in alteration agreement if someone gives him a wad of cash. etc.

There are two separate issues here, the legal letter charge and the Super, can you document the Super's activities, kickbacks, and breach of Coop rules/job description or other legalities? Can you establish, have you maintained, a paper trail?

The paper trail is the bottom line core of any action you might want to take on any topic that involves any kind of breach, whether it be shareholder, Board, or Management company. Or for that matter Accountants and legal. Anything. That's the first thing any Lawyer you hire will ask for: logs, documents, emails etc. do everything in writing, not by telcall. Keep logs. Of course your Lawyer will also tell you that you should not discuss anything by email and only by telcall. This is not always possible, but important to understand. It is because all your emails, except that which is explicitly noted as privileged attorney client communications (I do not know how they sort this out, legalistically) is 'discoverable' during the pre-trial/pre-deposition discovery process.
If there is concrete evidence then, if you can muster the authority, fire the Super. period. flat out. no negotiations. The Super is an 'at will' employee. You do not have to 'show cause' unless there is some Union contract/protocol your Building has signed. In fact, if they are not Union, you should not under any conditions provide them with any reason for the firing as that will give them a hook to try and sue on. So, odd as it seems, you say nothing to them, or the Shareholders who ask. Just do it and have them vacate. It seems harsh but, you are doing it because they are corrupt, heavy handed, and providing substandard services, so there is no room for a misplaced sense of compassion here from someone who has been screwing your Coop, is there?

Billing the Shareholder for legal.

First off needs to be stated in your building docs - Bylaws, house rules, etc. that any cause of action precipitated by a shareholder action is billable against the shareholder if, by their actions or activities it has caused the Board to utilize legal services for advisement or to adjudicate the situation. This could be anything from advice, to letters, to actions, court costs, collections etc. it also applies to having to hire any professional outside service such as Engineers, Architects, CPA's, other Lawyers, Litigation Specialists etc. However, it presumes that the Board is operating legitimately within the standard business rule, and reasonably as well. Your citing of the incident makes one speculate as to the legitimacy of the charge-back. That could be due to your citation representation or objective facts. You must always be careful that your personal assessment and feelings which can be subjective do not supplant a true 'arms-distance' objectivity as to the facts. Everything should read the same from both sides of the table. The Lawyer doesn't have the right to charge it back directly, only the Board does. Is your Board dysfunctional? Can you muster a shadow cabinet to run against them at the next election? Can you collect proxies to help? You do have a right to the contact info of your neighbor shareholders from Management, but it might be wiser to go door to door and collect whatever info you need that way. Most shareholders not in residence tend to give a favorite neighbor their keys and contact info. It's all very well to say these things, but documentation is reality, and the basis for any cause of action, and not so easy to come by without some hard and careful work over time. Good luck!

Why do you ask?
Let me see, where to start. Working on personal work during paid work hours. Making life very difficult for outside contractors who do not give him a cash payment. Using his own contractor friends inteh building and allowing work not in alteration agreement if someone gives him a wad of cash. etc.

Under most proprietary leases, a coop may bill legal fees to a shareholder only if the fees are related to a default by that person. For example, if a shareholder files a frivolous (but costly) lawsuit against the building but is NOT in default, then the coop typically cannot recover its legal fees from the shareholder. On the other hand, if a shareholder stops paying maintenance or deliberately sets the lobby on fire, then the coop's legal fees -- and other related expenses -- can be billed to the defaulting miscreant.

Check your own proprietary lease. In ours, which follows the model used by many coops, Paragraph 28 reads as follows:

"28. Reimbursement of Lessor's Expenses: If, at any time, the Lessee shall be in default hereunder and the Lessor shall incur any expense (whether paid or not) in performing acts which the Lessee is required to peform, or in instituting any action or proceeding based on such default, or defending, or asserting a counterclaim in, any action or proceeding brought by the Lessee, the expense thereof to the Lessor, including reasonable attorneys' fees and disbursements shall be paid by the Lessee to the Lessor, on demand, as additional rent."