2012 March
2012 March Vol. 32, No. 3
Focus on...Exterior Maintenance
Make Connections at the 2012 Expo
As a co-op or condominium board member, you rely on a long list of service
professionals for work ranging from HVAC maintenance to parking lot sealing.
Finding the right person for the right job, though, can be a challenge.
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Green Exteriors
More often than not, when boards or associations broach the issue of their
buildings “going green,” images of bamboo flooring, hemp drapes, or solar panels on the roof suddenly
spring to mind. The impression seems to be that in a condo, green upgrades are
difficult and costly—if not impossible—to do.
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Up on the Rooftop
The roof is the uppermost part of any residential building, serving as the first
line of defense against whatever the skies throw at its inhabitants. In many
New York co-op and condo buildings, the roof is also a social space, complete
with decking, planters, awnings, and sometimes even sun chairs or a hot tub.
These roofs do double duty—and as such, they're subjected to far more wear-and-tear than their
restricted-access counterparts.
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Let There Be Light
As recently as the 1930’s, only 68 percent of American homes had electricity. By the middle of the last
century however, most Americans enjoyed well-lit homes, and the light had
started to spread outdoors as well. Initially, yards and gardens were lit
purely for visibility and safety, but once decorative lighting became a
reality, there was no turning back. Today exterior lighting provides an
exciting way to protect, beautify, and showcase properties, both brand-new and
historic.
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Concrete Concerns
In New York City, urban high-rises with sidewalk frontage and outer-borough HOAs
with walking paths, parking lots, and service roads are reliant on their paved
surfaces and therefore need to regularly inspect and maintain their concrete.
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Fire Escape
Walking down the streets of New York City, the zig-zag iron work of fire escapes
immediately evoke romantic images of a simpler time, having been immortalized
in books, songs and plays from West Side Story to Rent. With some fire escapes
being as large as whole rooms, (measuring 31 ½ feet wide by 10 ½ feet long, and wrapped by a 2 ½ foot high railing in some neighborhoods), tenants have converted their fire
escapes into personal spaces for years; from private libraries, meditation
spaces, laundromats and arboretums to the ultimate skybox seat at New York
Yankees games. As “classic New York” as this may be, one must not forget their real purpose.
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Best Impressions
As the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first
impression, and for co-op and condo homebuyers, that first impression is almost
always the view from the street. No matter how deluxe the accommodations inside, if the property’s exterior is less than desirable, a buyer’s mind is often made up before they enter the front door—if they even bother to go that far.
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Papers, Please!
Whether it is redesigning light fixtures in a common space or replacing a roof,
repair jobs and capital improvement projects are like death and taxes, they are
inevitable. Whereas a building administrator or a managing agent most often
handles the hiring of contractors and oversees the execution of the job,
problems and issues often arise which makes it important for board members to
understand licensing, documentation and accepted protocols.
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Don't Get Soaked
It’s no secret these days that co-op and condo operating costs are going through
the roof, so to speak, and boards and managers are all looking for effective
ways to generate cost savings. Building management looks at fuel and energy
usage regularly, but one often-forgotten area is water usage. Doing a cost
analysis is a good way to determine if your metered building is paying its fair
share or is being overcharged by the utility company or a city agency.
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What's in Your Wallet?
Unless it's a thoughtful gift or a party in their honor, nobody likes surprises.
That's especially true when it comes to sudden, serious, or non-negotiable
repairs to a co-op or condo building. A building community must have enough
money saved to deal with major projects as they arise, or risk major financial
and structural troubles. But economic woes of residents such as unemployment or
default, or living on tight fixed incomes, means more HOAs are finding it
difficult to keep their reserves adequately funded.
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New York's Upper West Side
With its plethora of major cultural and educational institutions like Lincoln
Center, the Museum of Natural History, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine,
Grant’s Tomb, Barnard College, Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University, it’s easy to forget that the Upper West Side of Manhattan is primarily a
residential neighborhood. Block after block, you’ll find stately prewar architecture, opulent co-ops and condos and classic four
and five story residences sandwiched between lavish parks, luxury hotels,
sophisticated boutiques and haute cuisine restaurants.
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A Concrete Solution in the Big Apple
Concrete is the most prevalent building material in existence today, though most
people probably don’t notice how widely used the material is until it begins to break up in front of
their homes, or falls off of their buildings, roads and bridges. Despite the
ubiquity of concrete, the questions of who has the expertise to do repairs on
concrete structures and how such repairs should be properly done weren’t being fully addressed even a few decades ago.
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Q&A: Sponsor Control over the Board
I serve on the board of a Brooklyn co-op which is only 52 percent shareholder owned. Shareholders now have the simple majority on the board. Our sponsor owns the management company (which is non-responsive), has a relationship with our CPA and we share his attorney. It makes many shareholders and board members uncomfortable having the sponsor associated with every entity we depend on for loyalty. What are the pros and cons of using a sponsor-owned management company, a CPA with possible sponsor loyalties and an attorney who has worked for the sponsor for decades?” Read More
