By: Mark Levine
Many buildings, both large and small, manage their properties in-house, without a professional management company involved. These buildings can be cooperatives or condominium complexes (or a mixture thereof). There’s certainly a benefit to self-management; the building saves on the fee that they would pay an outside company, but in some cases the dollars saved are not what they seem to be. There’s an upside to everything, but also a downside. Let’s explore this more in depth.
In the past twenty years, the world of property management has changed but oftentimes, the way in which property management companies manage, has not. There are plenty of companies that are still run by the same executives and they continue to live off of the management style of the 1980’s. To put it bluntly, the use of modern day technology and apps is mostly non-existent and as a company, we’re changing that.
Beginning on May 15th and lasting until June 25th, the NYC Department of Buildings will be inspecting decks and retaining walls for free, for property owners who request this service. During the assessment, inspectors will check both decks and retaining walls, if applicable, for potentially dangerous conditions, such as cracking, rotting, bulging, leaning and other warning signs that they note can lead to potential structural failure.
New York City’s Department of Buildings has issued a new regulation for buildings with elevators in 2016. Effective January 1st of this year, the DOB is now requiring buildings to inspect and maintain their elevator machine brake every year. Not only is the brake to be inspected, but the building is now required to document and properly tag the elevator brake.
As per NYC Law any building that was constructed prior to January 1, 1978 is required to send out Lead Paint Notices to occupants each January. Should a child reside in the unit who is under the age of six (6) years old, the building is required to inspect that particular unit at least one (1) time per year, at any time in the year.
Interior repairs in cooperative or condominium apartments aren’t as cut and dry as in a rental property. Unlike a rental, where most repairs would fall onto the landlord, there is a clear delineation of responsibilities for a shareholder / unit owner and the building.
February 2, 2016
Should We Collect A Move In Deposit, Fee Or Both?
Buildings suffer through a lot of wear and tear during move-ins and move-outs. For each move, there are always two sets of people who are coming and going and elevators, common spaces and the building staff are all taxed during this time. In addition, residents are sometimes disturbed as their elevators are either taken out completely or are under limited use while the movers reserve and utilize them during this time period. It’s for this reason that many buildings charge something in order to offset the costs that they are absorbing. These charges can be by way of a deposit, fee or both. Depending on your building, it may be prudent to charge both to protect the asset under your care.
Flip Taxes are a tool in Cooperative buildings all throughout New York City. Essentially, they’re a tax (or a fee) that the Cooperative collects at the closing of an apartment that is transferring hands between outgoing and incoming Shareholders.
October 28, 2015
New York City Local Law 47 of 2015 – What You Need To Know
Local Law 47 of 2015 was put into place in October 2015 for one specific purpose; to ensure that building owners and landlords were advising their tenants of any upcoming outages of hot water, electricity, gas or heat that will have a duration of more than two hours.
October 17, 2015
New York City Introduces Neighborhoods.NYC Website
New York City just introduced Neighborhoods.nyc, a website that is devoted to bringing together the communities that make up the boroughs of the City and hosting a place where people can organize, communicate and learn more about their area.