LONG ISLAND

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, a Long Island co-op struggle to finance common-area repair, not covered by FEMA, after superstorm Sandy; a condo super in Greenpoint risks blowing the place up; and rich folk got dem pied-à-terre blues. For co-op and condo boards, we've two tales of illegal hoteling — both with hilarious, albeit nefarious, behavior by the apartment owners. Plus, the latest amenity: onsite well-being programs.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, FEMA extends the filing deadline for homeowners, including co-op shareholders and condo unit-owners, applying for grants, some nervous neighbors at a co-op jump to conclusions, and a condo-owner has an overhead problem in the form of a heavy cell-phone tower. Plus, for co-op and condo boards, the tax-abatement renewal bill has passed the New York State Senate. Now will it get through the Assembly?

In the terrible aftermath of superstorm Sandy, co-op and condo boards and residents found themselves struggling with both immediate needs and longer-term woes. With lobbies, basements and other common areas flooded and in need of repair and reconstruction, with electrical panels destroyed and with buildings not collecting maintenance or common charges from uninhabitable apartments, many boards are understandably overwhelmed. But federal help is available. Through conversations with government agencies and others, Habitat is here to you get through a flood of misinformation.

The president of a roughly 160-unit Long Island co-op complex is incredulous. “There’s a website where you can buy a kit that ‘certifies’ your dog as a companion dog. It comes with an ID, looks very official, it has a little vest for the dog so it mirrors a service dog” like trained seeing-eye dogs. “So you call up, say I’d like to get my pet certified, fill out the form, send in the check. Do I need documentation? ‘No.’ So anyone can do it? ‘Yeah.’”

When the wind and rain of Hurricane Irene whipped across the Ocean Harbor View Apartments, a 56-unit co-op in Freeport, New York, on August 28, 2011, the massive storm did more than get the property wet: it flooded the laundry room and damaged three out of the eight machines within. It was not long afterwards that the seven-person board of the cooperative — located at 494 South Ocean Avenue and built in 1950 — decided it was time to turn a disaster into an opportunity. The room would be completely renovated.

The savings can be significant. Last fall, Cooper Square Realty, which manages 600 properties, pooled 250 of them to buy electricity from an electricity service company. So, instead of buying 500 kwh of electricity for a single building, the company shopped for 130 million kwh. Individual properties saved between 9 and 20 percent on electricity costs.

"You get a better pricing structure because of the volume," says Cooper Square president Dan Wurtzel. His firm hopes to eventually bring all its managed properties into the new plan.

Buying in bulk also works for capital improvements. Five years ago, Fairfield Properties offered six of its properties the opportunity to convert to natural gas. By bundling the projects together, the company reduced the upgrade costs. The five properties that agreed to the offer are each saving about $100,000 a year on heating costs, says Alvin Wasserman, director of Fairfield.

Last January, Villas on the Bay, a 42-unit condominium in East Moriches, Long Island, switched to Fairfield Properties, a larger property manager than the one it formerly had. The 30-year-old community had capital improvements on the horizon and thought Fairfield could get them better prices.

Underneath the Stewart Franklin Condominium, a 48-unit cond-op on Long Island, big changes are brewing. The board there has undertaken a complete overhaul of the boiler room, tearing out its two old boilers and installing a modern heating and hot water system. It's a project that's slated to last all summer and wrap up just in time for the cold to set in.

It is almost a mantra with Fred Rudd, the president of Rudd Realty. "You must have a balanced budget," he says firmly, noting that many co-op boards and condo associations make the mistake of trying to balance the budget by raiding the reserves. "Because of that, when it comes to a rainy day, they don't have adequate funds to deal with the problems as they arise."

The Blair House – at least its lobby and hallways – had possibly seen better days, but it was hard to tell. “Dark and dreary” is how one observer described them, with decades-old furniture crowding the lobby and dimly lit bulbs illuminating the long hallways at the 42-unit Great Neck, Long Island, co-op. “We felt it was time for a change,” recalls Naomi Schurr, a board member and chair of the five-person lobby committee. A refinancing provided the money and a shareholder who had recently redesigned her apartment provided the savior: Tina Tilzer, president of Art & Interiors, a redesign firm.