Incompetent New York City Condo Board and Management Company

You might want to start with you and your neighbors going to the next board meeting and talking to the board, if you haven't done so already. If the 7th floor is the issue, it may take a little time before the problem is discovered and then the contractor will have to determine exactly what needs to be done and how much all of this will cost.

If you've had temporary fixes, but nothing permanent, I suspect the budget is the issue, so you need to take a close look at it. Is there a reserve fund? Is it being funded properly? Do you have a problem with delinquencies? When was the last time you had a reserve study? What the board do with its recommendations (assuming you had one).

You also say there's been a recent increase in assessments - if it's been a while since you've had them, you may be seeing underfunding at work. People always want things done, but squawk when it comes to paying for the work. If assessments don't keep up with inflation, the association may find itself facing lots of expensive repairs and not enough money to take care of them and everything else, and that may lead to a loan or special assessment - perhaps both. Those in turn will lead to higher assessments - you may not like paying them, but it may come down to that vs. the roof caving in.

And ask the board if they got any warranties on the work that was done - if those are still in effect, it's time to have the contractors return and take another look at the problem.

Oh, in case you're thinking about withholding your assessments until the work is done, forget about it. Repairs and paying assessments are different issues and if you withhold your money, the Association will have even less to address the problem and you'll only set yourself up for being sued for non-payment and could lose your unit. I wish I had better news for you, but I smell an expensive fix that all the unit owners will have to address. Once that happens, it may be time for you to consider if that board should still be in control - and then you'll need people willing to step up to serve in their place.

I cannot imagine an HOA board allowing constant moisture to penetrate owners units and your HOA's common areas too. Demo should have been done to source the leak or leaks immediately!

You three owners certainly need to get together and apply pressure on the MC & on the board. All three of you attend a board meeting if your board HAS open meetings, which are not required in NY.

I'm afraid that it's gonna take legal action by you three to get this board & MC to do the right repairs. There IS no excuse for them to permit these conditions to persist.

No meetings in 5 years and you don't know what the state of the association's finances? This is what happens when homeowners don't keep an eye on what's going on and hold their HOA board and management company accountable. A hard lesson to learn, but better late than never.

Now, hang on to your knickers - you and like-minded homeowners need to get control of your association, and you have A LOT of hard work ahead of you to turn things around. The work requires lots of patience, time, attention to detail, and yes, money. Some of this will likely require an attorney so man/woman up, hire the best one you can find and go on from there.

1. Check your documents to see what they say about recalling the board - you will need to rally as many homeowners as possible to do that. Usually, a petition is prepared and presented to the board, which must call a special meeting within X number of days. If the board hasn't met in five years, copies of the petition need to be sent to all of them.

2. Once you get rid of the board, the next step will be to get a handle on the finances - you'll need to blast records out of the old Board AND management company. While you're at it, get a full audit to see where the problems are and if anyone's hands are playing around in the cookie jar.

3. Check the contract with the management company and have a come to Jesus meeting with the head of the company and property manager. Be prepared to boot them out as well - the new board may want to set up a special committee to look for candidates. If you don't know what to look for, you may want to search this website for previous conversations on what to look for and how to work with them. You can also check the Community Association Institute website (CAI), which has a number of books on the subject.

4. Regarding an attorney, you may want to check if the association has one - perhaps he/she doesn't know what's going on because no one's spoken to him/her. If you have one, sit down with him and her as to what to do next. If there's been negligence on his/her part, you'll need to get some referrals to hire another one, because you may need to threaten (and perhaps pursue) legal action against the management company and maybe individual board members.

5. Which brings us to the roof leak - be prepared to hire a good contractor who can find the source of the problem once and for all. You'll then need to get repair estimates and if there isn't enough money in the budget, brace yourself for a special assessment. In fact, depending on how dismal your finances are, you may need several.

6. If you don't know much about the finances, you probably don't have a reserve study - get one post haste, as it will help with long term budget planning. You should update it at least every 5 years.

7. Finally, check the CAI website to see if there's a local chapter in your area where the new board can attend classes on how to run an association effectively. Apparently the current bunch doesn't know or care and after this is cleaned up, you'll need to ensure the folks in charge know what they're doing.

Good luck - you're going to need it!

SheliaH and JohnC46,

Both of you are right. All the unit owners including myself did not keep en eye on this. Unfortunately, we tend to keep to ourselves "mind our own business" and did not get involved.

However, it is now time to try to change this and make things better. As Shelia pointed out very nicely, there are many items that must be done and yes we will need help and luck to help us accomplish them.

Thank you and if there is any more such good suggestions, please chime in.

TimW

I have never seen any associations docs (in the Covenants, Articles of Incorporation, etc.) that did not call for at least an Annual Meeting with a budget being presented.

This would be your first step. Find out what your docs say and simply request they do so.

Jon,

We do have the some documents from this Condo such as Offering plan with the Bylaws. Initially, there was also some financials send out. But that has become infrequent and does not reflect what is current. Yes, there are many wrong here including most unit owners not paying attention, do not know what to do or simply do not care.

As for this ongoing water leak, the Management Company had tried to fix/patch the roof thinking that is the cause. Perhaps, it was part of the cause, but it did not stop the current leaks.

Based on last Wednesday rain, all 3 unit got more water inside their unit (ceiling, drywalls and floor). As mentioned, the Management Company and Condo Board is now being unresponsive to this leaking issue.

What suggestions would you make to help us to get this current leak fix asap before it get cold. We certainly do not want melting snow leaking into the units over the winter. Anything we can do now ?

Unfortunately, it seems in NY, there is a lot to help tenants against landlords. But not much for Condo Unit Owner against Condo Board and Management other than hiring private lawyer. If you are aware of other options, please suggest.

Thank you.

Jon and all,

If this helps, here are the responses. Are there any suggestions where we can contact any NYC agency and also request help with this ? For example, Attorney General RE Division for investigation into MC/Board as suggested by 311 (NYC Helpline). Please provide any insight. Thank you again.

This leak has been allowed to continue for 5 years? Seriously? This leaking has be on and off for that long. The MC has tried to fix this issue many times in the past including various patching of different section of the roof. Their approach was to select the cheapest vendor to address this leaking issue. Obviously, this approach has not worked. As of last week's rain, there is still rain water leaking into the building and into these condo units.

How long have you owned your unit? About 6 years.

How many units in your association? 45 units

Do you have a copy of the governing documents? By-laws, declaration, rules and regulations anything? We have the governing documents, By-laws and addendum which were made in the past. The last such documents is about 5 years old. It is also clear after a recent review of these documents, there are items that are not being follow especially by the board. For example, no annual meeting, new election for Board members replacement after 3 years.

Do you know who serves on your board? Yes, we do and when contacting them, they are unresponsive.

Is this building still under the control of the developer who built the place? No longer.

Is there an elected board of property owners in place? Yes, they were elected about 6 years ago and have been the same Board members even though By-laws indicated they should be replaced after 3 years.

Have you received any annual reports, audits, or newsletters from the HOA since you bought in. In the past, we ere getting financial statements distributed in the past, but this has stop in the past few years.

Just how do you continue to pay dues for at least 5 years without any explanation of what was collected and how it was spent? We were getting this detail in the past, but this has stop in the past few years.

What is your current monthly dues? Mine is about $ 400/month. Other units varies based on their share of the building.

Yes, we understand legal actions may be necessary, but that can takes a long time and may not result in the current leaks being fixed before it get too cold to fix and winter snow comes.
If you are aware of quicker way to get the MC/Board to response to help to fix the current leaking, please suggest.

Thank you all.

I have read this post carefully.

You will be in for a 3-8 year BATTLE.

You must decide if you can tolerate and fund said BATTLE.

Myself, I would cut my losses (there WILL be losses) and move.

Next residence: NO HOA, NO WAY

Even if it means RENTING (in a commercial building, not a private home) - MOVE OUT and live your life WITHOUT a leaking roof.

Remember:

CAVEAT EMPTOR

Well, TimW, you need to find out IF there is a reserve fund and how much is in it. Do you get an annual statement from your Board via your MC. It would (or should!) state how much is in your reserves accounts. Generally, reserves are set aside to do major repairs and replacements of roofs. But as sloppy as your board and MC sound, I worry that reserves haven't been contributed to like they should be

But the balcony that might be leaking might be the unit owner's responsibility, not your HOA's. I'm sorry that I can't offer more hope. In some ways, PitA might be right, cut your losses and move. But I understand that might be finically impossible.

I owned an apartment in NYC for about 10 years before finally having enough and selling.

Like you, I had water damage, mine was in the bathroom the entire time. Whenever I contacted the MC, they would send the super or one of his staff. They would clean it up, and repaint.

When the tenant downstairs (who was still renting from the sponsor) complained of water damage in his apartment, the property manager was very quick to send me a letter forcing me to re-grout or
I'd be fined. I patiently explained that the water issue has been going on forever and it's not coming from my tub. They wouldn't hear it. Refused to break the walls and check the pipes as the cost was apparently too much.

So I re-did my bathroom and sold. The bureaucracy that goes in in NYC condos/coops is like no other in the country. I remember wanting to sue at one point, just to force them to fix the issue. Consulted an attorney who said it can go up to 50k if it goes to litigation, PLUS, I'd pay twice since they'd add an assessment fee to the CC eventually.

I hate to say this but.. sell.. sell and run.

File a claim with your insurance for the damage, they in turn will file against the condo's insurance. Sit back and watch the fun.

assuming there actually IS insurance

i would pay for a ticket

sounds like fun