does anyone know if this is illegal?
Our monthly bills usually list late fees as a separate line-item: 'late
charge'.
If this portion of the bill remains unpaid into a second or third
month it generally continues to be listed separately from the monthly
"maintenance" portion.
Recently, there was a bill where a late fee (in dispute) appeared
initially on the first month as a "late charge" but then appeared on
the second month listed as "Maintenance." This seems irregular and
possibly inappropriate. Can you roll a late fee like this ?
We are looking for an honest, reputable, and competent live-in Super. Along with overseeing the (small) staff, this is a hands on job.
We are a 100 unit CoOp on the East side of NY. We were very happy with our last Super, who left on very good terms, for a bigger job.
Our MangAgent indicates that there is a shortage of good, qualified supers in NYC. But, that was what we were told last time, and our last Super proved them wrong.
Any referrals would be appriciated.
Thank you,,, HG
We have space in the basement for storage for some (not all) of the bicycles used/owned by shareholders. I'd be interested in hearing how other buildings manage this amenity -- including, among other things, who gets to store his/her bike there, for how long, is there a fee or is it free, how do you handle requests for storage that cannot be accommodated, what kind of bike racks do you use and how well do they work.
In the current economic environment, what are the recommended vehicles in which to have your reserve fund invested?
I am looking for an honest, reputable, and competent managing agent. Any referrals.
GM
anyone heard of this>? our rather horrible managing agent charged a late fee on an unpaid late fee - it seems wrong. In addition, the now term this "maintenence" on the bill and are not using the term late fee as they did before. something is not right.
Basic procedural question here.
I'm under the impression that in most co-ops, the counsel and accountant are hired by the board and are answerable to the board, rather than to the management company. The management company usually has no role in hiring a co-op's counsel or accountant.
Is that indeed the case?
If so, why?
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Habitat Magazine should develop a methodology to allow the annual Management Survey to become a survey of boards that employ the various management companies. At the moment these surveys are of Management and are of no use to boards in evaluating these companies. In many industries, surveys are of users of a service, not the providers of the service.
QUESTION for board members: Would you agree that the current survey is not very useful, except for marketing purposes of Management Companies, and that a more useful survey would be one in which boards were surveyed on the service provided??????
Does anyone know of a source for what the average maintenance increase is per year for co-ops in NYC? Also, is there a source (such as a Habitat magazine survey of its subscribers) for how often, on average, co-ops raise the maintenance (e.g., 20% of co-ops have raised their maintenance every 3 years over the last 10 years)? I realize that each building's situation is different, but we have many new shareholders in our building who think it is irresponsible to raise the maintenance 3% a year. I would like to provide them with some 'benchmark' data, if they (data) exist. Thanks.
Are you ready, we are not?
A resident has indicated a plan to buy an electric car
The resident would like the convenience of an outlet in his assigned parking space (indoors).
For reference, we have a two level (both indoor) parking garage, really enclosed, so it is not an open deck. We can accommodate about 300 vehicles per level.
Can we provide an outlet? Sure, but as there are no outlets now in the garage, an electrician would need to run conduits from our electrical switch room, about 250 feet. Then we would need to install a circuit breaker panel and branch circuits. Yes, I believe we need to plan for more than one outlet as no doubt the usage will grow.
In my view, this is not an inexpensive provisioning activity. And, yes, I’ll be pricing the feeder circuit with our electrician, just to have a ballpark number.
But here’s another question. How do we charge the resident for the electricity used? The electrical utility does not wish to install individual meters, which of course would solve our problem. On the other hand, installing individual meters certainly would be a complex undertaking.
Yes, if we proceed, we would need to relocate the parking areas assigned to the vehicles of some residents, as it would be costly and impractical to “wire” a checkerboard pattern of parking spaces.
We certainly do not wish to incur a huge administrative burden and basically, we would not know where to begin. While it may be possible to “meter” the one branch circuit, the next challenge is equitable apportionment of the charges.
Most importantly, residents without the need for electrical outlets must not be taxed with the costs attendant to a few. On the other hand, the first resident should not be saddled with the full cost, but this could be a daunting hurdle.
And of course if we proceed, there will need to be house rules, waivers (safety regulations), etc.
And what about visitors, do they avail themselves of the power outlet assigned to a resident?
There’s more, but you no doubt have a soupçon herein.
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how about the statement below? (from an article) and what would the current interest rate be?
Care must be given, however, to ensure that the proprietary lease authorizes those particular charges, otherwise the co-op opens itself up to counter-claims by the shareholder and for his or her legal fees, if the shareholder is successful.
The most common abuse by co-ops is the inclusion of cumulative late charges, such as $25 the first month, $50 the second month, $75 the third month and so on.
This type of late charge structure violates not only most proprietary leases (which provide that late fees can only be charged equal to the maximum legal rate of interest), but also violates usury laws. Since the purpose of the rent demand, or "Notice to Cure," is to afford the shareholder the opportunity to determine the claim’s accuracy, only those charges which are legal and permissible should be included in the notice.
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