2009 July
Focus on... Budget & Finance

2009 July Low Reserves and Defaults Challenge Boards By Hillary Pember

Even in the best of economic times, preparing a co-op or condo’s annual budget can be a tiresome task, fraught with uncertainty, estimations and shifting numbers. Factor in one of the most harrowing economic downturns in a century, with…

2009 July Shoring Up What Lies Beneath By Greg Olear

Not so very long ago, pretty much any individual or corporate entity could get a loan quickly and easily, with only some cursory paperwork separating borrower from lender. The so-called subprime mortgage crisis put a stop to all that, a…

2009 July Struggling to Strike a Balance By Raanan Geberer

When you walk down many large commercial thoroughfares in New York, whether it’s Fifth or Madison Aevnue in Manhattan, Kings Highway in Brooklyn or Main Street in Flushing, you’re sure to notice many more empty stores than usual—living p…

2009 July Sidestepping Bank Foreclosures and Defaults By Meryl Feiner

Unemployment is up and apartment sales are down. That’s the trend of headline news lately. But, so far, New York City co-ops and condominiums seem to be weathering the storm in reasonably good shape. According to those close to the situ…

2009 July Feds Seek to Boost Homeowners and Buyers By Jim Douglass

Fresh from hoisting up the banking and automobile sectors, a newly muscular Uncle Sam is now turning his attention to putting the skids on the real estate meltdown. The Obama Administration earlier this year rolled out two maj…

2009 July Keeping it Healthy in Today's Tough Economy By Stephanie Mannino

In today’s harsh economic times, maintaining a healthy reserve fund is more important than ever. A co-op or condo’s reserve fund can be used to cover any number of emergency expenses from sudden repairs to legal costs. In addition, a re…

2009 July Energy Audit Legislation Aimed at Co-ops & Condos By Bob Friedrich

 Proposed legislation by the New York City Council to require energy audits,  while a nice idea, is extremely cost-prohibitive especially in today’s economy. The bottom line is that the spending proposed in this bill (Intro  967) will be t…

2009 July New Rules for Co-ops and Condos By Rich Koller

 In the last two years, Fannie Mae has amended it’s guidelines for selling and serving mortgages on condominiums, cooperatives,  and planned unit developments three times. Why should service providers,  cooperative corporations and communi…

2009 July Q&A: Entitled to Tabulated Election Results? By Stephen M. Lasser, Esq.

Q Do the shareholders in a New York City co-op have the right to obtain the tabulated results of a board of director’s election, rather than simply the names of the shareholders that won? If you are a shareholder who is running for th…

2009 July Q&A: When Unit Owners Fail to Pay By Eric M. Goidel

Q Our 200-unit condo association has seven delinquencies. Six of these cases have  been delinquent for over a year. Liens are in place, and all are in the hands  of our attorney for collection. Most are mortgaged past fair market value…

2009 July Q&A: Minuteless in Manhattan By Dennis H. Greenstein, Esq.

Q “I am newly elected to the board of a small (32-unit), self-managed condominium, where traditionally there has been little transparency between the board of trustees and the unit owners. I have asked the board president several tim…