LONG ISLAND

New state law gives homeowners greater access to HOA documents.

A toxic waste dump and a proposed casino bring out a board’s combative side.

At the Kings Wood co-op on Long Island, planning is the key to avoiding surprises.

Lighthouse Is Restored at Legend Yacht & Beach Club.

The Hewlett Park Apartments co-op undergoes a major makeover.

(Editor’s note: This is the second in an occasional series of first-person articles by Stewart Wurtzel, an attorney who lives at the Yacht Club Condominium on Long Island and helped the property recover from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. The story picks up after Wurtzel was elected president of the board.)

We were fortunate to have a collection of new board members with skill sets that were particularly useful for the problems we faced: there was Gary Smith, a CPA; James A. Smith, a construction contractor; John Cestaro, a local real estate broker; and Alex Krupnick, the man who spearheaded the petition drive and was determined to improve communication between the board and the residents.

The list of major problems we faced was enormous, and the first one involved communication and trust issues.

(Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series of first-person articles by Stewart Wurtzel, an attorney who was elected to the board at the Yacht Club Condominium on Long Island and helped the property recover from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.)

I have represented cooperatives and condominiums every day of my 32-year legal career. And on multiple occasions in every one of those years, I have had to remind my client board members that theirs is the least appreciated position on Earth. Similarly, I have had conversations or gotten requests from angry board members that made me scratch my head as to why someone on a board could get so infuriated with a resident. But after two-and-a-half years as board president, I now understand. Indeed, I have experienced the rewards and frustrations that are experienced on the client side of the phone.

You never forget being a teacher, says Marion Green, and what you learn doing the job could serve you well if, for instance, you became the president of an 80-unit self-managed condominium called Cameo Plaza in Great Neck, Long Island, and your board decided to refurbish and upgrade the lobby and public spaces.

At Neptune Towers, a 152-unit co-op in Long Beach, the emergency generator failed in the midst of Superstorm Sandy. The generator had been there since the property was built in 1968, and "it was due for a replacement," recalls manager John Wolf, president of Alexander Wolf & Company.

"During Superstorm Sandy, it ran for five or six hours and then the engine ceased," says board president Rich Louis. The co-op had faced "age-related" problems in the past, he adds, involving the replacement of harder-to-find parts, "so we were at the point where we knew we had to replace it." The board hired an engineer to analyze the situation and present it with options. 

Yesterday, at around 3 p.m., a fire broke out at The Sandpiper, a condo complex on Dune Road in Westhampton Beach, Long Island. The fire was so intense, that flames and smoke could be seen from three miles away, reports Eyewitness News, and the top two floors of the three-story structure collapsed. Thankfully, since the building is used in summers, no owners or renters were present. Workers were present, however, but so far, no injuries have been reported. According to Eyewitness News, the Town of Southampton is leading the investigation.