to AC and all.
I am concerned that in our building we are paying heating oil with a market floating system and without any cap/pre-buying that keeps us very exposed to any spike.
Could we compare a little the oil price per gallon that you paid/are paying in your buildingS and the kind of contract you carry?
Thank you.
Miriam
Can any of you fine people recommend/know of companies that supply package/mail scanners. We have a very busy package area and rather that log every item we would prefer to scan those items as it is very time consuming.
Santa.
We have a small 14 unit building and the worst house rule and quality of life issues seem to be caused by boyfriends and girlfriends moving in with shareholders of records. Problems range from noise, improper garbage disposal, smoke emigrating between apts and into halls, slamming doors. Does anyone require "live-ins" to be registered with the Board/Management and if so what sort of ID info is needed--socail security, place of employment? At what point is someone considered needed to be identified and made known to the Board. I understand there is a thin line between a right to privacy for shareholders and their personal lives but at what point does it become the right of the Co-op to know who has keys to the building and who they are. Some of these live-ins are receiving public assistance (food stamps and welfare, holding onto rent controlled apartments (all found out through super)while diminishing the quality of life and possibly jeopordizing our security. Any advice out there?
Although I am board president I still represent only one vote on the board.
Therefore, I am often harangued by shareholders who disagree with certain board decisions that I may not have voted in favor of.
However, I am reluctant to say how I voted as I fear it would harm the board dynamic.
Do you face similar situations?
Do you state how each member voted?
Any suggestions?
3 yr illegal sublet caught but board has been told they can not charge the fee and must let the person sublet for a final year given shareholder promises to then sell. (house rules state that one year is allowed and second year subletting only w special permission and this shareholder has already had 2 approved yrs prior to illegal 3 yr sublet. seems like terrible idea. no?
techically she owes about $6500 in fees plus $1000 fine for illegal sublet.
Do board members not participate in board voting if they are among shareholders needing repairs/replacements of plumbing or heating elements that are part of the corporations' responsibilty? And, if a Board member wants a danfoss valve becuase his unit get too much heat, is that a corporation expense? Thanks.
Can a board arbitrarily limit bike storage in a common area to only a portion of the total number of bike-owning shareholders? i.e. There is space for approximately 20 bikes and the board wants to only store 10 and use a lottery system to see who gets space. This seems to fly in the face of at least NY Business Corp Law granting equal rights to all shareholders
Also is it good/fair policy to only allow shareholders to store bikes and not family members as well
We need to make some cosmetic capital improvements as well as fix plumbing and other less sexy things in our building. Some of the Board Members always want to pay for things on the credit line and pay back a menial amount each month, or charge an assessment. Is there a prevailing rule of thumb when to use what? We will never pay back the credit line at this rate, and we have built up a small reserve in the past couple of years. The mortgage and the credit line will come due in 5 years and the people leaning toward using the credit line and assessments will not be here then-they are planning on selling in the next year. It seems like they would prefer to only attend to the cosmetic fixes and leave the reserve fund and operating account looking bulked up to make the financials and the building more attractive. What is the rationale for when to use what? Is there an advantage to looking like we have more cash on hand? We;re $10000 into our credit line and making only a couple of hundred over our expenses every month. I need to have an answer as to why it is not good to use our credit line if that is the case. Thanks for advice.
In October, there was a fuel spill (#6 fuel) in our building following a routine delivery. Even though the fumes seemed unusually bad, I didn't think too much of it at first because it's always obvious when a delivery has been made (and then the fumes quickly dissipate). But this time it was clear that something was amiss.
The fuel was delivered on a Thursday. The super was scheduled to leave on vacation later that day, but I saw him going into the boiler room late Friday evening, as I was leaving the laundry room; I assumed that if something was going on with the fuel tank he would know about it/be on top of it. In fact, I assumed that that was why he was going into the boiler room. Never assume.
The next day I started to feel sick: headache, nausea, etc. Talked to some other folks in the building who were also feeling sick. At least one person slept elsewhere for a few days. At that point I wasn't aware that a fuel spill had actually occurred; I'm no longer on the board, and the one board member I'm in regular contact with, the VP, was out of town. Which is unfortunate, because if he had been around after the fuel was delivered, he would have known that there was a problem and would have acted on it. It wasn't until he got back to the city the following Tuesday that the situation started being addressed/redressed.
A week after the spill, the BP put a notice in the elevator stating that there had been a fuel spill, but that no one had been able to do anything about it because the super was on vacation, and he is the only one with a key to the boiler room. So basically a full week passed before anyone got into the boiler room and started doing anything about anything.
When I was on the board, the boiler room key was discussed at virtually every board meeting. The VP and I both insisted that all board members should have a copy of, or at least access to, a key to the boiler room. As I've written previously, the BP, somehow, has created a situation where he is the only person who ever talks to anyone. He is the central hub through which all information passes (and gets distorted). So when the VP and I would suggest that the super should not be the only person to have a key to the boiler room, for practical and safety reasons, the BP would say: "Okay, I'll talk to the super." And then he would come back to us and say: "The super feels that by asking for a key to the boiler room, we are indicating that we don't trust him. He's very sensitive about stuff like that. I don't want the relationship with him to be difficult, so I'm not going to insist on the key issue." To which I responded: "Look, the boiler room is not the super's private property. This is a basic safety issue." Long story short, nothing was ever done and the super was the only person who ever had a key to the boiler room. And, we had a fuel spill and nothing was done about it for a full week. Go figure.
Eventually a crew came in to clean up the spill; during the cleanup the fumes got even worse. The BP slipped a notice under shareholders' doors stating: "Last week our fuel oil storage system failed. Apparently this system has operated for 40-some years past its useful life." Which sort of begs the question: why were we still using a system that was "40-some years past its useful life"?
This pains me especially because one thing I really hoped to accomplish while on the board was getting an energy audit for the building through NYSERDA. I was finding the process a bit daunting, frankly (and I admit I know almost nothing about boilers/fuel/fuel tanks, although I've been trying to educate myself), so last January I asked the managing agent if she could help with the application and get the ball rolling. She assured me that she was very familiar with NYSERDA and had helped other buildings get audits done. She seemed confident and I trusted her. Well, I kept asking for status reports and got evasive answers. She assured me that our application had been submitted. Finally I asked her point blank for a copy of the completed application for the board's records. She kept hemming and hawing despite repeated requests and I never did see a completed application. And then I stepped down from the board; I simply couldn't run again or stomach the thought of remaining on with the current BP. One of the biggest problems for me was that the BP and MA seem to have some sort of weird commitment to making sure that each stays in his and her respective position. It's impossible to get much done. The only things that seem to get done are what the BP and MA want done, and those things are fairly superficial.
So I have some questions (and gratitude for anyone who has had the patience to read this far):
1. Is it in the management company's purview to advise the buildings they manage on things like fuel tanks? The fuel tank has been removed from the boiler room and is now behind our building; it is completely rusted out! I imagine that even I, I who know nothing about fuel or fuel tanks, would have been startled if I had ever gotten into the boiler room and taken a look at that thing.
2. In his note to the shareholders, the BP states that "we are obtaining bids from companies for a new oil tank." Is it reasonable for me to expect that at last three sealed bids would be obtained and would be opened by the entire board, or at last a board majority? (In the past, the BP is the only one who has ever seen any bids from anyone; I have made some noise about this.)
3. I'm a bit concerned about the effects of the fuel spill on residents' health. I've been trying to do some research on it and it appears that a residential fuel spill over a certain amount, particularly if it goes unreported or unaddressed, can indeed have repercussions. One of the places I looked for information was the AG's site; it appears that in the event of a spill, a report needs to be filed and the spill needs to be assessed. I would like to find out how much fuel actually spilled. I don't expect an honest answer, or any answer frankly, to that question from the board. Is it on record anywhere and, if so, can I get access to that information?
4. A special shareholders' meeting has been announced by the board and is taking place tomorrow. I'm aware that at annual shareholders' meetings, minutes must be taken. Must minutes be taken at a special shareholders' meeting? I see nothing about that in the pl or bylaws. Is it reasonable for me to insist that minutes be taken? Is it legal for me to record the meeting?
Any feedback is appreciated, as always.
a shareholder had an approved shareholder for 2 years and then snuck in an unnapproved person she claimed was her niece. this was overlooked for 2.5 years (we think she paid off the super) and then a shareholder started to complain. the tenant was removed with much foot-dragging by the board president. now: considering the shareholder not only lied that her tenant was a niece , and did not seek approval and did not pay the 25% fee she was supposed to - the question is: can the board retroactively charge her the fee - it is almost 3 years of fees totalling about $6500.??
to make it more outrageous there is a new tenant coming in and the board has been advised they cannot back-charge a fee and must say OK since the 3 years of illeglal renting "doesnt count" since they took no action for so long. this seems like VERY poor advice - anyone?? (I might add it only says that a sherholder is allowed to sublet for one year with special consideration for the second year and super special for the third...) I find this advice given the board/coop alarming.
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Every year without doubt this subject comes up. To be or not to be, that is the question, the bottom line is that any cap or pre buying scenario involves speculation. As in any speculative market there is risk. You are either the hero or the donkey when you sign for this agreement. I have been both donkey and hero, let me tell you first hand last years hero says nothing to this years donkey, so much for short memories.
Here is a new slant on this dilema, contact you local oil suppliers and ask for a rate keyed to the barge reseller index, your supplier will offer a percentage above this FIXED and POSTED rate (on the Journal of Commerce)number, you can use this as an effective tool to obtain price quotes on your fuel oil
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