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Our building has a covered garage with approx. 35 spots (149 units in the building) and an approximate 10 year waitlist to get a spot. The garage fee was $80/month until 2019 when it was raised to $100; and then this year the Board (4-3 split) decided to raise the fee to $125/month. Garage spot shareholders are complaining that this increase is unfair and meant to try and kick out elderly shareholders. The Board reasoned that the increase was because the current fee is much less than market rate (approx. $250+ in our neighborhood) so rather than increasing maintenance by 3% to cover the budget deficit, we raised the maintenance by 1% and increased the garage to bring it to $125. How have other Boards dealt with pushback about raising garage fees? My logic is that the shareholders are not entitled to a garage spot and Coop as a whole is a business and it makes business sense to raise the garage fees to be closer to market rate so that the building as a whole benefits financially. Anyone have any tips for how to deal with annoyed garage renters?
Join the Conversation Comments (3)we went thru this same situation a few years back. our garage was running more than $150 below market in the neighborhood. i suggested bringing it up by $50 and received a crazy amount of pushback. My point was that the garage has a waiting list and it's therefore a privilege (NOT an amenity) and it should serve as a source of income for the building. a higher maintenance will impact sale prices so the garage increase is the smart way to go. i finally got this thru the board when i had the treasurer do the math for the board members with parking spots and showed them the difference between the incremental garage cost and the incremental maintenance increase (about $2). good luck.
My building doesn't have enough spaces. 150 units and no guest parking in NJ in a small town with limited parking. We have 160 parking spaces. Our 3 bedroom PH apartments or 5 units, each get 2 spaces & everyone else gets one space. We have 44 two bedroom units and the rest are mostly one bedrooms leaving 11 studios. We recently decreased our maintenance by $50 to increase the parking fee to $100 to see if anyone would give up their spot. Waiting to hear the status of this. We've suggested valeting the garage to the Board, which would bring an additional cost, but they feel it would be too expensive. We feel it would add value to the building. They gave no numbers to back up the valet cost, but it would allow all day guests to park in the garage when many are out at work.
In our case, the parking fees had not been raised in years until three years ago. The fees had gone from $75/month to $180/month in 2021. Jumping from $75 to $125 the first year. As a result, two elderly couples could not longer afford theirs spots and this year the Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) and the Legal Aid Society have a claim against the co-op. Wondering what advice had legal counsel provided for those who have raised or are raising their parking fees next year.
In our Co op we have elderly people who cry that the garage is too high. What's sad these people rather have a large monthly maintenance increase instead of a garage increase. At least they can opt out and save the fee.
Do these people stand in the grocery store yelling it's too high, lower the prices for handicap, 65 and over?
Do they argue with the pharmacy the drug cost is too high?
So what are they saying all elderly and handicap should get free or discount prices? How about lowing the cost of living there?
Selling and moving to a handicap living facility would accommodate their needs. A Co op or Condo does not have to give special privileges to elderly or handicap except handicap accessibility to enter the building.
I wouldn't worry about the suit against your Co op or Condo this is ownership not public housing. Good Luck
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I commend the board raising the garage rentals it has been long time coming. All garage renters expected the garage spots to be subsidized by shareholders. I don't understand why these people rather pay the high maintenance increase than their garage rental cost. Please do not let them bully you into feeling guilty they do this every time it goes up. I've seen a couple of them have a fit over a $20 raise. Also you have a handful of shareholders who use their spots as a car storage and not an active parking spot. These cars never move. I suggest you do what we tried to do raise the rental fees until it reaches the street value. Keep in mind you have 149 shareholders to only 35 parking spots. By your 4-3 count your board has 3 people that rent garage spots. What happened to your 2 other board members? Maybe before the new elections you can put it writing that it be mandatory to raise the rental fee every time maintenance is raised until it reaches street value. Since there was a budget shortfall makes sense to maximize any possible source of income for the benefit of ALL shareholders. Keep up the good work.
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