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The management company contracted by my condo board president is sucking the unit owners dry with their fees. Is it common for a managment company to charge $250 as 'application fees' for renovation approval ? And since the board basically gave them free reign of everything in the building, they get to reject the application on behalf of the board, then ask for another $250 if you submit a amended version of the application for re-approval. If this is not highway robbery, I don't know what is. Is there anything to be done about that ? The board members didnt want to do anything it didn't impact them. The management company waived all application fees for all board managers.
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Hi, I own a Management company and we're always very up-front about our fees and these are always placed in the contract and can't be amended without Board approval first.
The way we do it in our firm is we have two types of applications; a "decoration" and a "renovation". The decoration is for owners / shareholders who are not doing anything more than painting, tiling, cosmetic, etc. We don't charge for that as all we have to do is ensure that we are getting the property security deposits and certificates of insurance from the contractors.
The renovation package is a little more detailed and we do charge a fee for that. The $250 is on the mark and is normal in the industry, although we've seen higher as well. This is for work that is structural in nature, electrical or touches any of the heating / plumbing lines. From experience there are times that the property manager will have to spend hours on a shareholder's personal renovation so this helps to offset the cost of that to the firm.
If it is as detailed as the "renovation" then the manager has to be in touch with the contractors, the shareholder, the engineer (sometimes the building's engineer as well), so there is a large amount of work done on a personal project that is outside the scope of the management contract for the cooperative corporation.
If a renovation is not approved and the form has to be re-filed with the management company for approval again, we don't charge for that, but others might.
I hope that helps and let me know if you have any questions related to this.
Mark Levine
mblevine@ebmg.com
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First, does the management contract allow for the fees to be charged? If not, who gave them permission and when. It must be documented. Second, it is the Board who accepts or rejects someone, the management company can give input if the board requests it, but the final decision is made by the elected board. Again, as I have answered in several posts, we need an Ombudsman bill to get some State legall "traction" behind co op and condo owners who have massive problems such as yours. Senator Liz Kruegar has introduced this bill and we must get behind it. Contact her office. Dianne Stromfeld
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