MANHATTAN

Mortgages almost always come with prepayment penalties. Otherwise, borrowers and lenders would both be at the mercy of each others’ whims, borrowers cashing in when rates are low, or lenders demanding repayment when they are high. Sometimes, however, interest rates are so low that the prepayment penalty is very small when compared to future savings. That’s when you want to refinance. Castle Village, for example, made the hard choice and came out ahead.

Shelly Kupper is an agent for change in his building, 304 West 75th Street. The 74-year-old dentist speaks emphatically and proudly about the cooperative, which he says has substantially changed since he first moved in 24 years ago. As president of the seven-member board since 1994, Kupper rules benignly but firmly. The co-op's projects over the years have included redoing the lobby, converting the elevator from manned to automatic and adding a gym, storage lockers and a bike room.

Updated 3:20 p.m. — A federal appeals court has granted a victory to shareholders of the Castle Village co-op in Manhattan, reversing a lower court's ruling that had disallowed residents from claiming assessments as tax-deductible casualty losses following a 2005 landslide that had devastated the property. The ruling has far-reaching implications for co-ops that suffer catastrophic damage to common areas, and subsequently level shareholder assessments for rebuilding, 

Co-ops may still be less expensive than condos, but that doesn't mean that costs aren't going up. In the last year, Brooklyn co-op prices skyrocketed 71 percent; Manhattan prices rose as well, but only 34 percent. According to DNAinfo, the reason for the price increase is actually the unattainable prices of condos in New York City. Compared to condos, co-ops are currently more competitive, particularly in Brooklyn, where units are more scarce – although, one expert said that available units are up everywhere, as long as buyers are willing to compromise. 

Once a week, we'll go behind the scenes at a co-op or condo who has been with the same management company for decades. Want more management marriages? Check out Habitat's upcoming July/August print issue! 

The building could be called the Phoenix, it's recreated itself so many times. "And we've been able to grow with them," property manager Paul Brensilber says of the board and the building, a 206-unit co-op at 333 East 14th Street that his company has managed since 1989. Jean Verrico has been on and off the board, Stuyvesant Owners, Inc., from the beginning; currently the vice president, she remembers how the co-op went through two management firms — one large, white-glove operation that proved inept, and a smaller shop that reportedly mismanaged money — before hooking up with Brensilber, the principal at Jordan Cooper & Associates.

After securing a low-interest from New York City's Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) in 2006, the co-op board saw to installation of a new roof, boiler, elevator, and windows, as well as common-area renovation and other repairs. Now it had to start repaying that loan and back bills. And that's when the real estate market collapsed.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents — but especially boards this week. A new condo in Brooklyn enhances its appeal and market value by supporting an adjacent park. A notorious Airbnb hotelier takes a fall. Learn what amenities add a lot to the cost of maintaining a co-op or condo building, and which don't. And find who NYSERDA calls New York City's top four engineering firms in helping buildings achieve energy-efficiency. Plus: Condo fire on Staten Island, tips for acing your co-op board admission interview, and the seller of a co-op in the "Ghostbusters building" (above) doesn't get slimed on the price.

A BUYER ASKS: Our co-op board documented hundreds of instances of a shareholder and his family doing unspeakable things in the hallways and elevators. Urinating? Hah! As if that were the only way they were relieving themselves in public! Security cameras showed them selling drugs, having sex in the stairwells, you name it. We sent notices and finally had the shareholder appear at a meeting to determine whether to evict him under a Pullman action. He really had no defense for his family's behavior, and so the board voted unanimously to terminate the lease. But they won't leave! What happens now?

Paul Morejon didn’t become board president of his 133-unit Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) co-op in Harlem because he had an agenda, or wanted to help further a cause, or any of the myriad “standard” reasons a person joins a board. Instead, he fell into it.

“I was asked to serve as secretary, even though I had no experience taking meeting minutes or preparing agendas,” he says.  “I’m actually a web and social media developer and a photographer. I had to catch on quickly. The learning curve has been steep.”

It was a prescription for disaster, with unlimited refills. The property manager at this Washington Heights co-op was also a shareholder and president of the board of directors. Family members were on the building's staff. Rent and maintenance payments in the limited-equity Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) co-op were collected erratically. Capital improvements were postponed or overlooked. Taxes and water bills went unpaid.

Although few shareholders knew it, their building was fast approaching foreclosure.