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After our recent shareholders meeting, the new board tried to elect officers. No one wanted the nomination of president or vice president; the previous secretary wanted that position again, and said if she "had to be" president she'd resign from the board. We agreed to try again at our 1st Board meeting. As the outgoing president, I later emailed an offer to be interim president for a month & all agreed. At that 1st board meeting, 3 directors flatly refused any officer nomination, but 4 directors "agreed" to be Pres, VP, Treasurer, and Secretary.
There are 2 questions here: (1) since there was no election, are these "agreements" valid? (the minutes reflect "agreed") and (2) the secretary believes, because she is an officer, that she "has the right" to convey board decisions instead of leaving it to the president or vp. Recently, she did so without advising the president, and made a $9,000 mistake in the vendor's favor. Fortunately, the property agent alerted the president, but not until after she signed the papers. (The contract was cancelled and re-worked by the president.) This Secretary makes decisions on her own, including spending shareholders' money and the super's work time, without prior board approval. This is inappropriate, but is it worse? (Some of you might remember her as the secretary who changed the co-op's on-line banking passcode but wouldn't tell the president or VP about it.)
Does someone have a constructive suggestion as how to responsibly to deal with this? The shareholders are asking what's going on, and the Board is liable for one director's actions.
We are trying to call our annual meeting and not sure if proxies must be included in notice of annual meeting that are sent to all shareholders. If so, and they were not sent with the notice, what is the recourse with only 7 days left to our annual meeting? Can shareholders demand to reschedule the meeting becuase of the omission? Many are not able to attend and we may not have a quorum.
A residnet, shareholder or renter, knowingly lets a fushometer run for 5 days without notifying super, manager or landlord. No damage, just running water. Is this a unit entry situation?
it may be that coops can let in uncertified contractors until October.
EPA Delays Enforcement of New Lead-Based Paint Certification and Training Requirements
Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., June 25, 2010
On June 18, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) announced its decision to delay enforcement of the certification and training requirements in the Lead Renovation Repair and Painting Rule (“RRP Rule”). The RRP Rule required renovation firms and individual renovators to become certified by April 22, 2010, prior to performing work on target housing and child-occupied facilities. EPA responded to complaints from the regulated community and related pressure from Congress regarding the processing time for applications and difficulty obtaining the necessary renovator training. The new deadlines for compliance with the rule’s certification and training requirements are as follows:
Renovation Firms: EPA will not enforce against renovation firms for violations of the certification requirement until October 1, 2010.
Individual Renovators: EPA will not enforce against individual renovators if the person has applied to enroll in, or has enrolled in, a certified renovator training class by September 30, 2010. Renovators must complete the training by December 31, 2010.
I would recommend Samson and Fink located at 10 East 40th. St. New York, N.Y. 212-856-5800. They are excellent in any capacity of Co-op and condominiums.
Through our experience they are nice people but do not do their job. They were never in the building to insure the porters were doing their job. They never returned phone calls. But they were not the worst. Cooper Square/Wentworth is by far the worst yet. So if you are thinking about Cooper Square, I would take All Area Before them. I would reccomend Aras Properties, Long island, N.Y.
Our building has corrupt Board of Directors, this corruption with finances have been going on for years. After reviewing our finances we see that in order to pay our bills the Board have been dipping into our reserve account to make up for the shortfalls we have been incurring. We have $176,000 as of last month, they spent almost half million dollars on major capitol improvement, which in no way this amount of work was done. They have incurred liens on the building which cost us $55,000 for breach of contract and another $5,000 for breach of railing contract. They spent over $60,000 in legal fees last year (total willful misconduct). The attorney just happened to be a friend of the members of the Board. The contractor was a friend as well. Now we have gotten an assessment of $1.00 per share which will raise another 98,000 in their possession to disappear. My question is, hopefully, this coming election to remove this corrupt Board, how can the new Board make this building financially solvent without an expense to the Shareholders? One way is to cut our employee payroll. How else can we help this building?
We are thinking of posting this letter:
. . . .
Subject: Liquid bleach and the consequences
Dear Shareholders and Residents:
In the interest of transparency we find that we must be completely open about our findings and plans.
All have been enjoined from using liquid bleach on our premises. Yet despite warnings and admonitions, the use of liquid bleach is pervasive as evidenced by the numerous stains (white and black blotches) on many of our hallway carpets. Some areas are worse than others. Nevertheless, unsightly vistas greet residents and visitors in many hallways.
While we have many good and honorable residents, the few recidivists (along with their household aides) have created a slum-like appearance. And we all agree that no one wants are quality residence to decline in appearance or value.
For the better good of all, we are instituting the following practices immediately after the July 4th holiday weekend:
1. In the lobby, we will have a bleach-sniffing dog on-duty (24x7) to inspect all packages coming into the building. Where anyone is detected with bleach it will be removed and a letter of censure will be sent to the resident. This will continue until we are satisfied that the behavior of residents and aides has been modified so that no more liquid bleach is being brought into the building. Do note that this type of dog may give rise to false positives, e.g.: the chemicals in cat/kitty litter, , non-medicinal drug compounds, etc. For this we apologize in advance. And, while the dogs are friendly and children may approach, do note that upon detecting liquid bleach, the dogs are trained to howl incessantly and loudly until the liquid bleach is removed.
2. During the annual spring air-conditioning filter replacement, the bleach sniffing dog will inspect each apartment for liquid bleach. This will continue each year to ensure that liquid bleach is not being surreptitiously brought in the building.
Now that we have explained the rationale and the modus operandi, we are sure all residents are in concert with these actions. Thank you in advance.
Reading most Prop Leases and knowing that if it is outside the wall it belongs to the shareholder, who is responsible for the repair/replacement of a radiator and shut off valve? And if the double pane window seal has failed the coop replaces, but when the pane is clearly cracked from the inside-who pays?
Does anyone know what are the risk of a new construction condo where the contractor has the 51% majority? The building has no mortgage on it but because the majority of condo's have not been sold we cannot form a board. Help, before I buy. Thanks.
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(1) no they are not.
(2) the secretary cannot act alone without board approval.
Why does your secretary have access to your bank account ? That's the treasurers job.
You are doing a big dis-service to your building by allowing this situation to continue. If no one wants to be an officer, you should call for another election ... and find someone who is willing to take some responsibilities.
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