New York's Cooperative and Condominium Community

Habitat Magazine Insider Guide

HABITAT

NEW YORK CITY

Neighbor-to-neighbor noise complaints are almost always tricky for co-op and condo boards. Ideally, boards have to find a way to resolve the problem without resorting to time-consuming and expensive litigation. Not all noise complaints, however, are created equal.

When the neighbor making noise is clomping up and down the apartment in heavy shoes at midnight, the solution can be as simple as enforcing existing rules. Most co-ops have a rule that a certain percentage of floor space outside of kitchens, closets, and bathrooms — typically 80 percent — must be covered with rugs, carpets, or other materials that reduce noise. When the neighbor making noise has made it a habit of playing loud music at 3 A.M., the board can also point to house rules and encourage compromise.

But what happens when the neighbor who's made the complaint works from home, and the neighbor making noise is simply practicing the piano (or other musical instrument)?

Early last week, we introduced you to two people who represent a new breed of board member. The first is Josh Fox, who has been on the board of the 206-unit condominium at 340 East 23rd Street for the entire seven-year life of the building, and president for the last three. The second is Michael Herzog, who is president of the 68-unit co-op at 257-291 Cedarhurst Avenue in Cedarhurst, and has been actively involved in the affairs of the garden apartment house for more than three decades. Fox and Herzog are take-charge guys who have made money-saving into an art form. But how? 

The stakes are high in the dog-eat-dog world of New York City real estate, and competition is fierce enough as it is. You still have to play by the rules, though; and according to the Corcoran Group, a reportedly well-funded real estate tech startup company isn't playing fair. According to the Daily News, the real estate behemoth says that startup Compass is "aggressively poaching its agents and stealing valuable information from its proprietary databases." Oh, yes. Corcoran is suing, saying Compass has "coordinated [a] multi-front assault of unfair competition on two of its most profitable offices over the last year." Corcoran also claims that "some of the defecting agents have hijacked its proprietary systems, including its 'Cadillac of listings databases.'" Both sides told the Daily News that they could not comment on ongoing litigation. Only in New York.

Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, most (if not all) New Yorkers can agree on one thing: the cost of living here is too high. And late last week, the Republican-led Senate did something about it. According to Capital, it approved legislation to set a two percent cap on property tax increases in the five boroughs, similar to the statewide two percent cap that exempts New York City. The bill was sponsored by Republican Senator Andrew Lanza of Staten Island, who said, "We're driving families away [at] unprecedented rates [with] unbridled increases in the property tax rate, especially when you add that together with the New York City income tax and the taxes that are imposed on just about everything that moves, breathes or exists in the city of New York."

A READER ASKS: I'm on the board of a midsize co-op in Queens. About six months ago, we started getting complaints from residents about one of the couples in the buildings, who have been shareholders for about a decade. The couple had been arguing loudly and it was becoming an issue — although police have never been called about domestic disturbances. Late last week, the wife let us know that she was filing for divorce. Although she was calm at first, she became very upset and told us that her soon-to-be ex-husband was moving out and we were to let the doorman know not to let him in. The rest of the board feels like she said this last part in the heat of the moment, but I think we should take the necessary steps to protect ourselves should this breakup turn nasty. Other than talk to our attorney, what else can we do, if anything at all? 

Tram-Thuy Nguyen, 37, died in Bellevue Hospital after being fatally struck by a sheet of plywood that was ripped away by high winds from a condo construction site where St. Vincent's Hospital used to be. The incident happened just days after plexiglass fell onto two parked cars from One57, and just a few weeks after a falling piece of drywall seriously injured a construction worker inside a luxury TriBeCa apartment building. Nguyen's death has been described as a freak accident, but Community Board 2 chair, Tobi Bergman, told DNAinfo that "there are indeed freak accidents in the world that may be unavoidable." The board is therefore reportedly calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Department of Buildings (DOB) to "create a program, similar to the Vision Zero traffic safety initiative, that would shine a light on construction accidents around the city." According to DNAinfo, the mayor's office did not directly address the resolution, but quoted de Blasio spokesperson Wiley Norvel in an e-mail saying: "There is no higher priority for the Department of Buildings, or this administration, than safety. That’s why [DOB] Commissioner [Rick] Chandler is spearheading changes that will improve compliance at building sites to protect workers and the public."

A defensive board might be tempted to write off an angry disruption at the annual meeting as an aberration — especially when a dissident claims that board members are getting paid off by someone. It shouldn't. The disruption may be a warning sign of a more serious problem and, like all warning signs, it is not meant to make a board stop everything it is doing but, rather, to slow down, take note, and investigate. 

A little more than a month ago, we told you about a two-year investigation, initiated by the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office's Rackets Bureau, which revealed evidence of approximately $450,000 worth of alleged bribes made in connection with more than 100 residential and commercial properties in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Eleven DOB employees; five Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) employees; and twenty-eight property managers, contractors, and expeditors were charged in 26 New York State Supreme Court indictments filed in New York and Kings Counties with crimes including bribery, bribe receiving, falsifying business records, tampering with public records, and official misconduct. 

When it comes to potential buyers, co-op boards have not only a fiduciary duty to vet prospective shareholders' financial viability, but also a leadership duty to try to ensure that new neighbors are neighborly. One of the tools boards use to help them determine whether a candidate is viable is the admissions package, which offers them a snapshot of the applicant. Here, we break down the admission package into its most basic parts so that boards can streamline their processes and avoid discriminating against anybody, even unintentionally, and so potential buyers know what to expect when navigating the complex world of New York City real estate. 

Right before Christmas last year, Freddie Mac announced a new loan program called Home Possible Advantage, which would let potential condo buyers borrow up to 97 percent of an apartment's value — a 3 percent down payment. Fannie Mae also has a similar program that allows qualified buyers to pony up a 3 percent down payment. But it looks like bad news for anyone trying to take advantage of these deals in New York. According to the Daily News, the average down payment in New York City is — hold onto your hats — nearly $350K. "This was supposed to be the year of millennials and first-time homebuyers," writes the Daily News, but "low down payment loans accounted for just 7% of all home purchases in the top 25 U.S. housing markets by price, including New York, in 2014, according to a new report [compiled by RealtyTrac]. The average down payment for homes in those markets was $138,547, or 24% of the total purchase price." That's just the way it is in high-priced markets. A first-time buyer's best bet for a low down payment: Nashville, Philadelphia, Des Moines, Little Rock and Columbus, or Ohio, according to RealtyTrac's report. That's one hell of a commute. 

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