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Board/Shareholder Relations
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
From Horror to Harmony
Neil Goldstein flashes a look of genuine surprise when a resident kisses him hello on the cheek in the lobby of The Harmony, an Upper East Side co-op where he is board president. Other residents trot by with friendly waves and call out, How are you doing, Neil? A couple seated on the lobby couch look over floorplans, obviously waiting for a broker to show them an apartment. An elevator opens to discharge a small child who totters toward the doormen, who know the kid by name. Clearly touched by the environment, Goldstein rubs the spot on his cheek and breaks into a satisfied smile.
Read MoreDoes the White Knight Approach Really Work?
In the 1980s, at the height of the conversion movement, many New Yorkers were thrilled because they were able to buy apartments at a great insider's price. But, for some, the dream of owning their own home turned sour. Imagine learning that your co-op's sponsor is about to default, or that foreclosure is imminent. This is a surefire recipe for sleepless nights and major league stress. Thankfully, today, with the real estate market on the rebound, these situations have become much less common. But for those co-op owners who lived through it, it was a nightmare. Fortunately for some, disaster was avoided when White Knight investors who specialize in bailing out co-op corporations in financial distress rode to the rescue. Read More
Can This Co-op Be Saved?
The collapse of the New York real estate market in the late 1980s left dozens, if not hundreds, of co-ops unable to pay or refinance their mortgages. Many sponsors managed to have their plans declared effective with only 15 percent of the units soldthe minimum required by law and then watched the co-op market disintegrate. Unable to meet the maintenance payments on the units they still held, sponsors defaulted or went bankrupt, leaving the co-op corporation with occupied units on which the rents didn't cover the maintenance. Read More
Neighbor vs. Neighbor
Disagreement and conflict between neighbors is something people have had to contend with since the first two Paleolithic human families decided to set up house in adjacent caves. While serious problems may be rarities in the suburbs and exurbs where there’s ample space between houses, New York City’s vertically stacked living quarters can give rise to points of contention that would be non-issues in other communities. And if those points aren’t handled quickly and fairly by building administration, they can fester into serious problems. Intra-building feuds can create big headaches for boards, managers, and anyone living around the warring parties. 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
Board/Building Harmony
As an attorney who represents co-op boards, building managers and shareholders, one sometimes wonders if the expression—“ You can’t please all the people all of the time” best applies to the idea of creating harmony between these parties. However, I believe that there is hope and that you can try to please more of the people more of the time, if you just listen to what they are saying and respond promptly. Read More
Reaching Out
Crowded together though they may be, most co-op and
condo buildings seem to operate as little communities or villages unto
themselves. They have their own individual boards, residents, managers, and
even their own doorman and/or security staff. What else do they need?
Read More
Them's the Rules
The house rules outline the do’s and don’ts
of every co-op and condo community. By and large, these regulations are
common sense directives aimed at protecting the safety of residents and
generally keeping order without stepping on peoples’ toes. Few would
argue with most house rules; ones that keep residents from setting up
skateboarding tournaments in the lobby, for example, or testing the limits
of high-end stereo equipment at three o’clock in the morning
generally enjoy widespread support.
Read More
Dealing with the Difficult
As an attorney and an apartment dweller, Michelle
Freudenberger has seen it all when it comes to living with difficult
residents.
Read More
Hello...Hello?!
We all know the feeling—whether we encounter
it trying to navigate the city bureaucracy, dealing with a far-flung credit
card call center, or trying to resolve an issue with our cable box: the
feeling that we’ve got a legitimate problem, and the people who
should be listening simply aren’t.
Read More
We The People
When cooperators elect their boards of directors, and condo owners elect their community association or boards of managers, they do so in the expectation that these boards will represent their interests. Read More
Settling Co-op Disputes?
Over two decades ago, an amendment to the New York City Civil Court Act transferred enforcement proceedings connected with housing to the Civil Court. This amendment established what we now know as housing court, where residential landlord and tenant disputes could be resolved. Since a co-op shareholder is, in effect, a tenant of the apartment corporation and executes a proprietary lease (in which the rights and responsibilities of both the corporation and the shareholder are set forth), use of the housing court is available to the co-op in the event of a breach of a shareholder’s obligation. At the present time, each New York City borough has its own housing court. Despite some of the problems with delays and shortage of available courtrooms, co-op issues continue to be resolved in housing court alongside landlord-tenant disputes. Read More
Are You Prepared?
Annual shareholders’ meetings are in our midst. It takes a lot for a board to prepare for the spring occasion, but if thoughtfully planned by a building’s board and managing agent, it can become a successful forum for board elections, the dissemination of news concerning the building, and for shareholders to air their concerns. According to Steven Wagner, a partner at the Manhattan law firm Wagner, Davis & Gold, everything a board needs to know about running an annual meeting is stated in the building’s bylaws. Wagner explains, "The annual shareholder’s meeting is run according to a recipe, found in the larger cookbook of building bylaws. To learn how to run a shareholder’s annual meeting, just follow the recipe." Read More
Your Rights and Obligations
Your roof terrace leaked and the neighbor below you sued for damages. Do you have any recourse? The Read More
Property Tax Reform
The City Council has made protection of homeownersincluding co-op and condo Read More
Homeowners Insurance
Two weeks after Angel Agostino renewed her small insurance policy with Ron Tepperman, Inc., a base- Read More
Pet Policy Politics
Let's face it, the City is going to the dogsM-or is it cats? New Yorkers love their pets. No matter whether feline or canine, the depth of emotion owners have for their furry companions is staggering. This staunch devotion could go double for tenants of co-ops and condos who may face No Pets policies from their building's boards or have trouble attending to the animal's needs while juggling their busy work schedules. Read More
Anger Management
For most people, “foaming at the mouth” is just a figure of speech. Attorney Ellen Hirsch de Haan, a managing partner
in the Tampa Bay, Florida office of Becker & Poliakoff PA, has encountered the real thing—and not at an animal shelter, but at a condominium owners’ meeting.
Read More
Avoiding Court, Limiting Costs
Turn on daytime television and you might get a false impression that people like
to go to court to work out their differences. There are so many cookie-cutter
judicial shows like “The People’s Court,” “Judge Judy,” and “Judge Joe Brown,” where the process is made to look simple and quick. The truth is, however, that
going to court is expensive, often very time-consuming, and more complicated
than it appears on television (although those who air out their differences on
the tube do get a stipend). Read More
Attending the Annual Shareholder Meeting
Most shareholders would agree that attending their annual meeting is an activity low on their priority list, right after flossing their teeth and organizing their sock drawers. Some feel the meetings are boring, while others feel they don't need to be there as long as their building is running smoothly. Others simply just don't care. Read More
Civilian Again
Few board members would argue that the time spent serving their buildings and
fellow residents can be both very strenuous and very rewarding. For years, they
make decisions that affect their community in the present and may continue to
impact them years down the road.
Read More
Creating Sound, Legal Community Rules
Every co-op or condo has rules and regulations that have been put in place to
define the board’s authority and limitations of power, as well as outline the rules for the
community, residents or shareholders. And although the governing documents are
intended to work in the best interest of everyone in the building, they
sometimes pose problems. Especially, when rules are amended or created and they
conflict with each other, create problems for residents, or are against the
law. Read More
New Legislation Changes the Game
For decades, co-op boards and managers have had to walk a delicate line between generating revenue and obeying the law when it came to renting out space in their buildings to commercial tenants. Read More
Board Members and Privacy
As the leaders of a private corporation in which shareholders own stock that
entitles them to live in an apartment within the corporation’s building, residential co-op board members have a lot of responsibility. Along
with this responsibility comes questions about what can and cannot (as well as
what should and should not) be openly discussed among board members,
management, and non-board shareholders.
Read More
Top Complaints of Board Members and Residents
Everyone loves a Top 10 list and the co-op and condo world is no different.
Besides, if Letterman can do it, so can we. With that in mind, this month we’ve got the top ten things that drive board members crazy about their residents
and the top ten things that make residents pull their hair and curl into the
fetal position. More importantly, we’ve got suggestions on how to put all of those trifling items to rest and help
board members and residents find a happy common ground. Read More
A Look at Archaic Bylaws
On a classic episode of the TV show The Simpsons, the town read its founding charter only to discover that the mayor of Springfield was supposed to get two pigs every year. Read More
Home Sweet Office
Ari Meisel lives in a 4,000-square foot loft in a four-family co-op building in
Soho—he also operates several green buildings, consulting and real estate businesses
from the comfort of his own unit. He has lived in this building for his entire
life, renovating the loft to accommodate his growing business. He holds
meetings and occasional gatherings there, like the speaker event he once had
with 30 guests. And in case you’re wondering, Meisel says his neighbors and the board don’t mind one bit.
Read More
Bringing in a New Board
In managing the affairs of a building or a community, all board members are far
from equal in their abilities and skills. Some bring experience in construction
or a background in law, finance, or other professions that can be helpful to
the board. Some board members bring little insight or professionalism to the
group, and are more concerned with personal vendettas, cronyism or other
compromising pursuits. It’s an unfortunate fact of democracy that rule by the people means that sometimes
the people ruling don’t do such a great job.
Read More
The Spirit of Being Neighborly
Lady Bird Johnson once said, "While the spirit of neighborliness was important on the frontier because neighbors were so few, it is even more important now because our neighbors are so many." Read More
Under the Microscope
Admission requirements for co-op buildings in New York City are typically pretty stringent. A board has the authority to require prospective purchasers to provide extensive financial documentation along with social and personal reference letters, to interview with the board and/or an admissions committee of the board, and in many cases, to undergo criminal and financial background checks.
Read More
