2008 Feb
2008 Feb Vol. 28, No. 2
Focus on...Board/Shareholder Relations
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
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
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
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
Stop, Drop and Breathe
Whether it's demanding residents or unreasonable board members, maintenance headaches or a barely-under-control work schedule, a property manager is in a unique—and uniquely stressful—position. No one knows this better than the property managers themselves. What might surprise the managers, however, is that of all the items listed above, taking care of their own mental health and learning proper stress-deflation methods ought to be a priority as well. Read More
How Boards Deal with Late Payments
Monthly charges, including common charges, emergency repairs, lawsuits, assessments, maintenance fees, dues and so forth, are a big part of owning a co-op or condo in New York City. When an owner is late, or misses monthly payments entirely, it affects the whole building and can adversely impact the entire community. There is less revenue that month, so savings may have to be raided. Property managers have to spend time better invested elsewhere dealing with the problem. Legal fees mount. And so on. Read More
Deploy the Welcome Wagon
Fifty years ago, residents new to a neighborhood might be greeted by a Welcome Wagon hostess in an A-line skirt and perfect matte lipstick bearing a basket full of goodies from local merchants. She'd give the homeowners the lowdown on who's who, what's what and leave the new neighbors with the warm and fuzzy feeling that their new community, especially the local merchants, really cared. Read More
Rules and Problems
Although many co-ops and condos in New York City might not like it, shareholders and unit owners often rent out their apartments to subletters. Board control over subletting can vary—from stringent in most co-ops, to giving the board the first right of refusal in condos. But sometimes, residents try to sidestep the board and allow a subletter to move in. And even with board approval, having a renter, or several renters, in the building could pose problems. Read More
Passing the Pest Test
Few things inspire more disgust in an apartment owner than an infestation, be it bugs, rodents, or other vermin. Unfortunately, pests are often part-and-parcel of life in a sprawling metropolitan area. Roaches, mice, rats, ants, bedbugs and the occasional invasion of centipedes are some of the more common unwelcome "guests" in New York City buildings. Read More
Recycling Program for Apartment Buildings
Everybody knows that New York City's apartment buildings generate a whole lot of trash. In fact, according to the New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY), the average New York City resident discards nearly four and a half pounds of waste each day, or more than three-quarters of a ton per year. Multiply that by the number of residents in your building, and the sheer volume of waste gets pretty staggering. Read More
