2004 Jun
2004 Jun Vol. 24, No. 6
Focus on...Law&Legislature
From the Court to the Board
In this and in future columns, I will be examining decisions of interest to co-ops and condo boards and suggesting what valuable lessons can be learned from these legal decisions. Read More
Lamentable Leaks
A Brooklyn condominium board learned a painful lesson recently when a jury awarded $55,000 in punitive damages to a unit owner who lived with a leaking roof for 11 years. Read More
Mixed-Use Buildings
Many co-op and condo board members know the difficulty of working to resolve arguments between residents. In mixed-use buildings, the problems may be greater. With both commercial and residential unit owners or shareholders in a building, the board may find the disputes unmanageable. Compromise may seem unworkable, because the two sides have such fundamentally different interests. Read More
After Massachusetts Mold Verdict
The entire real estate industry - from owners and developers to contractors and architects - has been focused on the issue of mold contamination during the past year. However, no segment of industry has been more watchful than cooperative and condominium boards. It has become increasingly clear that in the current environment, co-ops and condos must take a leadership position to maintain control over this issue. Read More
The Hook Up
If you take a look at a map of Brooklyn, you'll see that nestled between the Buttermilk Channel and Gowanus Bay, there's a funny kind of hook-shaped spur of land that protrudes off the mainland and encloses the Erie Basin. That's Red Hook, and it's a part of the city that even long-time New Yorkers may not be too familiar with, even though it offers the stunning views of Lady Liberty, and it's where Al Capone earned his famous "Scarface" moniker back in the "20s. Read More
Tips for Moving on the Cheap
Moving on a budget? No sweat. Here are some money-saving tips Read More
Smooth Move
On the surface, moving sounds like a no-brainer: Put stuff in boxes. Move boxes from A to B. Unpack boxes. What's the big deal? But as anyone who's ever moved can tell you, it's never that simple. In fact, it's often a nightmare that leaves a trail of dead plants, abandoned toaster ovens and frayed nerves in its wake" but it doesn't have to be like that. Read on and we'll tell you everything you need to know to make your move go as smoothly as possible. Moving may not be an exact science, but smart planning - and patience - can take some of the angst out of the endeavor. Read More
The People in Charge
Every New Yorker knows the face of their mayor. But the faces they might not recognize are those of their city council members, a group that wields more power than most state legislatures. Fifty-one individuals make up the New York City Council, representing all five boroughs. Alongside the mayor, the laws they pass affect just about everyone living and working in New York - and it's a role they take seriously. Read More
Due Diligence
House hunters often spend weeks, months, sometimes even years searching for that perfect place to call home. Finally they find it - great space, perfect location, price within the budget. But, before signing on the dotted line, purchasers of co-ops and condos should do their homework - or, as it's referred to in the legal world, their due diligence. Due diligence is the level of care, prudence and activity that a person would reasonably be expected to meet under particular circumstances. Read More
Legal Matters
In the world of co-ops and condos, few people are more important than a organization's legal counsel. Some of the reasons for needing an attorney's help are obvious - how else would complicated contracts be drawn up and ever-changing laws be followed? Other advantages are less obvious. The right relationship between management and an attorney can help keep shareholders happy, building operations running smoothly, and costs under control. Read More
The Abatement Debate
To address the problem of steeply escalating taxes on co-ops and condos, the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums (CNYC) created the Action Committee for Reasonable Real Estate Taxes in February of 1990. During their study and investigation, the group discovered that there was a gross disparity between the taxes paid by co-op and condo owners and those assessed to private homeowners; according to the committee's findings, co-op and condo apartments in buildings containing more than three units were paying three to five times more in property taxes than single-family homes of comparable value. Co-ops and condos were being taxed as Class Two income-producing properties, rather than as the single-family homes that most of them were, simply because they happened to be apartments in large buildings. Read More
Ruling the Roost
The dream of homeownership often brings with it the independence of owning your own space, decorating it as you wish and living by your own rules. Yet when you reside in a co-op or condominium with possibly hundreds of other residents, your behavior and lifestyle must conform to a reasonable standard. With that in mind, all buildings establish house rules - guidelines outlining policies for proper behavior and rules for keeping your property safe and well-maintained. Incorporated as part of the governing documents, house rules help residents live together in peace and harmony - well, most of the time, anyway. Read More
Past Precedents
New York City real estate is governed by a number of things: available housing stock, the economy, state legislation, and quite often by major legal cases argued in the courts and then applied by proxy to building communities all over the city. The courts thus have the ability to greatly impact the way boards, managing agents, and shareholders/owners conduct business. Read More
