2006 Aug
2006 Aug Vol. 26, No. 8
Focus on...Insurance
The Value of Homeowners Insurance
For many people, their home is their greatest asset. Yet studies show that 59 percent of today’s homes are underinsured by an average of 22 percent. To protect their investment this hurricane season, homeowners should update their insurance regularly to include improvements, major purchases and increased rebuilding costs, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III). Read More
Suburban Brawl
There are myriad of ways to get back and forth from Manhattan to Nassau County. Whether you’re driving, taking a train, or bussing it, there’s no shortage of access to what has become an exurban retreat for many commuters and families priced out of Manhattan For these folks, Nassau County seems like a logical place to start looking for an alternative to big city living. Read More
A One-Stop Resource
Individuals and companies all need to be properly covered by insurance but the wide variety of choices can make obtaining that coverage a daunting process. To help buildings and companies make the best choice with minimal hassle, the Insurance Information Institute (III) has become a one-stop-shopping resource for information on all manner of insurance needs. Read More
Long Island Retreat
Paleolithic whale-hunters, American revolutionaries, an adored president, French castles, and bathtub gin all combine to paint a portrait of one of New York’s richest historical landscapes—and one that perhaps few people fully appreciate. Nassau County, home to one of the first English settlements in New York State and an estimated 1,333,137 modern residents, is the first county one reaches after leaving Queens and New York City behind, and is a complex mix of urban and suburban values and lifestyles. Read More
Same Planet, Different Worlds
While there are many similarities between co-ops and condos, are the two very different when it comes to things like insurance and liability? Read More
On Your Side
Imagine the panic that sets in when a home is lost or damaged. Now imagine navigating through that fear alone. Whether it’s fire or flooding or the violent effects of a storm, anything that damages or destroys a home will have a lasting and dramatic effect on the people who lived and worked in that space. Read More
The Course of a Claim
Any number of things can set off an insurance claim in a co-op or condo building. Someone can slip and fall in the lobby; there can be aesthetic damage from a construction project, or a leaky roof can cause major water damage— sometimes in multiple units. And while most building managers might understand the basics for filing a claim, the road it travels from the initial contact with the insurance company to a compensation check appearing in the mail can be a long one. Read More
Deconstructing Insurance
Insurance sounds like a simple concept: you pay a premium to your insurer, and then when you file a claim, your insurer pays you. Simple. Insuring a co-op or condo building shouldn’t be much different than insuring yourself—just on a bigger scale, right? Read More
How Safe Are You?
Since they were first built, apartment buildings have been insured for disasters and unforeseen circumstances—the things nobody ever wants to happen, but has to admit are possible. Things like fires, floods, earthquakes and so on. In the past, terrorism was thought of as being something that happened in other countries, but since 9/11, the fear of terrorism—and the desire to make sure one’s home is safe from it as much as possible—have taken center stage in the minds of many New Yorkers. Read More
Insurance Products
Having insurance means having financial protection—protection from being financially crippled by having to pay excessive costs to rebuild a life or a home—or a whole building—when tragedy strikes. Read More
Pure Premium
In 2001, the Amalgamated Houses co-op in the Bronx paid $287,000 in insurance premiums. The following June, when the existing policy terminated, the yearly tab rose to a staggering $427,000—an increase of almost 50 percent. And wasn’t just the Amalgamated Houses whose insurance costs skyrocketed. All across the city, in buildings both commercial and residential, premiums rose markedly. Read More
Q&A: How Long To Approve
I have a one-bedroom co-op in a six –story, 78-unit building in the Bronx on the market for $53,000 and have a prospective buyer who filled out the board application and provided the financial information required by the board. After reviewing his information, the board interviewed the interested buyer in early March in an empty apartment in our building. Two members of the board—one of whom was the board president—met with the buyer, and after concluding the interview told him they’d be in touch soon. To date no board decision, yea or nay, has been forthcoming. This interested buyer is a cash buyer with a solid credit history. He’s single, stable, tenured schoolteacher. Read More
Q&A: Elevator Replacement
Our six-story Queens condo is considering replacing our elevator. We have stairs, obviously, but getting up and down six stories will be difficult for some of our older unit owners. What legal obligations do we have as the board to provide access to our apartment owners (other than the stairs) to their units during the replacement project? Read More
Q&A: Sponsor Conflict
After serving on my board for the past two years as a vice president, I have now been elected president of my 83-unit Manhattan co-op. The equity sponsor (and 14 percent shareholder) has always been on the board, and for the last three years, has also served as treasurer. The sponsor also has a long-standing relationship with our managing agent, accountant, and attorney. Next week, we finish officer elections, and with the support of the majority of the board, I will be voting the sponsor out as treasurer and putting some “new blood” in the position. My question is: what issues should I be concerned with and what if any conflicts exist with having the sponsor as treasurer, given his relationship with the building’s other professionals? Read More
Q&A: Board Trouble
We have only three board members in our building. The current board has been in place for about seven years, and our shareholders would like to remove them because they’re ineffective. They failed to replace a board member who resigned, saying we can only have four board members when our propriety lease clearly says we should have seven. We shareholders are uncertain how many seats the sponsor of the building can hold—our board says only three, and our managing agent has let our Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) membership lapse, so we can’t get advice from them. We plan to rejoin the group as soon as we get rid of our board, but at the moment, we’re not sure how to proceed. Read More
