Written by Bill Morris on September 30, 2015
When a Housing & Development Finance Corporation co-op on Manhattan's Upper West Side learned that its next-door neighbors planned to add three stories to its building — moving not only upward but also outward — the co-op board decided to bring in some heavy artillery. The board hired both a structural engineer and C. Jaye Berger, a Manhattan lawyer who specializes in co-op and condo construction law.
Smart move.
Written by Tom Soter on September 29, 2015
Once a building determines it qualifies, the New York State Homeowners Credit is then allocated among the shareholders or unit-owners of the building based on their ownership percentage. For example, if you have 20 shareholders in a co-op and each of them owns five percent of the shares in the corporation, then each of those individual shareholders would get an allocation of five percent of $200,000.
There is more to consider.
Written by Tom Soter on September 22, 2015
The New York State Homeowners Credit is a law that became effective in 2009 and earns eligible tenant-shareholders and unit-owners of co-op and condo apartments tax credits for doing repairs to the exterior and interior of the building. When the homeowners tax credit was first being developed, Murray Gould, principal in Port City Preservation, a company that assists buildings in getting tax credits, was among those pushing to include co-ops and condos. "I felt they should have equal footing with the classic single-family historic house," he says now. Once it passed, the new law changed the definition of a historic home to include buildings that just happened to be condominiums or cooperatives. "In New York State, you earn a 20 percent credit for the work that is done: a dollar for dollar offset against [your] tax liability," says Gould.
Written by Tom Soter on September 09, 2015
Beware: when a buyer closes on an apartment sale at a co-op — technically the transfer of shares from one party to the other — some banks are overreaching. They're requesting that they be listed as "additional insured" on the co-op corporation's insurance. Not only is this wrong, it could also create problems for the housing co-op in the future.
Written by Richard Siegler and Dale J. Degenshein on September 28, 2015
A co-op board decided to auction off common area space to the highest bidder. When the bids came in, the board decided to have shareholders bid again. When those bids were received, the co-op re-evaluated, and decided it was better served if the board rented the space, as it had been doing. When the board announced that it would not sell, did the bidding shareholders have a cause of action? Did the answer change if one of the renters was a board member? What if the plaintiffs alleged they had an acrimonious relationship with the board? These were the issues addressed by the court in Newman v. 911 Alwyn Owners Corp.
Written by Frank Lovece on September 25, 2015
If, after all the considerations of legal, aesthetic, and other issues, a board decides that an enclosed balcony has to come down and not go back up — what then?
"The owner will scream and moan and say, 'How dare you?' and offer 17 reasons not to do it," Kenneth Jacobs, a partner in the law firm Smith, Buss & Jacobs warns. Among the arguments, he says: "It was there when I bought it. There's no alteration agreement, so how do you know the co-op/condo didn't install this? You're the one who has to make the structural repair" — which is true — "so, therefore, you've assumed all the responsibility for repairing and replacing anything I built" — which is not true except for something "like an earthquake, because that would be a casualty, and casualty losses differ from repair and maintenance."
Written by Frank Lovece on September 23, 2015
The enclosures could jeopardize your floor area ratio. If an enclosure is a certified room it brings up a subtle issue boards must consider: does an enclosed balcony change your building's floor area ratio (FAR) (a measure of your building's maximum allowable use)?
Written by Bill Morris on September 21, 2015
Last week, we saw how a five-story, 19th-century tenement in Manhattan settled an inch and a half as a result of work on the new nine-story luxury condominium being constructed next door.
Steel "raker" beams were put in place to support the tenement's wall, cosmetic repairs were made to exterior cracks on the street side of the building so that costly sidewalk sheds would not have to be erected, and screw jacks supported the cracked basement joists. Eventually, work resumed, and the underpinning was completed in May without further incident.
Permanent repairs — to damaged windows, doors, walls, and joists — will be addressed once the major construction work is complete. "This," says Christine Hobson, a structural engineer with RAND Engineering & Architecture, "is the worst scenario I've ever dealt with."
Written by Bill Morris on September 14, 2015
Last week, we brought you the story of a new nine-story luxury condominium building being constructed next to a five-story, 19th-century tenement in Manhattan. It provides a concise case study of what boards need to do and what they need to avoid — as well as the kinds of surprises they should expect — when an adjacent lot becomes a construction site. The board at the tenement decided that, rather than try to fight the inevitable, they would instead establish an amicable working relationship with the developer. But even then they had to prepare for the unknowns ahead.
Written by Frank Lovece on September 18, 2015
Enclosures may need to come down for legal reasons. Many enclosures were installed before there were any regulations in place. And so throughout the city, enclosures went up in a variety of ways: some with both Department of Buildings (DOB) permits and board approval, some with just one or the other, and some with neither. And now each presents boards with a different scenario.