We launched a video interview series that brings an interesting and informative twist to the managers and operators of multifamily buildings. Many of the experts in our interview series are a little unusual and not as often talked about. This includes, but is not limited to new or “fairly new” laws, new services, and services and vendors that we find interesting.

Top 4 Tips

One of the disincentives that keeps qualified people from joining their building’s board is the demand on board member’s time. Work in between meeting can generally be done at your discretion, but the meetings themselves are at a set time and day, and can often be long, contentious, drawn out and just plain borrrr-iiiing.

Now that heating season is nearly over (trust me! It really is!), you are aware of all the problems that arose this year. You might even have had some occasional outage, always on the coldest day of course. Well, believe it or not, before you start planning for summer- start planning for next winter! That’s right, winter preparations begin now. There are a few reasons for this:

You may be new to your board and not know where to begin, or a returning board member who feels that you are not contributing enough because you don’t know what to do. Well, then this is your lucky day, because we are going to tell you about not one, not two, but 5ive(!) excellent resources for all condo and coop board members!

As co-op and condo board consultants, we speak with board members on a regular basis. And if we had a nickel for every time we hear – “But you don’t understand, our building is different!”, we would have had a lot of nickels. So we felt that it would be appropriate to share all those “special” situations so that for all the board members out there, you can see that you are not alone. Here are the top 5 “special situations that we see over and over again:

Correcting what many consider an egregious mistake, congress changed course and made cooperative apartment buildings eligible for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loans in the recently approved second go-round called the Economic Aid Act of 2020. Unfortunately, condominiums and HOAs are still not covered, but including co-ops is at least a small step in the right direction.

New York City Co-op and Condo management is as efficient as its team members. With the many layers of management, it is easy to see that inefficiencies can develop. Being aware of why Co-ops and Condos are inefficient is fundamental to correcting the problem.

Do you remember as a kid playing the game of “Telephone?”

New York City's building codes and laws date back to 1647 and regulate every aspect of your building’s construction and maintenance. New laws are often passed after major disasters, public outcry, or technological advancements, making for frequently changed and updated code requirements. With NYC building codes ever-changing, it can be difficult for boards to stay up to date. Here are the top five building codes that have the most impact on NYC co-ops and condos:

We often find that co-op, condo and homeowners associations are paying for services that they are not using.

How do we know that? Because we have reviewed financial statements for thousands of buildings. So, when we see an outlier, such as an expense that we normally do not see, we ask what it is for.

I bet that you can relate to this. If you are anything like me, there has probably been a time when you decided to cancel a service, but then either forgot or got too busy to follow through. And, in many cases, you are one person making the decision and taking the action. Every now and again, I hear that businesses have the same problem. This is understandable because businesses have even more moving parts.

Setting realistic budget goals for your co-op or condo will keep the business of your building running smoothly and help you increase the value of your property. If you are involved in preparing or approving an NYC co-op and condo budget, you and your team should be asking yourself these basic questions.