Inasmuch as possible, document all instances of egregious behavior.

It is not in the shareholders’ best interest for one person to be making all of the decisions.

Carry out as much board business as possible via email. It is efficient, allows one person to communicate with several people at once, and leaves a timestamped record that can be referred to long after the fact in case of any confusion or divergence of personal recollection.

Those who are above-board and transparent in their dealings have absolutely no problem with documentation.

Insistence on purely verbal communication, ex parte private discussions, resistance to documentation — these are red flags, usually indicators that all is not on the up and up.

Document, document, document.

We have similar problems - in our coop which is an original coop, our Occupancy Agreement stated that subletting is legal upon approval of the board; however many, many years ago at an Annual Meeting the now Secretary who was President stated that subletting is illegal and nothing could move her. Now the problem is and for a long long time is that we have so many renters without legal agreements, between the lessor, lessee and board that 1) when maintenance has not been paid for years and years, in one case because there is no legal owner and we have massive legal bills to try to recoup this amount,2) renters have garage spaces, exactly what rights to these renters have - we have no documents or rules to put this into effect which is harmful to the shareholders - so what does anyone suggest in this situation

If the sponsor sold to the apartment to an investor who has never lived in the unit, then the investor is a "Holder of Unsold Shares" and may sublet to anyone in the world until the end of time without board approval or sublet fees. Sorry about that.

We have problems keeping lifeguards and want to get rid of them completely. Is this a good idea?

It's my understanding that swimming in a ccop/condo pool is prohibited when a lifeguard isn't on duty. (City pools must have them.) Check your by-laws or ask your attorney. Even if not legally required to have one, you should. A key responsibility for a coop/condo is resident safety.

What if an adult is alone at the pool and has an accident, gets a cramp while swimming, etc.? Would you let young children or teenagers use the pool without a lifeguard on duty? I'd be very concerned about that, and I think your owners would be too.

Frank, this is a muddy area and we'll appreciate your article. Our management company advised us to have work orders but it was never clear how they were to work except for materials to be charged back to the residents, not the super's time. Thank you again.

Many years ago we had a handyman, but the job was phased out. Our Super/poters now do odd jobs -- on thier own time. We have compaired what we pay, and it varies greatly, so we are very interested in your artical.

My neighbor paied the Super $50 to install his new stove -- whereas the stores charge between $150-250. Most of us pay the Super between 20-30 to install the AC into the window in the summer.

Thank you, VP

This is great info, VP. If we could, I'd love to speak with you for 7 to 10 minutes, say -- and we needed't identify your building, if you don't want -- to see how this informal system works, and what the pros and cons of a formal system with a price list might be.

I can talk to all the managing agents in the world ... but without talking to you folks on the front line, with your real-world knowledge and experience of what works, day-to-day, in practicality, then I can't do other boards as much good. Please e-mail me at flovece@habitatmag.com so that I could call you and we can talk for a couple minutes for this story.

You'd be giving other board members great help. Thanks

How do you handle the liability issue of a building employee doing private work for tenants?
If an a/c/ falls out of the window or a stove gas line explodes how does the insurance company view the work that was performed?

Is your Building Super/handyman specifically insured (privately or under the building policy) to perform such tasks?

Matt,
This is an excellent question, and I am going to look into this with the Board.
Perhaps this is something Frank could explore in his artical

If we had a legal system for work in place, we could specify the jobs, and what would be covered by insurance. Our Super is a plumber -- but otherwise I dont know...
Thanks, VP

That's absolutely something the article covers. Got to hand it to our ever-astute readers to know what's needed! And while I've spoken with managing agents and attorneys for this piece, I could sure still use a board-member with first-hand, in-the-trenches experience! flovece@habitatmag.com

Charges for work: Our building has people living on fixed incomes, (now unemployment) and people who have no finincial worries... Therefore if there is a pricing list, perhaps it should list the minimun gratuity.

Gratuity? Perhaps if its called a gratuity, as oppose to payment/employment,,,this would have an impact on the Insurance question????

FL, could you post your number and I will call you... Thanks...VP

Hit me with an e-mail at flovece@habitatmag.com and I'll send a phone number; I'm not in the office today. Thanks!

Do they do an audit of your current usage and tell you where you can save? For a NYSERDA Smart Loan, we used a consultant from L&S Energy Services. Ron Slosberg, 518-383-9405 x.216 (rslosberg@ls-energy.com) and the Board was happy with his work.

We managed a 734-unit Condo in Brooklyn for 15 years that had a dedicated pool company to open, staff and close the pool. Lenny Moroff is the owner of Trident Recreatio.

Website here: http://poolmanagementservices.com/

Try some of the following web sites.

Superintendents Club of New York
Emereald Guild Association
Hibernia providence society

You can also do an independent web search of superintendent/handyman orgainizations in NY as there are many more out there

Best of luck Bob.

Thank you, I will do just that

That is true..