Con Edison seems to be all over the news this week. On April 29, workers responded to a small fire at the Acropolis Gardens co-op. After having discovered "unauthorized piping," they shut the gas off in 8 of the 16 buildings making up the development, which spans from 33rd to 35th streets between Ditmars Boulevard and 21st Avenue. According to DNAinfo, tenants are still waiting for service to be restored and have been without cooking gas or hot water all this time. A spokesperson for the utility company told DNAinfo that "the management company must complete plumbing work and make the buildings safe before [it] can restore service." The management company, in turn, is blaming Con Edison, "saying the company shut off the gas after mistaking a valve that was installed two years ago for a recent installation." Some of the frustrated tenants seem to be pointing the finger at the management company, Metropolitan Pacific Properties. The article reports that "others in the buildings [say] this isn't the first time Acropolis Gardens has been without heat and hot water. Another complained about broken intercom systems and trash piling up in the alleys between buildings." It even quotes one tenant as claiming, outright, that the building is "terribly managed." It's a long time to be without heat and hot water, considering how much money building residents pay in maintenance fees alone — not to mention that the long interruption in service is not due to a gas leak.
Photo by Scott Bintner for Property Shark
September 24, 2014
Kim Velsey in The New York Observer writes, quite entertainingly, of the travails facing diplomats seeking co-op or condo housing in New York. At many places it's "Diplomats Need Not Apply," as boards worry about diplomatic immunity, security details, endless sign-offs from the State Department and others, and, of course, the dreaded scourge of cocktail parties. Not to mention: You approve one diplomat, there's a coup, now you've got a whole new neighbor to contend with. We learn that while the UK and New Zealand have been given the red carpet, poor France got turned down at River House and Qatar had to buy a townhouse. (We know ... big hardship.) Attorney Steven Wagner offers an amusing anecdote about a bad diplomat in Astoria, Queens. And you don't even want to know what diplomats from poor countries have to contend with. Two words: studio apartment.
Written by Jennifer V. Hughes on August 29, 2013
For a recent hallway renovation at an Upper East Side co-op, the plan was to remove old wallpaper and replace worn carpeting. But in the process, remembers Marion Preston, former board treasurer of the 111-unit co-op, the previous board had ordered a huge supply of excess wallpaper and carpet. "They had extra of everything just in case, but no one ever used it or needed it," Preston says. "For our job, we had all-new material, so we obviously didn't need this anymore. I couldn't bear to just toss it out. It was still in its original packaging." So what to do?
Written by Bill Morris on August 28, 2012
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.
Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, condo-owners don't want a visit from St. Vincent, the ex-wife of the Intuit software chairman loses out in a co-op sale, and the government wants home appraisals to be more transparent. And co-op board members can see one of their own taking the next step and running for office.
...crazy co-op neighbors, real estate license violations are now available online and condos are cool in Queens. And for co-op boards and condo associations, we've news of new tax-reform bills in Albany and more.
Read all the latest co-op / condo news for buyers, sellers and board members in Habitat's weekly Monday News Roundup. Also included: Permanent archival links. If a link ever goes dead, you'll still be able to read the backup at WebCitation.org.