2000 Jun
2000 Jun Vol. 20, No. 6
Focus on...Law and Legislation
Stribling & Associates
A full pane of glass fronts the Madison Avenue townhouse office of Stribling & Associates, a luxury residential real estate brokerage firm. Four ornate gold frames hang museum-style in the window and the pictures inside feature large, luxurious apartments, Manhattan’s most prestigious offerings of the moment. On this Spring day, a 17-room triplex on Fifth Avenue is being marketed for $6.75 million; another Fifth Avenue co-op, this one only six rooms, is displayed for $2.95 million. The pictures catch the attention of many pedestrians, notes Stribling president and founder, Elizabeth Stribling. "We’ve had many high ticket sales through these windows," she claims. In fact, the windows on 73rd Street and Madison have been so successful, mentions Stribling, that the two other company locations, Stribling-Wells & Gay at 340 West 23rd Street and the just-opened Stribling office at 246 West Broadway in TriBeCa, feature the same signature look. The apartments and lofts may be funkier in the downtown pictures, but the ornamental opulence of the frames remain the same. Read More
Online Communities
By now, it is evident that the Internet is to our generation what the West was to our founding fathers–a vast land of opportunity to explore and cultivate. The World Wide Web has already established itself as a place to obtain information, chat with a celebrity or write to a friend–all from the comfort of home. Thanks to the Internet you can shop for everything from stocks to shirts to an apartment without shedding your pajamas. You can read magazines, listen to music and play along with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Every day, different uses are being found for the Internet. It is truly the New Frontier, and among the most recent pioneers are real estate management companies and their clients, who are finding ways to use the web as a building and communications management tool. Read More
The Cooperative Century
Quick: the first residential co-op was created in (a) 2000 BC (b) the 1700’s (c) the 1800’s (d) the 20th century. Now, don’t laugh off choice "a," 2000 BC. While there doesn’t appear to have been co-ops quite that far back, there are records of condominiums. It might be tempting to choose "d," thinking that the notion of popular "cooperation" must surely have its roots in the culture and politics of the 1960’s, but you’d be wrong. The first known co-op in the world was brought into being after a large fire created a serious housing shortage in Rennes, France in 1720, as explained by Richard Siegler and Herbert J. Cooper-Levy, member and former member of the National Association of Housing Cooperatives (NAHC), respectively, in "Brief History of Cooperative Housing," an article in a volume of NAHC’s Cooperative Housing Bulletin. Read More
Water Bill Anguish
The following article contains excerpts from a series of statements submitted by Michael Lockhart, president of American Telephone and Utility Consultants and founder of The Coalition for Water Bill Justice, and Lawrence Schatt, deputy commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Customer & Conservation Services. Read More
Unlawful Stock Transfers and Termination
Co-ops have to be vigilant and address defaults due to nonpayment, objectionable conduct, illegal sublets, bank foreclosures and below market resales, and shareholders declaring bankruptcy. Some proprietary leases and bylaws appear to give co-op boards incredible authority. By a mere majority vote, boards can declare a shareholder, investor or even a sponsor in default due to their own actions, or the actions of the subtenants and renters. Boards may mistakenly believe that by a mere vote and then notification, they can terminate the shareholders’ stock and lease. Boards who read their proprietary lease and bylaws in a narrow and literal way may begin to think they can solve their resident problem cases by eliminating the shareholders’ or investors’ rights and interest in the stock and lease, without a judicial procedure. The court cases cited above show that even with a court action, the co-op may not be able to terminate the stock and lease! Boards often believe that after stock is terminated, the apartment and stock automatically revert back to the co-op, as the co-op’s property without a private, public or foreclosure sale. Read More
Laying Down the Law
New York, my old home state, presently litigates all co-op and condo disputes. Litigation, however, continually proves to be an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. Perhaps it’s time for New York to consider compulsory mediation-arbitration before initiating court proceedings. Mediation is negotiated peacemaking and arbitration is a decision favoring one side over the other. The main benefit to both is that they take place outside of a courtroom setting, saving precious money and time. From beginning to end, the process runs about five months. Parties don’t have to lose endless hours from work while they wait around in stuffy, crowded, run-down courtrooms waiting for their cases to be called. Parties and witnesses appear once at the scheduled hearing date and that’s it. Court cases–even here–can take a couple of years to conclude. That shopworn phrase of "Justice delayed is justice denied" doesn’t apply to arbitration cases. Read More
Board Members Beware
As we enter the 21st Century, issues of equality continue to be a problem in the United States. As such, government has created a complex set of laws to protect people from discrimination, but the problem has still not gone away. The responsibility to treat prospective unit owners equally goes above the societal implications for board members and managing agents. If they are not careful to avoid acting in a way that might be viewed as discriminatory in a court of law, they risk lawsuits and severe legal penalties. It has been held that board members can be found personally liable under city, state and federal laws for discriminatory practices. Read More
