talk to your current mortgage lender first. Also check your mortgage terms to see if you are even allowed to do secondary financing. You can always do things without a broker but you need someone that knows the mortgage market.

If you you use "consultants" they will alway try to get you to replace elevators that are not actually broken. They will claim they are obsolete. This also depends on the age of you elevator.. if it is old and the "drum" is fine, do NOT replace it until ithe drum breaks. They try to sell you on replacement as the contract is so big. Sometimes managing agents also push for this. The lesson: do your due diligence. Talk to companies that actually repair and maintain elevators and not consultants if you want objective advice.

"managing agent employees putting their hands in the co-op and condo cookie jars. The favorite cookie seems to be price fixing of large repair or capital improvement programs where thousands of dollars are paid by the building to contractors, engineers and architects. The prices of the jobs are inflated and everybody skims a little off the top"

Allegra T. is totally and absolutely correct. In our building, we have two elevators (2 buildings, 6-floors each), which needed "repairs", the Managing Agents tells the corrupted fools in the Board. These are 25-years old elevators, who were already cosmetically renovated 5 years ago to the tune of $7.000. "That's not enough", says the Hungry Wolf, "we need to renovate the entire elevator system, $260.000". We organized petitions of residents shareholders telling the corrupted fools in the Board, that the elevators were working reasonably well, and such expenditure was not needed. To no avail. The job was done (2 months of construction) and we were imposed a 5% assessment for 5 years. An investigation of the contractors industry revealed that the whole renovation work could be done for only $40K per elevator, $80.000 total for both. So, right there you can detect a " small" skimming of $180.000! These peoples, named by Allegra as contractors, engineers, architects, all of them under the command of the Managing Agent, and they are mafia. They are insaciable parasitic predators, and won't stop their feeding frenzy until they have banrupted the coops. All coops. We are in the grip of several mafias. May the gods have mercy on us, and send us a champion to defend the resident coop shareholders. Jerry Grosof, Concerned Citizens for Coop Reform. g5grosof@msn.com

since you are a 6 story building the chances are that you only have one elevator. If you plan the replacement in advance the job can take up to 3 months if you need to replace everything including motors and controllers.
If you have a major breakdown and need to replace the elevator on an emergency basis you can add months to the replacement time. Do it in a way so you can plan the job otherwise you will be in a walkup building for a lot longer than you need to be. Even if you have more than one elevator, if they are old you have frequent breakdowns. Replace on your terms.

i hate when people use this questions for their own agendas.

recommend you get a recommendation from your accountant and one from your attorney on the financing. you can of course look at an assessment for part of it. you may want to consider that because the additional financing ups your maintenance and that's a bigger red flag for buyers than an assessment.

as far as whether or not you need an elevator and how much it should cost:
-yes, get more than one reputable company to inspect
-if you move forward, i assume you have an intelligent board who reviews the bids. triple, quadruple, quintuple bid it. ask your friends on other boards who they have used. we just did our LL11 work and got 6 bids. we know we got a good price. not everyone is out to cheat someone.

Mr. fghtth: why don't you reveal the actual "good price" you got for your elevator? That way we can compare with the one we got: $40,000 per elevator, $80K for both, as opposed to the $260.000 that our management "assessed" us for. As for having an "intelligent board", that's a tall order: we don't know the directors, they don't release resumes, they don't reveal their level of education or qualifications to serve in the board, we don't even know where they live, or the email addresses.. For the two "renewable" directorships, they always select the newest arrivals, who must necessarily be dumb because of their ignorance of the coop affairs; they are insignificant people who automatically follow the elders of the "board", originally appointed by the Sponsor, who have been in power for 25 years.
And, Mr. fhgtth: don't get so angry with shareholders who question the board, observe the coop scene, compare notes and draw conclusions: this is not an "agenda": it is our fundamental right as shareholders. This is also called the "pursue of knowledge", a fundamental right of the individual in the western democracies since the times of Socrates. It is also called "transparency" in business & corporate affairs, a concept abhorred by our secretive unscrutable, autocratic despotic boards. Exactly as the sponsor wanted them (our sponsor, now called HUS, has been here for 25 years, and has no intention of ever leaving. He's not going "to walk away from his investment", he claims). Jerry Grosof - Concerned Citizens for Coop Reform - g5grosof@msn.com,
P.S.: Who's in charge of collecting the list of "bad" managing companies? I want to contribute ours to the list.

Mr. fghtth: why don't you reveal the actual "good price" you got for your elevator? That way we can compare with the one we got: $40,000 per elevator, $80K for both, as opposed to the $260.000 that our management "assessed" us for. As for having an "intelligent board", that's a tall order: we don't know the directors, they don't release resumes, they don't reveal their level of education or qualifications to serve in the board, we don't even know where they live, or the email addresses.. For the two "renewable" directorships, they always select the newest arrivals, who must necessarily be dumb because of their ignorance of the coop affairs; they are insignificant people who automatically follow the elders of the "board", originally appointed by the Sponsor, who have been in power for 25 years.
And, Mr. fhgtth: don't get so angry with shareholders who question the board, observe the coop scene, compare notes and draw conclusions: this is not an "agenda": it is our fundamental right as shareholders. This is also called the "pursue of knowledge", a fundamental right of the individual in the western democracies since the times of Socrates. It is also called "transparency" in business & corporate affairs, a concept abhorred by our secretive unscrutable, autocratic despotic boards. Exactly as the sponsor wanted them (our sponsor, now called HUS, has been here for 25 years, and has no intention of ever leaving. He's not going "to walk away from his investment", he claims). Jerry Grosof - Concerned Citizens for Coop Reform - g5grosof@msn.com,
P.S.: Who's in charge of collecting the list of "bad" managing companies? I want to contribute ours to the list.

I would find it cheaper to self-finance, by the coop itself imposing a special assessment towards the total price of the elevator (about $50K?), projecting it over the next 3 years or so. But if you want want a bank, google www.ASK.com, then write Bank Rates, and they will give a choice of banks offering short term loans at about $2.70% to 3%.

Hi H,

In the by-laws for my co-op, the shareholders have the right to overrule any by-laws set by the Board. Also, the shareholders hold the ultimate legislative authority even to reverse previously set decisions. While I am not a lawyer, you might want to review how this was done, what majorities (or supermajorities) of affirmative votes are needed and see if it was all done correctly.

Good luck!

Steve

Molly, thank you very much for the valuable information. Please give me some website where I could go to verify this, so I can forward this data to my fellow sufferers, down-trodden coop owners in this wretched coop. Please write to me directly to my email: carminis@outlook.com
Carmen Bejarano

I was told by an engineer who is familiar with the energy environment in NY that co ed is only maintaining the energy distribution portion of their rates and that the cost of the fuel used to produce the electric or steam or the cost of the natural gas will vary based on market conditions.

As far as real estate taxes are concerned, our building is experiencing a rate reduction but has a higher valuation so we will actually have an increase in our real estate taxes of a few percent. Get used to it. This is how the city will be funding all those new programs. Taxing the rich just doesn't bring in that much since many of them can shelter income and avoid paying.

Hi Molly,

That is good news even if it is only on the delivery side of the bill. However, in my co-op, the water/sewer bills are a higher cost amount than the electric costs (even after sub-metering). Those costs are going up a projected 5.6% in July or approximately twice the annual inflation rate. Source here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwaterboard/pdf/blue_book/bluebook_2014.pdf - see page three.

If you read further in that document, approximately 40% of the Water Board’s yearly income goes to debt service (interest), and since they continue to borrow to fund projects (at about $2 billion a year), that percent will only continue to grow. The Water Board has nearly $29 billion of bonds outstanding or about $3,500 per city resident (not just working adults).

This is one of the reasons why costs keep going up (another example is the costs resulting from the union contracts).

I say this only to emphasize that a lot of the expense co-ops pay are not under the control of the co-op boards, management companies or (gasp) even sponsors but the responsibility of our elected officials and those they appoint. If you want to cut costs, let us all be mindful of who we collectively elect.

Cheers!

How would you feel about ONE MILLION DOLLARS in miscellaneous out of a 47 million dollar budget? That is the line item we deal with at North Shore Towers. We haven't gotten a full explanation although we have asked for it time and again.

We always suggest that you volunteer to the finance committee. The MA and board have this information in some form, even if they don't know on top of their heads or might not want to share. It might take some digging, but with the monthly reports from the managing agent, as opposed to yearly audited financials from the auditor, and a little bit of research, you should be able to figure it out.

If they don't have a finance committee, request that you set one up and request financial information that is pertinent to a finance committee. If we can be of assistance, feel free to call us.

We have a full working finance committee. You must be vetted to become a member and if you are known as someone asking questions you don't get appointed. The committee does not get all information but instead, are required to rely on reports from the general manager and controller. We are a huge community, again over 40 million dollar budget and the powers that be will not permit any change in the status quo. If you run for the board you cannot get elected unless the current members put in a good word for you. I know, I have tried. I got elected once and asked a myriad of questions and on the next go round lost the election by 806 shares out of 6 million. Board refused a recount, I went to court and after a year I won but by then I had lost the next election because of propaganda and won't pursue it again. Anyone who might make a change doesn't get elected, pure and simple. So when the simplistic answer to a problem is "run for the board" or "volunteer for the committee", that is not always possible.

i think 1 million is beyond outrageous, even congressman wouldn't try to put out a report with 1 million in un-itemized misc expenses. I saw a new FAQ section concerning a lot of these questions at the front of habitat, some i know are correct, however all of them should each have the BCL that supports the information. Majority if not all of the Lawyers work prominently for the co-op, not the shareholder . The claims that affidavit are needed to see items, is not what the AG website states. Shareholders are explicitly allowed to see the full Finances per their proprietary lease and sometimes BY-LAWS . These are not the pan fried Annual Financial Report, that most auditors do not see anything that the board or manging company do not want them to see. . i also question whether an affidavit is really needed in some cases, since the bylaws do not state this and the proprietary lease do not state this, and i am sure if you brought it to Supreme court in your county After being refused, the judge would rule in your favor ,doing it pro-se and with a copy of the instructions from the AG website.
I think is ch 11 of the proprietary lease allows for the shareholder and or their Agent to examine the finances at the management companies office during normal business hours.
I don't think the 5 days notice even needs to be given, but it would be good to try and get the shareholder list at the same time having mailed it certified mail . reg mail and FAX,7 days before.. I would bring a copy of the propriety lease with the paragraph copied, and mail it to the local police precedent before going. When they refuse call the police , and state that you just want a report or their refusal to use in court. They may refuse by since all lines that handle incoming calls from the public are recorded, your explanation , should serve as evidence , especially if you ask the managing company speak to the police and they refuse etc. Subpoena the exact time and date of your call. This can be dome prose, and since i doubt there is any torts whereas a lawyer could get compensation for your ordeal, we as a group need to get the exact play by play to get the records. When the abuses run into something that we can sue the company we need to know the difference and find a legit lawyer that works on shareholders cases, and see if we can get damages paid to us. If no damages , get the media involved or at least a friend to o video tape the incident from the sidewalk. there may be a journalism school in the area that would like some practice on investigative journalism
If it is a case that could be civil, then it is better to find the hard to find shareholder lawyers. I know that non shareholders are not allowed to interfere at an annual meeting, the president told his son to interfere with me and block my view at a annual meeting and the son was not a shareholder. The president made a threat against me ,before the annual meeting that my camera picked up perfectly too. Since my board and management campaign refuse to take proper notes and has attempted to attack me, i videotape, on my property.

Dear Diane Stromfeld: same thing happened to me. These so-called " elections", are a sham, a charade, a cruel farce unworthy even of a banana republic. Yet, our politicos (Mr. Koppel in Riverdale, Bronx) keep telling us: just go, run for the board, get elected, and change things from the inside. Any politico who tells you that is a hypocrite, a blatant, in your face liar without possible redemption.. All politicos are deeply in bed with the real estate industry. The corruption here is MASSIVE, the cancer has metastasized, that's why there is no affordable housing in New York City.
Diane, I would like to know the name of your lawyer. Please write to me. Jerry Grosof - g5grosof@msn.com :- Concerned Citizens for Coop Reform.

I suggest we all call Stringers office and have them audit HPD.

Again I suggest a protest downtown at AG's office, it was done in Florida - will gain much publicity.

We must demand an ombudsman be appointed to deal with our issues. We no longer have the ear of the ag as shareholders and we should. This needs to be a united effort put forth by shareholders in all boroughs and voiced loud and clear in a protest as well as letters to our elected officials who would need to vote on it.

Agree we need to fight together. COOPABUSE.COM was created to allow us to have a common place. We meet with politicians and we bring one or two reprensetative from each borough; we are getting people from out nyc borough such as Westchester and Long Island. This is a crises and politicians can't ignore us anymore. Register at COOPABUSE.COM and or send me an Email ROSA.NAZAR@GMAIL.COM. We only win if we demand changes to the laws together.

thank you rosa. i very much appreciate the important work you're doing to give shareholders the strength many voices have. i no longer feel helpless. i was putting all my hope in the wonderful liz krueger. my council person, ms. mendez, said she totally supported sen. krueger's efforts.
in my co-op a clueless board has been bamboozled by a lawyer and managing agent working together to make a legal mountain out of basically nothing, and then blaming me for making them sue me!

It is true that because the Lawyer, Manager and the Bad Board want to stay in power they will work together for their common gold. Their has nothing at all to do with the other shareholders. There has to be some way to weed them out.

This has nothing at all to do with the other shareholders. There has to be some way to weed them out.

Had to correct spelling.

Often, shareholders are fearful of stepping forward with corruption allegations, as they have concerns about retribution, intimidation...

Harry

Harry you are right but remember one thing they are bullies but we can't just keep quiet. We are not slaves. We are Americans. We need to stay together to win. Register in COOPABUSE.COM or and email me at ROSA.NAZAR@GMAIL.COM

i sent a complaint letter to the BOD concerning the self dealing by the president and vice pres, the vice pres made homophobic hate statements about a 15 year board member that had resigned, due to them.I also had also listed the lack of the required parking waiting list enabled the BOD to continue with their self dealing among a load of other violations of proprietary lease and by-laws. a couple of months later i received an unpaid ticket doubled the fine , from a car that i had turned in the plates and junked the car over 2 years prior, pretty impossible to get a ticket on a car and plates that didnt exist in a town i never parked in.
The orig ticket was dated about 2 weeks after the complaint, letter, the coop was the only place that had my old car info. My insurance bills were also mailed to another part of the city, and all kinds of things like that started happening This was all the work of the pres of the coop. I am sure there other things going on that i don't know about,

Who is your managing agent?

I can publicly say I was dealing with brozman archer and they are beyond corrupt. There should be a list of the worst managing agents. These people would be #1

Curious as to the lawyers and managers who you have had problems with.

please provide your personal email

All area management could be #1 on the list.

We all know that some boards are corrupted, but proving it is another thing.

Proving it is not difficult – management firms hire the shoddiest contractors so they can get a kickback and let the board share in the wealth so they will keep them – This seems to be where they make their money and not by management fees.

In my coop, board has finally taken control of projects after 25 years of self-serving board members. Now we have a group of board members not in bed with management and actively looking out for the shareholders pocket. We receive bids from management then solicit bids on our own. We have found in all cases that bids are less than 40% of what we receive from management. Therefore, boards need to be diligent. It goes without saying that management is not very happy with projects board initiates and put obstacles in every way possible up to including double payment, tardy payments and informing board that there are no funds available for payment. By the way, funds were never an issue when their bids were accepted.

I strongly believe that in order to reduce the amount of corruption in cooperatives, the AG office needs to perform an annual audit of all cooperatives in the state, including a review of the corporation's financial statements, board and committee minutes, as well as operational structure. Just like the government holds big banks and corporate conglomerates liable for not acting in the best interests of shareholders, the same approach can be taken with coops. Advise your senators to push for regulation!!

Let's not forget construction defects by sponsors who are the largest donor to our Governor and our newly elected Mayor. HPD goes thru a new commissioner ever 2 years and it's a political patronage mill. Oversight has to be addressed by our elected officials.

Yes this is a problem but a bigger problem is when the sponsor turns over the property and a group of corrupt owners take over the building for their comfort and profit – they keep themselves in power by bribes and threats

Joan is absolutely right! In my building, the current "sponsor" is denominated the H.U.S. (Holder of Unsold Shares), and prior to becoming the HUS, he was the Sales Agent of the original sponsor, which means that every person who ever lived, bought, or rented here, is an asset of him, having been planted here through his employee, a real estate broker who sits in the board representing the Sponsor. This person, not even a shareholder, casts 2 votes for the "Sponsor", and brags about having "power with the board". Of the 120 units in our building, I only got to know about 2 dozens bona fide owners. The rest are either vacant apartments which have been vacant for years, or sponsor's units rented out to transients, or belonging to absentee owners who had either moved out, or died long ago, but their names continue appearing in the list or owners. Many of them them have the same name but different faces from the ones we met 5 or 7 years ago. So, there is identity theft here, in addition to all the other thefts, grafting, illegal surcharges, excessive assessments, unnessary renovations by insaciable "vendors", harassment, accidents and "suicides", etc etc etc. Replacement of elevators is a favorite one. We have 2 elevators which were installed only 25 years ago, which were renovated only 5 years ago, and now have bee replaced again to the tune of $260K. (The price for this in the market should have been onlly $80K total ). Our Managing Agent, an instrumentality of the "Sponsor", have increased our debt from $1,7 million to almost $3 million ($2.810 million) in 8 years, and still, in spite of all these extra borrowing, he still runs the coop at a deficit: $1.9 million accumulated deficit in the past 8 years, which will have to be added to the debt, of course, when the chips are down. Of the original "refinance", $2.3 million, in spite of having paid 1 million and a half of "interest" in 10 years, we still owe a $2.25 million balloon payment 4 years down the road. These are the "secrets" of predatory banking, of which people like Carl and Steve don't seem to know nothing about. They are naive fools.
The US Attorney is now suing and fining billions of dollars to the big banks who engaged in predatory practices that caused the big crisis of 2008: Bank of America, Well Fargo, Morgan-Chase, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, etc... The turn will surely come for NCB (National Cooperative Bank), now functioning almost as a monopoly bank for Coops...but, by that time, they probably will have taken the money and run, emigrated to Israel....May the gods have pity on us, the gods who presided upon the creation of our great nation, the marvel of the ages! Kyrie, eleison...Miserere nobis.
Gerard Grosof - Concerned Citizens for Coop Reform.- g5grosof@outlook.com. Join me in the study "the Magic of Compount Interest, and other financial matters affecting the Coops.

have you looked into forensic accountants as a way of providing proof of shareholders being cheated, robbed, etc etc?

Yes, I have tried to contact several of them, none of them willing. They are very cage. "Send me $5000 to start work", they say. Just give me the money and then I may look at your financials and tell you if I see anything...This sounds to me like just another con game, and that they are all part of a cabal, or conspiracy. Do you know of any accountant, forencic or not, what you can recommend for honesty and sharpness? If so, I would appreciate the referral. I live in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. Gerard Grosof - Concerned Citizens for Coop Reform - Give me your personal email address if you want to participate in my financial and legal studies about Coops.

Let me ask a few questions of your happy coop. 1. Do you still have the Sponsor on board? Hoy many directors he appoints? How many units he own? For how long has he been in the Coop? Name the Sponsor, please.
2. This idea of 4.5% maint increase camouflaged as permanent assessment, did it come from your managing agent? Name please, if possible.
3. Is your underline mortgage owned by the NCB (National Cooperative Bank)? How much he charges you of interest? Is it compounded monthly? When does the loan mature?
4. Is any of your directors qualified as a financially-knowledgeable person? Where did they study? Is any of them employed in a financial institution?
5. Did you take a poll about the acquiecense of the shareholders?
Carmen Bejarano - Concerned Citizens for Coop Reform -

Hi Carmen,

No, we no longer have a sponsor. We have 4 rental units left which are owned by the co-op and we sell them when the renters leave. No, I thought of the idea. The funds are transferred into the Capital Fund each month. Our NCB loan is self-amortizing and will be paid off in nine years (read no mortgage). The rate is 6.27% however the penalties to break the mortgage are too high to even consider a refinance (I was not on the Board when the mortgage was signed). Yes, I work in finance assisting to manage a large full funded pension plan. We also have a CPA as a treasurer. The permanent reserve is not used for operating expenses but only for capital projects.

You seem to have an agenda, your questions are accusatory and you seem to harbor a suspicion (or prejudice) against how co-ops operate. Not all co-ops are bad, Carmen.

Tell me, would you rather pay a $3,000 surprise assessment all at once or have a chance to pay it monthly where you can budget it? I know what the answer is for me - I would rather budget it.

If your bank is NCB (National Cooperative Bank), you are doomed. NCB is a usurious bank for losers, that is, those coops who cannot qualify for regular bank's rates, which should be between 2.5 and 3%, top. What your are paying, 6.27% is extremely high, considering that the bank borrows its funds from the Federal Reserve for less than 1%. If your loan is compounded monthly, probably the APR (annual percentage rate) is much higher than 6.27%. As for the effective percentage rate, which applies to the duration of the loan (in your case, apparently 10 years), is much much higher than that, in the 60's and 70' percentile.
Can you reveal, in a private email, the total amount of the loan (including initiation fees)? With this data, plus the total number of months, I could calculate the EFFECTIVE APR. You can also add the amount of monthly payments multiplied by the total number of months for the duration of the loan (if ten years, then 120 months) and you will be horrified to find out what the service of the debt costs your coop.
Your asertion that the loan will "self-pay in 9 years" is probable false, and a deception.
I advise you to study USURY. You can find several articles on the subject in Wikkipedia. Also in the books by Michael Hudson,especially THE BUBBLE and BEYOND:FICTITIOUS CAPITAL, DEBT DEFLATION AND GLOBAL CRISIS.
My "agenda", as you called, is to expose the gigantic fraud by deception that the Coop system constists off, and the horrendous financial exploitation that they are subjecting the shareholders class (more than a million New Yorkers), thus creating the next financial bubble, which will explode in the nex 5 years or so. My husband and I are committed to this cause, and will dedicate the last years of our life and all of our savings and assets to this endeavor, in an effort to preserve property rights the American citizens, and reduce the homelessness caused by unaffordable housing in New York City. May the gods of justice protect our efforts and lead us to a great victory.
Carmen Bejarano & Gerard Grosof - Concernedcitizens4coopreform@outlook.com- P. O. Box 568 -Bronx 10463

I think they often go fairly blindly with advice from managing agents, etc. and do not really sit and do deep research. It is very probable a majority of co-ops are paying way to much in various budget line-itmes. New Years Resolution: Co-op boards - do your research!

Steve and Carl, I am glads your coops are running smooth and I hope you if you are on the board you are complying with your fugidity duty to all shareholders. Unfortunatly, most coops are a fraud bigger than ENRON. They advertized a apt home for sale and they sold as a very expensive membership to a club where we are abused, intimidated, victims of usury charges, etc. But the worst is that we have the only that is not protected in bankrutcy court, neither is any institution protecting our home like HAMP protects other people's home. We can be evicted in housing court for not being able to pay the usurary legal and other fees charge by the board. They do not have to give any explanation. They created the law and elected the politicians and judges to protect them not our home. Do not be naive. Check COOPABUSE.COM to read about abuses and lack of laws to protect our home. Register to make changes and to fight together. Email me and I can give you a summary of all the abuses and corruptions and how in American coop home owner are second class citizens. My email is ROSA.NAZAR@GMAIL.COM

Carmen wrote:
>NCB is a usurious bank for losers, that is, those coops who cannot qualify
>for regular bank's rates, which should be between 2.5 and 3%, top.
>What your are paying, 6.27% is extremely high, considering that the
>bank borrows its funds from the Federal Reserve for less than 1%.

Carmen, I have no idea where you're getting those rates, but they're sheer fantasy. The average rate for a 30-year *individual* mortgage is currently around 4.5%. As corporations, co-ops don't qualify for that rate and typically pay more interest. Even the 10-year US Treasury note is just above 3% (as of this writing), so if you know a place where you could get a 10-year loan for 2.5%, please let the US Treasury know, as they would be most interested.

Banks do NOT get long-term loans for "less than 1%." That's a ridiculous fabrication promulgated by Elizabeth Warren, for whom I had a lot of respect before she made that outlandish statement. The 0.75% rate quoted by Warren is the overnight repo rate that applies to secured overnight loans. In other words, the bank gives the Fed $100,000 in US Treasuries to borrow $100,000 overnight to make their cash position meet requirements. The bank repurchases the USTs the following day for $100,000 plus 0.75% annualized interest. That situation is obviously inapplicable to any long-term loan that is not secured by liquid financial instruments.

And why in the world would you think that Steve's statement that his co-op's loan will self-amortize in nine years is "probably false"? Self-amortizing loans are perfectly well-understood and widely used. Why would you think that Steve's bank could violate the terms of their loan agreement and make his co-op keep paying money after their loan is 100% paid off? That's just crazy. Furthermore, the effective APR and total cost of the loan are always presented in conspicuous fashion in the closing documents for the loan, as required by law.

Finally, I really like Steve's idea about paying money into the reserve fund each month via capital assessment. That leaves his co-op well prepared to weather the expense of a major repair without a sudden large assessment. We did something similar a few years ago, but in reverse. We needed to overhaul our elevator, but the cost left our reserve fund lower than desirable. So we immediately instituted a long-term assessment to pay ourselves back the money we had borrowed from the reserve. We explained to the shareholders what we were doing. People seemed to understand and no one complained. And everyone was happy with an elevator that worked reliably for the first time in years!

Thank you for your informative and clear response, Carl. At times these Board Talk comments mirror what happens in co-ops. One or two board members make up data and disseminate misleading information, leading to unnecessary dissension among shareholders. One can only hope that the majority of board members will take their roles seriously and perform competently.

I don't see how this differs from a maintenance increase, other than appearing as a separate line item on a maintenance bill. You could just as easily transfer excess funds into a reserve account periodically.
A small advantage of assessing for specific projects is that it adds to your cost (basis) of the apartment if the work done is considered a capital improvment, such as pointing, parapet work, window replacement. This lessens your capital gains if you decide to sell and not invest in another property. A blanket assessment is not tied to a specific project and may not be considered a capital improvment.

Hi JG,

A capital assessment, of course, adds to the basis of each person's investment so that when they sell, their capital gains are less. The one truth about a building is that they will always need capital replacement items. This has the advantage of making the funds available ahead of time.

Cheers

That amount of increase, whether maintenance or assessment sounds crazy to me. With no inflation and only a 2.5% increase in costs, there is no reason for a 7.5%, and now 9.5% annual increase. I would not be surprised if shareholders are planning an overthrow of the board behind your backs.

Have you thought of trying to cut costs instead? If you're interested in cutting costs, we helped a building cut $250,000 in annual costs allowing them to keep the maintenance flat for 3 years in a row (and probably for at least the next 2 years as well).

i was talking t some guys today about the small increase in social security checks and the 2 years we received no increase.
I didnt know but the cost of living index that the govt uses does not include fuel, medical costs, cost of housing. It only pertains to the price of milk and food. I was wondering how they came up with no inflation when the gas tripled in price, and medical bills were skyrocketing. The rents were also going up in NYC and the metro area.

My Board has created titles such as First and Second VP, Chief Operating Officer, and Assistant Secretary. No controversy arose. Though I was concerned that the duties and responsibilities of the COO were never defined.

H.

Can we get an attorney familiar with this issue to answer the question? We have the same problem and most shareholders are curious about this. Thanks in advance to whoever professionally responds.

You don't need an attorney, your bylaws should clearly state the functions of the four main offices: President - Treasurer - Secretary - Vice President(s)

You can have as many fancy titles as you want, assistants, 1st, 2nd VP.

But do not tamper with the functions of the main positions. Their duties are clearly described in the governing documents. For example, no such thing as co-president, that is the VP function.

Here is a good reference document, with lots of guidelines: http://www.ksnlaw.com/assets/Board_Member's_Guide_to_Conducting_a_One-Hour_Meeting.pdf

I believe you can use it. I asked for a list and I told them I wanted to use it to campaign for the board election and I was told it was ok. And believe me I live in a coop that if they could stop you from walking in the hall they will. We need COOP REFORMS. Laws that protect the our coop home in housing and bankruptcy courts. We could loose our home very easy. Check out COOPABUSE.COM, register to fight together. Feel free to email me at ROSA.NAZAR@GMAIL.COM

I would think that is a permitted use, since the board and management company use it for their purpose. They will put up a slate and send it to the shareholders and recommend they vote for THEIR slate, with your shareholder money for postage no less. I think that should be tested in court, the board using coop monies to promote themselves in an election.
We need a list of shareholder lawyers, not these double agents that we have now.
Once shareholders knew what the laws really are, and saw that they were a victim of misdeeds that had ended in substantial settlements for the shareholder, the lawyers would live on that, as there are plenty of those cases out there, the shareholders do not know that the actions of the board was illegal, especially in a coop like mine which is a low cost, working people building

So far, in 25 years, we haven't done it. Are you considering treating it as a security fund if maintenance isn't paid, or as the payment of maintenance in advance, or other? Either of those 2 ways, what happens if they don't pay? If it's a prepay, they get accustomed to having the extra money to spend, and will have a problem when they need to start making payments later. If it's security, why do you need it? If their finances are marginal, where will they get the extra money to escrow?

Unfortunately in my coop escrow was taken from many shareholders - x amount of maintenance for 6 months to 2 years or longer - In the early days, the escrow was put into an escrow account and the money returned to the proper shareholders. However, when a certain board member put herself in charge of the escrow and practically everything else, the money was not put into escrow accounts, even though there were documents stating that it was, and when the shareholders wanted their funds returned, the money was not in an escrow account and had to be taken out of our operating account. This was quite a lot of money that the shareholders had to pay because no one checked the status of the escrow,account and there was no paper work that the board had, only this one person. If you do decide to have escrow requirements, the board must make sure that all the money requested is in the escrow accounts and that the shareholder and board get the statements on these accounts. .I also believe that the escrow should show in the yearly financials so that the shareholders know about the liability and the safety precautions that have been taken -

we do it on a case by case basis. for example a recent purchaser had a good job with a nice salary but very little in the bank in their own name after down payment. so we took 2 years in escrow which will not be released until they can show us 3 years in the bank (along with deposit history so we can see it's not a quick gift that may be taken back). this is NOT a prepay but rather a protection for the building should this person lose their job.

we do it on a case by case basis. for example a recent purchaser had a good job with a nice salary but very little in the bank in their own name after down payment. so we took 2 years in escrow which will not be released until they can show us 3 years in the bank (along with deposit history so we can see it's not a quick gift that may be taken back). this is NOT a prepay but rather a protection for the building should this person lose their job.

i cant see how they can refuse the board.ANY board member, on their own has the right to see all the corporations documents, from the beginning of the coop even if they got on the board last week. The board member does not need any backing permission, vote to do this. I do not think they have to give much notice, just needs to be done during normal business hours.
Many smaller coops are self manged, i would assume they know the star count.,.
i am a shareholder, since our board became a fixed board by pulling a fraudulent voting change, and having the daughter and wife of the pres and vice pres be appointed the election official since her mother ran over 20 years ago. i want the star recipients so i can see which ones were not owner occupied, i am sure a couple of the sponsors apartments, but listed as a straw owner are the recipients.
i will get it or request it be investigated as fraud

forgot to add: They work for the board

Thank you for your response.