Water, water everywhere — about $162,719 worth. That's how much the 25 million gallons of leaks from faucets, shower heads and toilets was costing the Clinton Hill co-op in Brooklyn in a single year. One-hundred-sixty-two-thousand-seven-hundred-nineteen-dollars!

That's not the type of cash flow you want. Fortunately, there is a free way to learn whether your own building's plumbing has leaks. There's even a free way for individual residents to get materials to fix the problem. Read More »

Aug. 24, 2009 — Like the eco-superhero Captain Planet and his Planeteers, a real-life "super" hero may soon help save the Earth. When carbon footprints stomp, when noxious gas comes knockin' and when green starts to fade to black, two serious New York organizations are stepping in to form their own Eco-Justice League of America.

Plainly put, they plan to train 1,000 building superintendents in everyday environmentalism, with generally easy-to-implement and, bottom-line, money-saving techniques: Replacing a single incandescent lighting fixture with a high-efficiency fixture can save at least $120 per fixture per year, for example, according to one study that also calculates that fixing a leaky toilet can save $730 a year. And the cost of this training? Free. Read More »

Aug. 17, 2009 — Property management is not often an industry on the cutting edge of technology. However, more and more property managers are making use of smartphones in their daily activities. And with a slew of special applications — or "apps" — readily available for downloading onto smartphones, board members can suggest particular ones that can help managers streamline their loads. And board members may want to download some of the same apps to help you do your job more easily.

But which to choose from the tens of thousands of apps available online? Houston Neal, director of business development at the company Property Management Software Advice offers five highly focused apps, along with examples of how they can be used. "More and more property managers are using smartphones in their daily activities," Neal says. "I think mobile apps can automate these tasks." Read More »

Aug. 5, 2009 — The bedbugs that tried to make themselves at home at a 217-unit Manhattan co-op didn't have a prayer. That's because the building, near Times Square, is blessed with a board of directors that didn't hesitate when confronted with an age-old stigma whose recurrence has become the city's newest, well, bugaboo. The board took swift, coordinated, ruthless, and effective action against the bloodsucking pests.

"We're so proud that we've taken care of it and have a good maintenance program in place," says board vice president Rose Keough. "Because of what we're doing ... we'll be able to keep it localized and [to] deal with it."

How did this co-op end the scourge? Quite simply, the board at this trio of 10-story brick towers built in 1923 as a residence hotel realized it didn't have the luxury of denial or of taking halfhearted measures. This was war — and one that any other board can fight and win. Read More »

July 15, 2009 —Maybe the workers from Acid Waste Management weren't properly trained. Or certified. Or licensed. You wouldn't think that would be the case of a company hired by a prestigious entity like Columbia University Medical Center. Yet when the three men ill-advisedly used alcohol to clean a water tank in the school's Black Building, at W. 168th Street in Manhattan on June 26, and equally ill-advisedly brought a hot-burning halogen lamp with them, the flash fire that resulted sent Dario Culeay to the hospital with burns to over 70 percent of his body, and less severely injured the other two.

If this could happen to Columbia University Medical Center, it could happen to you — and depending on the size of the explosion and fire, it could level your building. Read More »

Communal living has taken root in The Orion, a 550-unit condo on West 42nd Street in Manhattan. Residents gather in the clubroom and hobnob with neighbors over a community breakfast, or maybe on the sun deck, or in the party-room complex complete with a big-screen plasma TV, pool table and stereo system. Board members and unit owners mingle and bond. Read More »

Ever since utility markets became deregulated in 1999, New York State has offered incentives for customers to use energy service companies (ESCOs) rather than such traditional utilities as Con Edison or KeySpan. Optimally, using an ESCO saves you money right away because you pay sales tax only on the supply side, not the delivery portion, which is about a third of your total bill. And while you can research ESCOs yourself, many co-ops and condos now use energy brokers. "We find the better arrangement and oftentimes a cheaper arrangement," says Alan Kurzer, president of the brokerage Tradition Energy, who likens companies such as his to mortgage brokers. Read More »

Property manager Rosemary Paparo ran into trouble with a sanitation violation when an error on a handwritten ticket sent the violation to the wrong address. Instead of a $25 citation, a co-op Paparo managed got socked with a $300 default penalty. So Paparo is cheering the news that since late 2006, the New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY) been transitioning to handheld computers and portable printers designed to create violations with fewer errors. Read More »

Some won't stay open; others won't close properly. They're caked with multiple layers of paint. They rattle. They don't insulate well. They're ugly. Whatever the reason, many buildings with decades-old windows want or need to replace them — or, possibly, repair them. But who knows bupkus about windows, other than that they're made of glass and you look through them? Read More »

For 17 years, two major New York City oil delivery companies – Mystic Tank Lines and the T & S Trucking Corporation – have allegedly been cheating customers to the tune of $75 million. According to the FBI, those companies' drivers were under orders to withhold a portion of each delivery by programing their meters to shortchange customers by three percent. Read More »