Page 25 - NY Cooperator October Expo 2019

COOPERATOR.COM THE COOPERATOR — OCTOBER 2019 25 We investigate, negotiate and attain a fair and equitable settlement in complex property insurance claims, so that property owners/managers can quickly get back to normal. Learn more about us: unitedpublicadjusters.com 800.718.5677Give us a call: PUBLIC ADJUSTERS & APPRAISERS, INC. Speed up your recovery time & increase your claim settlement! Complex Commercial & Residential Property Insurance Adjusters INSPECTION VALUATION NEGOTIATION SETTLEMENT SERVICES Lets talk! Stop by Booth# 220 $100 Million In Claim Settlements Across the USA! CLAIM C M Y CM MY CY CMY K 2019-FALL-Cooperator-COLOR.pdf 1 9/12/19 9:40 AM Back-up Power that ack-up Power that SavesSaves 781.466.6400 www.tecogen.com 45 First Avenue, Waltham, MA 02451 | | HURRICAN MATTHEW 2011 HURRICAN DORIAN 2019 HURRICANE IRENE 2011 HURRICAN MICHAEL 2018 TROPICAL STORM PHILIPPE 2017 HURRICANE FLORENCE 2018 TROPICAL STORM BILL 2016OPICAL STORM BILL 2016 TR Resilience from the Grid B TM Dorian...another hurricane season for the books! partment administers a property tax lien If you have a specific problem, you may sale to collect the unpaid taxes. In addi- tion to administering property taxes, the that’s difficult.” Department of Finance also maintains the official tax maps of New York City. The Sheriff, Tax Enforcement, and the Banking Commission The Office of the Sheriff enforces mandates, orders, warrants and decrees for the courts. Enforcement tools include evictions and seizure of property for un- paid judgment debt. With regards to real property, the Department of Finance also conducts tax fraud investigations and auctions for properties they seize. When it comes to the co-op and con- dominium industry, as well as the real estate industry in general, the Banking Commission recommends interest rates to the City Council for late payments of property taxes and water and sewer rents, as well as discount rates for early payments of property taxes. Interacting with the DOF I n t e r a c t - ing with the D ep a r t m en t of Finance is a fact of life for homeowners, managers and attorneys in New York City. These interactions pri- marily involve real estate tax bills, wa- ter and sewer tax bills, and the co-op/ condo abatement program. The latter is an equalization program designed to pro- vide fair treatment to co-op and condo owners relative to single-family home- owners within the overall assessment of residential property in New York City. Other programs administered through the Department include SCRIE exemp- tions, veterans’ abatements, and the STAR program. If you need to reach the Department of Finance with a question, or to sort out some tax- or payment-related issue, that can take some doing. That's because there is no direct phone number to call. All con- tact must be funneled through the city's 311 information line, or online through the department’s website. According to Raymond Guillermo, Assistant Control- ler with Manhattan-based co-op and condo management firm Gumley Haft, “For the most part, we can access most of what we need online. We can download real estate tax bills, water and sewer bills, tax history, etc. When we run into a prob- lem, though, it can become challenging. need to actually speak to someone – and Guillermo describes a situation deal- ing with filing for the co-op/condo abate- ment. A recent change in the law stipulates that in order to receive the abatement, the owner of a co-op or condo unit must use that unit as their primary residence. “Let’s say,” says Guillermo, “that we re- ceive a notice that according to the De- partment of Finance, a certain owner is not a primary resident – be we know that in fact the owner has lived there for years, as a primary resident. We might want to speak to someone to resolve the problem quickly – but we can’t do that. It may take some time to resolve the issue through online resources, and that may result in additional costs to the owner. Our cli- ent wants to know that their problem has been solved. We can’t always do that.” So, what do managers do? The trade secret is that along the way, offi- cials at the Depart- ment of Finance may occasionally need to speak di- rectly with man- agers. When that happens, manag- ers simply save the DOF officials' numbers for the fu- ture, just in case. While that may give on-the-ball managers a direct channel when questions or issues arise, clearly it doesn’t help individual apartment owners who may have to contact the department themselves. For them, and for the rest of us, 311 is pretty much the only way to go. In a given situation, the determina- tion of who should handle contact with the Department of Finance depends upon the purpose of the contact. “Typically, the managing agent will deal with issues relating to tax abatements,” says Phyllis Weisberg, a partner at Armstrong Teas- dale, a law firm located in Manhattan. “In a condominium, the architect is usu- ally the one dealing with the Department if the issue relates to combination of tax lots, as when two apartments are com- bined. If there are issues relating to the assessment, or protests of the assessment, those are typically handled by the co-op or condo’s tax certiorari attorney. For as- sessed valuations, including exemption issues, there is an appeal available to the Tax Commission and then a court pro- Interacting with the Department of Finance is a fact of life for homeowners, managers and attorneys in New York City. continued on page 35 See us at Booth 302