Foo - does this seem fair? (co-op board decision for residents)

my GF purchased an apartment a while ago in which we both live in. in addition to the morgage payments we also pay a monthly building maintence fee (which is pretty expensive).

anyway, so yesterday my GF gets a letter from management that starting tomorrow (1 day notice?!?) everyone will be subjected to a $1500 move in and $1500 move out fee. meaning if you move in and out you'll have to pay $3000!!! what makes this worse is that the board doesn't announce any of this before hand, and they never let anyone know when the meetings are. so, now all of a sudden we gotta come up with this extra money if we want to move. what a bunch of BS.

also, at the bottom of the letter it says that we'll ALSO be subjected to an additional 1.5% increase in building heating costs for the upcoming fall\winter. thanks guys!! why don't you just turn the knife after you stick it in our backs.

You could always move. :)

You could always move. :)
Hey look....Stacey finally woke up today. ;)

You evil, evil, evil vixen you!!! I love you to death!!

Check the coop bylaws but I'd bet if the board authorized it properly, you're stuck. Typical coop boards are long time residents that want to control everyone and everything. I owned a coop in NYC a while back and the board would meet only at inconvenient times so nobody would (or could) get to the meetings. If you did manage to get to one, you were pretty much ignored. Happiest day of my life was when I sold it and moved out (no move out fee). That's the problem with a coop. You don't own anything other than shares in the entire unit.

Your main recourse is electing a new board next time around.

LL

i'm certain they did it "properly". urg! it's just so sneaky and backhanded the way they did it. really makes me resent those people. and you're right - a lot of the board memebers have been there 20-30 years or longer.

Doesn't sound fair to me. Sounds like it's time to overthrow the board. Get enough alternates into the next election and get them elected and then you can overthrow that stupid fee.

:D Seems about right to me, I mean you are dealing with a bunch of yankees.:D

damn yankees!!

Never live in a CO-OP

damn yankees!!
did not want to curse and incur the wrath of the blue starred rat:D

Sell it.
There are 4 condos in carroll gardens about 4 blocks away from me, 2 blocks from the carroll street station on the F that are going for sale in a huge brownstone. Each unit is 2-3 bedrooms and occupies a whole floor.
I think they're only 600-800k ea.

Sell before the bottom drops! Co-op boards & homeowner's assoc. are always a bunch of whiny wimps. Napoleon and big-fish-little-pond syndromes.

tim - indeed, it sucks, but I wouldn't counsel you to leave the apartment.






I say, leave the whole stinking, filthy, overcrowded, self-centered, economically enslaving, freedom-robbing city and go some place where the streets are not paved with potholes, where a soda doesn't cost $2.50, where car insurance is less expensive than the monthly payments, where you can travel a quarter mile without being accosted by panhandlers, and where 600-800k will buy you a 6,000 square foot mansion on a well-landscaped acre.

There is life outside NYC - you owe it to yourself to at least check it out.

Run for a position on the board yourself. Then start sneaking in all your favorite laws. Like new bike racks in the lobby, mandatory keg parties, etc.

How in the hell can they charge you a fee to move into YOUR OWN PLACE???????

WTF kind of thinking is that?? Sheesh.

What would happen if you sold the place and just blew off the move out fee? I'm assuming because you're already in, the move in fee isn't retroactive... I'm hoping so, at least.

mandatory keg parties, etc.

i kinda like this option. especially the mandatory part of it. don't show up and it's a $1500 fee! :p

There is life outside NYC - you owe it to yourself to at least check it out.

i've moved around a few bit, living in the southwest, the northwest, and the northeast. my GF and i are entertaining moving somewhere else, but not for a few years.

I was kind of on a roll, standing on top of my soap box and ranting. But it does come from the heart. No way I'm living in a city if I can help it.

I was kind of on a roll, standing on top of my soap box and ranting. But it does come from the heart. No way I'm living in a city if I can help it.

i hear ya...we've all been on our respective soap boxes before. for me though, spending most of my 20's here, the city has been a goldmine as far as opportunity goes. if i wasn't so lazy i could really make something of myself here. ;) but, i haven't done bad considering 90% of my brain power is used up thinking about bikes.

That sucks, is their anyway to challenge this ruling. How can they only give you a days notice?, and they should have notified you and all the people in the apt complex about the meetings. Nice way to cut the middle man out, perhaps they are doing this for profit reasons?.

:D Seems about right to me, I mean you are dealing with a bunch of yankees.:D
Them be fighhtin words.















This "should" be funnier if you look to the left of my post.

tim - indeed, it sucks, but I wouldn't counsel you to leave the apartment.






I say, leave the whole stinking, filthy, overcrowded, self-centered, economically enslaving, freedom-robbing city and go some place where the streets are not paved with potholes, where a soda doesn't cost $2.50, where car insurance is less expensive than the monthly payments, where you can travel a quarter mile without being accosted by panhandlers, and where 600-800k will buy you a 6,000 square foot mansion on a well-landscaped acre.

There is life outside NYC - you owe it to yourself to at least check it out.
I think timmahan considered this in a prior life, or thread :p I think it was the job that kept him there, can't quite remmeber though.

That sucks, is their anyway to challenge this ruling. How can they only give you a days notice?, and they should have notified you and all the people in the apt complex about the meetings. Nice way to cut the middle man out, perhaps they are doing this for profit reasons?.
pretty much. co-ops only rock if you get in on the ground floor. This way you can **** everybody else.

damn yankees!!
Biggest mistake Ted Nugent ever made

That sucks, is their anyway to challenge this ruling. How can they only give you a days notice?, and they should have notified you and all the people in the apt complex about the meetings. Nice way to cut the middle man out, perhaps they are doing this for profit reasons?.

we actually heard from the board president - my GF called him and they spoke. turns out it is for profit (big surprise). the logic is as follows: apparently the building makes no money when apartments are bought and sold. this is a way for them to generate money. he justifies it by stating we no longer have to pay for assement fees (semi regular inspection fees for the building), so over time it all evens out. if an apartment is turned over it's the buyer who is responsible for the $1500 move in fee, and the seller is responsible for the $1500 move out fee. So, it's divided amongst the two parties. anyway, it still sucks, and i'll never consider living in a co-op again.

when my GF asked why he didn't explain this in the letter he said "it would have been tough to get the wording right". WTF??!!

Boards have a tough time making sure that the building remains fiscally sound. Many boards walk that line or borrow heavily against the buildings value. When the ****es hit the fan (someone slips outside, roof leaks, elevator breaks, guy on the top floor leaves for the weekend with a running toilet that floods 5 floors below with stinking grey water, outside fascade collapses, car crashes into the building, you name it) the building is responsible for it. Sometimes insurance covers it, sometimes the boards don't carry enough, sometimes it still has to come out of the pockets of the 'owners.' Which means that they could impose say a $10-20K charge on every 'tenant' for a particular month if the reserve fund isn't healthy. If you can't pay it they take posession of the place, sell it and put that money into the reserve.

When you sell the place have a figure in your head and add $1500 to it. If the neighbors aren't a pain in the ass, you can have a bike inside (some buildings won't allow it), you like the area, etc... than you're ahead of the game.

Boards can suck big time though neighbors can be worse....