CO-OP/CONDO BUYERS

A co-op board client had an issue regarding radiator leaks. Under the proprietary lease, the cooperative was responsible for maintaining and repairing all pipes and other utility conduits located inside the walls. Additionally, I noted that most cooperatives also take responsibility for the repair or replacement of any radiators located inside apartments since they are usually considered to be standard building equipment. Accordingly, I advised the co-op board that it has the responsibility to maintain and repair the radiator.

However, I pointed out that this responsibility does not automatically make the cooperative responsible for paying for repairs to apartment interiors and furnishings that may be damaged by a leaky radiator valve.

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On March 19, 2007, Bianca Razzano had an admissions interview with April Anderson, co-president of the co-op board of Woodstock Tower at 320 East 42nd Street in Manhattan's Murray Hill neighborhood. The prospective buyer of one-bedroom apartment #2009 in the 459-unit, 32-story building said on e they discussed was the no-sublet policy. Razzano said she explained there was a possibility she might need to sublet her apartment due to temporary relocation for work, and Anderson, she claims, told her the policy was flexible if someone had a financial hardship due to unemployment, ill health or a work need outside New York City.

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Our client was a new condominium board in a recently constructed building that suffered from serious Local Law 11 problems arising from defective construction. We counseled the board to retain an engineer to determine the cause of the cracking in the building’s exterior façade bricks. The cause was determined to be improper construction, contrary to filed building plans, which put extra stresses on bricks. Now, once you find that out, what do you do?

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A co-op board learned that a convicted sex offender (and son of a former board president) had moved into the building after being evicted at his former residence. The board wrestled with the issues of the extent to which the board was obligated to inform the building’s other residents, balancing the interests of all other residents against the privacy interests of the individual and his father. 

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Theodore Xenakis bought shares of 50 Sutton Place South Owners Corp. and was the proprietary lessee of Apartment 6J. In August 1980, he purported to transfer the shares and assign the lease to Cia. Naviera Financiera Aries, a Panamanian corporation. Xenakis never told that co-op board he had transferred the shares and lease.

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Being a co-op or condo board member is not for the faint of heart, particularly these days. Virtually all volunteer boards face a number of tough decisions, such as whether to pursue an owner for an assessment balance due, even though his home is foreclosed. And, of course, board members have pressures of their own, such as trying to balance you co-op or condominium budget while worrying about your 2009 college grad who still lives at home working the want ads.

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Condo and co-op boards and property managers should be aware that homeowners do have the right — subject to restrictions — to have service, companion and therapy animals, even when they violate co-op / condo pet restrictions. Yet boards have certain rights as well, including the right to demand medical proof that such an animal is needed.

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As Stephen Budow sees it, there are two kinds of people in this world. One believes a person's home is his or her castle, sacred and inviolable. The other believes the health, comfort, and safety of a person's neighbors are far more important than the sanctity of any castle. Budow, an attorney who has spent the past decade as president of a 65-unit Yorkville condo, used to be the former type. But that began to change about three years ago.

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A Manhattan lingerie model on Wednesday sued her condominium over what she claims is mold from a nearly two-year-old water leak that neither the condo board nor the management company has satisfactorily addressed, and that has forced her to move out of her luxury apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood.

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Don Bilodeau, board president of a 72-unit condo in Astoria, Queens, started hearing two kinds of complaints about cigarette smoke shortly after he moved into the building in 2007. The first was about people smoking in common areas, which is forbidden in the bylaws. The second was about people smoking so heavily inside their apartments that the smoke was leaking into common areas.

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