You will need to contact a lawyer for a solid answer however I have heard that 5 years is the limit for the sponsor to turn over to shareholders control of the board.

OUr building has a substandard exterminator who makes monthly visits. I am also interested in finding a better regular company.

I've had positive experiences with both Metro Pest and Magic Exterminating for bed bugs within the past month.

This is what we recently advised our shareholders (and rental tenants):

General Liability $100,000
Property Damage $50,000
Apartment Contents $50,000 (suggested, depending on value of personal property)

We are a 100-unit co-op in Forest Hills, Queens.

WE suggest a minimum of $300,000 Personal Liability. The additional premiium is nominal.

I think that a 100k is a bit to little because is there is gonna be a huge law suit against the tenant, the tenants insurance company will just pay out the 100k and the rest will go against the associations insurance vs. if the tenant carries at least 300k liability, the tenants insurance company will fight it in court or make a settlement.

We also mandate 'loss assessment' coverage of between $10k to $25k (studio to 2 bedroom) and issue a fine of $250 for non-compliance.

300k is the minimum, average should be 500k

Although I'm not an attorney, shares in a co-op are considered personal property, not real estate so I expect they should be listed as such.

Keep in mind that while the shares may be left to an heir, the right to occupy the apartment does not necessarily automatically transfer. Read your proprietary lease and check with your attorney to avoid any legal roadblocks or disappointment. Depending on who the heir is, the corporation may still have the right to review, interview, and potentially reject a named heir.

House rules don't spell out procedures for a board to follow if anyone violates a house rule. They are only the rules everyone must follow, but they can state that penalties or fines may be applied.

This year we notified all our SHs by letter that, by board resolution, a $250 fine was established for violation of any house rule. It got to a point where too many people were ignoring too many rules. We revised page 1 of the house rules to include a statement that "a fine/penalty as may exist by notice from the apartment corporation applies for violation or breach of any house rule."

In our letter to SHs we first reminded them that non-compliance with the house rules is a breach of the Proprietary Lease. But we also said that a resident will only receive notice for non-compliance with a house rule for a first incident but the fine will be incurred if the incident occurs more than once. We added that we do not want residents to be burdened with unnecessary charges and we asked for their cooperation in adhering to the house rules for their benefit and that of all their neighbors.

Since we established the fine and since it's $250 which is no small change, we've had many fewer violations of house rules.

We would love to be able to charge some sort of fine for non-compliance of House Rules. However, we are under the impression that our Prop. Lease does not give us the power to levy fines and that doing so would require shareholder approval. Does anyone know where in the PL the wording for fines can be found? Or if the Board can pass a resolution like BP has done? Thank you.

Our attorney told us our PL did not give us the power to levy fines, and to do so would require a Shareholder vote.

However, the Board does have the ability to levy administrative costs associated with infractions of House Rules.

Thanks, RLM. Can you give a ballpark figure of what your administrative costs are for a House Rule infraction?

Hi, Cynosure--

Not sure what you mean by "for sample use only for viewing." Please feel free to contact me at flovece@habitatmag.com, and I'll try to help.

Our Co Op is in the process of building our own web site purely for the function of Newsletters; information of upcoming or ongoing projects in the building;community blog, etc.. Not needing to be elaborate Thank you for your response, it is appreciated.

You can use wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org), which is a free and open source software to building community based websites. i have used this to develop http://www.burnsstreet.com as an example.

Custom themes for wordpress that are relatively cheap and easy to modify can be found at http://www.themeforest.net/category/wordpress

Shout out to our intrepid Mr. Manager blogger, Mark Levine!

You might also want to see our free online article "Getting a Co-op Exclusive Web-Site Name: How to Fly the 'Coop'" at
http://habitatmag.com/publication_content/2009_june/web_exclusives/getting_a_co_op_exclusive_web_site_name_how_to_fly_the_coop

It includes links to our Building Web-Aps article, and additionally lists two print-magazine articles on the subject, available in the Habitat Archive.

Try ours:
http://www.thepinehurst.org

Send an e-mail from the site if you have questions! (Or post them here.)

www.naborsapts.org

We're a small coop (under 50 units) and I set a website up for us using Google Web and Google Groups. The main site has the building documents, policies, contact information and can't be changed by users. There's a linked site that is for discussions about building topics: want more storage cages, something to sell, how to recycle...etc. Only took about half a day to get the basic sites, both of them, set up. The Google platform is very intuitive. It's also easy to maintain and you can upload documents and photos. For a small building, I'd recommend it.

I think what you will find is that contractors are generally more available for these projects and will likely be somewhat more flexible in their pricing. Like all of us, they have obligations that they must meet regardless of the economy, so while you may get a modest discount that you would not have received a year ago, you may find that it is not providing the "great prices" that your board is hoping for. On the other hand, you will likely get a faster start time, fewer delays during the project, and improved service afterward.

Most of their costs are in materials and labor which to a great extent are out of their control. Labor costs may not rising as quickly these days but they are not going down, particularly if you are engaging in union work.

Like you said yourself, costs go up in time regardless, so waiting for two or three years will only result in a more expensive project. We are in the middle of a major elevator modernization project. Times are tight and the work could have waited for two or three years, but we knew the work had to be done and we also knew that it was not going to get cheaper later. Bottom line, if you have the funds available and the project is essential, now is the time.

If you have a roof replacement project upcomin please look at our website/references you will see we are more than qualified and are competative, however we do not skimp on quality and yes we do have certain obligations that we have to meet and certain standrads that we consistantly maintain. Good luck

www.aparestoration.com

We just recently rid ourselves of the union, co-op in Queens.

Our lawyer knew the process and did a great job.

We used services of
Matthew Persanis
670 White Plains Rd. Suite 321
Scarsale, NY 10583
mp@elefantepersanis.com

Unions have been about the only way working people have been able to make anything other than a subsistence wage in this country.

And in the only Westernized nation without national health care, the social contract is that private enterprise would fill that role, in exchange for not being taxed at European levels. Yet private enterprise largely has not kept its end of the bargain, except when unions have negotiated for that.

Co-ops spend money on new lobbies, expensive, union-busting lawyers, and other suh things, and yet won't pay workers a living wage and offer proper benefits. Shame on you. Unless your co-op is on the verge of bankruptcy - in which case the union can negotiate with givebacks, and countless unions, such as in the airline industry have done - then you are morally bankrupt.

And I especially like how you capitalize "THE UNION" as if it were some horrible monster. That betrays your anti-worker, right-wing stance like nothing else.

You know, management bands together in solidarity, and shares the cost and burden of hiring attorneys, etc. Why shouldn't workers have the same right or organize? You are sickening.

Thank you Anonymous_is it possible that you give me some idea of the approx monetary cost_without disclosing who you are or your whereabouts other than Queens.

As you may note it took 2 weeks for a response, which I am sure it is a difficult subject to pose.

Did the process take long and what were the major impeding obstacles or objects that caused any hinderance if any?.

Again, I thank for sharing your experience.

I would like to know how the staff reacted to this move? How is their pension and health benefits going to get paid. What happens to the staff member who now has to freeze his union book, since he is working in a non-union building!!!

Thanks for the information. We will contact them, and see if they can assist us with ridding 32bj

I do not see anything incorrect about getting out of the union - In our coop we have a Super who does nothing and is costing us a massive amount of money - not only does he do nothng but he is calling outside vendors to do simple repairs like fixing leaking faucets and toilets and putting in light bulbs all part of his duties - Yet to get rid of him he wants us to buy him out - He is also not physically able to do these things so if you can get out of the union I say do it - I also understand that the union is trying to back charge buildings for benefits, etc for persons employed who were part time and did nothing and these charges are massive - so exactly what is the benefit of having a union - and then also there would be no strikes

Your knee-jerk anti-union reactionism is appalling. You know very well there are arbitration proceedings available, and supers have been known to have been fired after such proceedings.

What's the catch? You have to prove your allegations. If the allegations are true, that shouldn't be a problem. If your super is acting in violation of the union contract, then contact the RAB, which is the management signatory of the 32 B/J contract. You're deliberately not exploring the available options, out of anti-union prejudice.

Go read some history -- see what it was like for workers before unions. Learn about "company stores" and sweatshops and all the ordinary men and women killed -- actually, literally killed by police and company mercenaries -- for wanting decent working conditions

I am quite aware of union history - however what they did in the beginning changed quite a long time ago, and definitely not for the better - what about our auto industry, newspapers, steel industry etc -
If we have the options for the RAB that is well and good but apparently most our board is not availing themselves of that choice - which leaves the coop in a very difficult position

Blaming the unions for the historical changes to our auto industry (the Japanese are unionized and the auto industry there flourishes), the newspaper industry (crumbling due to free content on the Internet and not unions) and the steel industry (too many changes in manufacturing and materials-use to mention) is a straw dog.

Why not look to the financial industry, where mismanagement and the taking of millions and millions of dollars in bonuses for producing nothing, and where there ARE no unions, has created a domino effect on everyone.

Do you really think unionized police officers, teachers, etc., are living like lawyers and CEOs? The vast majority make an adequate living, but certainly aren't living high on the hog.

I'm sorry, but the idea of organizing for collective bargaining -- as opposed to a each single worker trying to "negotiate" against an entire company with all its resources -- in order to have a middle-class existence, health care and a couple of weeks vacation a year -- as opposed to slaving away 60-80 hours a week, having HMO "coverage" that fights you for every prescription, and being fired for any reason or no reason, probably like many white-collar workers you know -- is only fair and just.

That the rest of your board refuses to go into arbitration, almost certainly violating the union contract, is unconscionable. If you can get a lawyer to twist the law and find some loophole, well, good for you. You're only making things harder on the rest of the world.

By the way, I found this article in Habitat about union and management working together in a particularly challenging situation. Why not read it and get more facts before going down this road?

Union No More
July / August 2006 Hotline
http://www.habitatmag.com/archive/add_to_cart.php?article_id=3457

An unusual win-win-win scenario among workers, the union, and a co-op that
decided to reduce its number of union maintenance staff.

If your Resident Manager is "Doing Nothing" you don't get rid of the union! You get on Managements back to draw the line with the staff. If they don't get it straighten out then you get another management company!

Resident Manager in NYC

Once in a great while when I think it might be a good idea to look back into the residential side of this business I first stop by Habitat. Thanks for posting this, it made me happy to be on the commercial side of the business. How easy it is to forget the yahoos that wake up with great ideas like ridding the union and self management. I would ask the poster how he would enjoy having a volunteer come into his office and slashing his health, retirement, and medical benefits.

If your building has union staff they have a contract, breaking this contract, harassing workers, and acting out of ignorance will only serve to realize additional expense to neighbors.

If your building is so cash strapped that they can not keep union staff it is either time to move or consider an increase in your monthly maintenance.

i know our managing agent did this in our building a few years ago. You can contact Harry at 212-582-9080. I don't know if he does this for anyone or for only the buildings they manage.