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Board Resource Guide: Etiquette for Board Members
Serving on the board of directors for your building brings on a range of emotions: pride that you were selected to represent the best interests of your fellow shareholders; unease at the thought of the additional time commitment of meetings; and, perhaps most importantly, nervousness that you will do or say something that will ultimately be problematic for your board or for you personally. Read More
Board Resource Guide: Serving on the Board: What It's Really Like
As any co-op or condo board member knows, serving on the board carries with it a responsibility to fellow residents and shareholders to make decisions in the best interest of the building. They don't leave their role as board members at the door after a meeting, and this can present a problem if neighbors pick inappropriate times to discuss building matters. Read More
Board Resource Guide: Orienting New Board Members
Getting elected to a building's board can be a big job in and of itself—but the truth is that winning a seat is only the beginning. After making the decision to campaign for a seat, and then winning it, new board members can find themselves failing to understand exactly what they've gotten themselves into. Read More
Board Resource Guide: Training the Board
Board members come in all shapes and sizes—literally and figuratively. In some buildings, no one wants the hassle of working a thankless job for no compensation, and the same four people are guilted into the job every year by default. In other buildings, a board membership is a badge of honor, carrying great cachet, and residents vie for the privilege. Read More
The Shareholder Versus the Board
When it comes to key security, most co-op shareholders and other tenants have no choice but to trust in their building manager. That's because New York state law requires tenants to provide landlords with duplicate keys, if requested. Whether that key goes into a locked box in the superintendent's office, hangs in an open cabinet next to the doorman or is placed in a high-tech key management system depends on building policy. Read More
Limiting Sponsor Power
All too often boards of co-ops and condos find themselves at the mercy of the conversion sponsor. Wielding his influence over the building and all its affairs, the sponsor's goals are frequently in contrast with those of the board and building: He wants to sell his units quickly and make a profit, while the board wants to enhance the quality of life and financial stability of the corporation. With knowledge of the building's governing documents and constant planning, however, boards can move out from under the sponsor's thumb. Read More
Is Your Board Carrying Out Its Fiduciary Duty?
One of the most distressing issues confronting board members is how to comply with their fiduciary duty to shareholders and unit owners. Although misconceptions abound as to the precise nature and scope of this obligation, a breach of the fiduciary duty could result in grave consequences for both the offending board member and the community which he or she represents. Perhaps the most widespread misconception is that fiduciary duty is related to the degree of competence or zeal with which board members perform their management responsibilities. For example, I have often heard it said that, The board has a fiduciary duty to operate on budget, or, As a board member, he has a fiduciary duty to regularly attend meetings. In fact, the fiduciary responsibility has nothing to do with board members' skill or fervor. Basically, a breach of the fiduciary duty to shareholders and unit owners occurs whenever a board member's abuse of such power results in harm to one or more of his constituents.
Read MoreTime Management and Delegation
Since it's a common belief that the best way to get something done is to give it to a busy person, it's often the busiest shareholders and unit owners that are elected to serve on the board. How do they find the time to add yet another responsibility to their already full plates? Many busy people in all walks of life—from high-powered executives to full-time homemakers—are relying more than ever on time management and delegation techniques to get (almost!) everything done. Read More
Checks and Balances
Your co-op or condo is your home but it's also a business with vendors, contractors and a board of directors that sets guidelines affecting everyone. As in any business, there exists the potential for theft and fraud. While there are no fool-proof methods to prevent wrongdoing by board members and the professionals and vendors they do business with, there are checks and balances that can be put into place to help keep everyone honest. Read More
Policies and Procedures
The best-run co-ops and condos regularly update their house rules document, providing essential information to residents, the board and the professionals who work with the building, on everything from payment of arrears to installation of window guards. These properties also develop and distribute, either as part of the house rules or as a separate reference document, a policies and procedures manual that clearly defines how the board and residents are to communicate with management and go about certain activities such as applying for permission to make alterations to apartments, arranging for sublease or rental approval, moving in and out of the building, providing keys for emergency access and countless other items. Because the list goes on and on, having a manual can make life a lot easier. Read More
The Ins and Outs Of Illegal Sublets
In today’s booming real estate market everyone is looking to turn a profit. Should co-op shareholders be any different? Everyone wants a piece of the pie but at what cost? Subletting cooperative apartments can be very simple if you follow the guidelines that the co-op’s bylaws have put in place, but it seems as if it’s not that simple. Are shareholders taking advantage by manufacturing family members to make money, or are the cooperative corporations making their shareholders jump through too many hoops? Read More
Getting Tipsy
New York is an expensive town–on that point there can be little debate. Regardless of your means, sometimes it can feel as though everybody from the waitress at your favorite coffee shop to the person who sacks your groceries is trying to get every last nickel out of you. Tip jars are everywhere, sometimes decorated with winsome appeals for change ("Tipping is good karma!"), sometimes just sitting there expectantly, waiting for you to pony up. The holiday season compounds the issue: there are gifts to buy, travel accommodations to book, parties to attend, inclement weather to worry about… and the anxiety that many of us feel when we try to figure out what kind of tip to give the people who (hopefully) make our everyday life a little easier: our building staff. Read More
Tips About Tipping
New York is an expensive town - on that point there can be little debate. Regardless of your means, the holiday season compounds the issue: there are gifts to be bought, travel accommodations to be booked, parties to attend, inclement weather to worry about"¦ and the anxiety that many of us feel when we try to figure out what kind of tip to give the people who (hopefully) make our everyday life a little easier: our building staff. Read More
The Need to Know
Most of the time, "communication" and "openness" are watchwords for boards and management. Clear, transparent communication between boards, managing agents, and shareholder/owners should be right up there with "location, location, location" as a mantra of successful urban living. But where does the line get drawn between what boards can - and should - discuss amongst themselves in closed board meetings, and what to discuss openly amongst all the shareholders? Well-publicized cases of corruption and opacity in corporate America have resulted in an increased demand for transparency and openness in all governing organizations - including co-op and condo boards - that is forcing some board members and agents to re-examine their own building policies. Read More
Watts Up?
Seasonal spikes in the prices of fuel, oil and gas rising, higher costs of electricity, the need to bring those energy bills down—your condo or co-op will likely feel all of these, especially if it has older boilers, appliances, and so forth. Thankfully, there are strategies out there to help you conserve energy, and there are agencies and other organizations that are only too glad to help. Read More
I Got Rights!
In many ways, a co-op or condo building is a lot like a tiny democratic nation. Like an independent state, a building elects its leaders, and those leaders have certain responsibilities to the people who elected them. Each “citizen” of the building has a vested interest in the continuing prosperity and harmony of their community—and each has a right to know how their elected directors are making decisions and running the building’s business affairs. Read More
Whose Place Is This Anyway?
People like to think that they can do anything they
darn well please within their own walls so long as no laws are being
broken. Want to paint your walls purple and your ceilings green?
Who’s gonna stop you? In the mood for loud music and a long evening
of cigar smoking? It’s no one’s business but your own. Or is
it?
Read More
Not Written in Stone
Co-op boards and homeowners’ associations maintain building-specific bylaws, rules and regulations, and are responsible for making sure they are enforced. The certificate of incorporation, the proprietary lease and the bylaws are like a contract among shareholders, certifying that they will behave in a certain manner and adhere to certain regulatory expectations. Read More
Conversation of a Lifetime
Unless you’re a Broadway star, the thought of
having a spotlight pointed at you probably is not that appealing. No doubt,
most prospective co-op buyers feel that kind of “center of
attention” pressure when it comes time to go before the board of
directors for the traditional building approval interview.
Read More
The Final Frontier
Sometime in the future, perhaps, teleporters like those seen on Star Trek will be a reality. Every co-op and condo building will have one—not for purposes of travel, but for storage. Until technology allows us to beam our bins and boxes of old clothes, holiday decorations, and unused sporting goods to a depot in, say, South Dakota, however, nobody in New York City will have enough space for storage. Read More
Breakfast Roundup
Managing a co-op or condo community is far from an easy job. Six managing agents from some of the city’s top firms recently participated in the continuing series of roundtable discussions hosted by The Cooperator and the Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives and Condominiums (FNYHC) to provide some insight into the intricacies of co-op and condo management. Read More
No Sale Ever Final
Whether you’re part of a giant co-op the size of Co-op City, a 21-story building with over 15,000 residential units, or a small 25-unit condo in Staten Island, whether your building is self-managed or uses a management company, your board will at some time have to make decisions on how to deal with vendors. Read More
Ruling the Roost
No Sale Ever Final
Whether you’re part of a giant co-op the size of Co-op City, a 21-story building with over 15,000 residential units, or a small 25-unit condo in Staten Island, whether your building is self-managed or uses a management company, your board will at some time have to make decisions on how to deal with vendors. Read More
Getting Good Help
Attracting new members to join your board of directors may be a daunting task. As current board members, you know that occasionally you need new members to keep the business of your co-op running smoothly—but people are often reluctant to join a group they may not really know much about. Even more challenging, they might be convinced that serving on the board will be too difficult, too time-consuming, or will make them the targets of potential lawsuits if there’s a problem in the building. Read More
It's Good to Be the President
It’s not a thankless job, necessarily—every once in a while residents will express their gratitude, if the elevator ride is sufficiently awkward—but it is a moneyless one. It’s also a hefty part-time job at best, and can at times take upwards of 20 hours a week to do. And forget about taking a vacation. Read More
Following the Money
Fall is here and with it comes the season for watching football. Football seems to dominate American culture. There are pro games four days a week, pre-season, post-season and Pro Bowl games, college, indoor, fantasy football, and of course the definitive game of the year—the Super Bowl. Read More
Running the Gauntlet
Talk about tense situations. There’s the sweaty-palm inducing job interview or the anxiety-riddled prospect of getting down on one knee to propose. And who can forget those tense moments scratching out an answer on the SAT test, knowing your future hangs on the difference between answer A and B. Those moments, however, are all child’s play when it comes to the pinnacle of the high-pressure situation: applying to live in a New York City co-op. Read More
If it Ain't Fixed-Float it
Purchasing a building’s heating oil is one of the most important decisions a board has to make. And in this era of ever-rising fuel costs, it’s also one of the most frustrating. When deciding how to pay for their buildings’ heating oil, boards need to determine which method works best for them. Read More
Brokers & Bankers
Nearly 100 percent of New York City co-ops have an underlying mortgage of anywhere from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars. If you own a co-op, having an additional multi-million dollar mortgage hanging over your head might sound like an alarming prospect. You might be surprised to learn that while homeowners generally pay off their own mortgages in 30 years or less, very few co-ops have paid off their underlying mortgage. Because of that, many buildings are forced to refinance when the term of their current loan comes to an end. Co-op board members looking to refinance will then turn either to a mortgage broker or a mortgage banker (or lender) to lead them through the process and obtain the financing they need. Read More
Future World
Most of us don’t like to spend a lot of time contemplating our so-called “final wishes”—we’d much rather leave planning our wills and executing our estates for another day. Uncomfortable as the subject is for many people however, it’s vitally important to make those decisions now, rather than waiting until it may be too late. The issue of estate planning is especially important when it comes to the right of transferring co-op shares or leaving a beneficiary your condo apartment. Read More
Within Striking Distance
It took a rally, a march up Park Avenue, and some heated late-night negotiation sessions, but on April 21, 2006, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ and the Realty Advisory Board (RAB) were able to compromise on the terms of a new contract for the city’s supers, porters, doormen, and other building workers. The agreement was tentative, and involved concessions and compromise on both sides of the table, but it also headed off a strike that many in the city thought was inevitable. Read More
In the Know
New York State has a number of laws to protect consumers—there’s a law designed to protect people who invest in a car and end up with a lemon, for example. If a car has been in a serious accident, the seller has to disclose that information to any potential buyer. Buying a home is an even bigger commitment than buying a car, so you’d think the state must have some pretty strict disclosure requirements in regards to the buying and selling of condos and co-ops. But it doesn’t. Read More
Discussions in the Round
They say that two heads are better than one—but what about eight? It seems that when a group of people in the same line of work get together to discuss what they do and how they do it, they often come away with new information, fresh perspectives, and possible solutions to the challenges they face on a daily basis. Read More
Living By the Rules
All communities, be they nation-states, municipalities, or co-op or condo buildings, have rules. Respect for -- and adherence to -- these rules is essential for many people to coexist peaceably in the same communal space. In the co-op and condo setting, rules come in two forms: bylaws and house rules. Read More
