Top 10 Co-op / Condo Quotes of 2010

"If this rule is implemented, we're screwed."

— Attorney and co-op advocate Stuart Saft, on a federal government proposal to restrict certain lenders  from making loans to buyers on properties that use flip taxes

"So, if I show up at an interview with the co-op board qualified financially, but if I'm dressed in a striped shirt and plaid skirt and they don't like my style of dress, even though I'm qualified, I can be denied. They don't need to tell me why."

— Liz English, president, Long Island Board of Realtors, arguing for transparency in the co-op admissions process

"Free speech in California doesn't stop at the condo complex gates."

— Linda Lye, attorney who won a case in which a condo association threatened $2,000-a-day fines on a resident who placed a political sign in his window during election season

"The defendant is accused of using his position of trust as a fiduciary agent to unjustly enrich himself by siphoning off hundreds of thousands of dollars in maintenance funds intended for building expenses. The defendant allegedly carried out his scheme like a Ponzi scam — commingling all of the funds into one account and hiding the thefts by paying the expenses of one client with the monies of other clients. His alleged conduct represents a betrayal of the confidence that the boards of each building had in him."

— Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announcing changes against former managing agent Michael Richter

"It's been a really important thing for me to instill [in] our shareholders that we're part of the Upper West Side, not just a little building here."

— Chris Hajian, condo-board president at The Boulevard, 2373 Broadway, New York City, on the need for co-ops and condos to consider themselves part of the community

"[P]eople wanted to know what to do when their boards and building management don't respond on issues like noise, pets, punitive fines and access to information. … They have issues and address them to the management or the board members and either don't get good answers, or don't get answers at all."

— Larry Simms, president, Alliance of Co-op and Condo Owners, on a raucous Queens forum convened by State Senator José Peralta and City Councilmember Danny Dromm to gauge co-op / condo owner dissatisfaction

"Fines don't control behavior, and they don't create harmony. If a problem is so great, you ought to deal with it instead of slapping a $25 fine on the guy."

— Attorney James Samson, on what he calls fines being used as a revenue-raising device

"It's in the name of safety and it's important. But, like everything else, sometimes things go a little too far. Building a skyscraper, that's one thing. Restoring a 15-story building is a little different."

— Gene Ferrara, president of JMA Consultants, sympathizing with boards and other about the Dept. of Buildings' crackdown on Local Law 11 building-façade inspections

"Finally, there was the staff. I tried to give them incentives to work harder by using the yearly bonuses as leverage; the size depended on how productive they were. And if they didn't like it — well, maybe this wasn't the right career path for them."

— Richard Kasnia, President, 140 East 56th Street Condominium, New York City, on motivating staff

"[A] condo unit-owner insisted on using her trampoline every night, starting around 10 p.m."

— Attorney Janet Oulousian Aronson, on her most bizarre co-op/condo noise complaint

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