Alteration Agreements

Are they saying you're not allowed to submit your plans now with the current rules, to at least get the ball rolling?

Apparently, not. I just emailed the board to find out what the deal is. It's a bit frustrating as this process is long enough.

I wonder, can they just leave you in limbo like that? I would've thought the old agreement would stand until the new was in place. Does the change require a vote by shareholder? I never know what does and what doesn't. I thought the board had a responsibility to treat all share holders fair and equitably. It seems that you are not being afforded the same considerations as, say, the last person who renovated their apartment in the that you are being subjected to a delay. I may be totally wrong. I guess co-op boards mostly do what they like, but they are (should be) held accountable. What exactly have they told you? I think I would be inclined to challenge them on this. Can they really just suspend the process of allowing shareholders to apply to make alterations? It seems unreasonable. Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

I agree, in a way you're being prevented from making any alterations until further notice.

I agree Kas.

The building is very small and consists of 3 board members. I did email them directly and got the "we're very busy during the week but will look at it this weekend". I'm to follow up today and was told I should "expect to receive the alteration agreement" by today. I will be disappointed if I do not.

It's funny though, one of the board members is actually currently conducting alterations on their apartment. Must have been convenient for this person to not have delays when submitting their package. It's also interesting to note, that very same board member cohabitates with an architect who coincidentally is the architect the building uses to review alterations. Seems a bit of a conflict of interest in my opinion.

This should be a fun week.

Someone on the board being involved in any way with the building architect sounds like a HUGE conflict of interest. I thought our co-op board was full of abuses and people on power trips, but nothing like this.

As conflicts of interest go, it's not the end of the world, and easily managed. Is the cohabitating architect paid an inflated rate for their services, or could the board find work of higher quality or lower cost elsewhere? Is the cohabitating architect approving plans that they would benefit from (i.e., in their apartment)? Those are your conflicts of interest. If the full board knows of the potential conflicts of interest they should require the interested parties (the cohabitating architect, the renovating board member) to remove themselves from the decision making process that directly affects them.

As a shareholder you could ask the board if they have a conflicts of interest policy and require board members to sign off on it.

I sent them an email that I couldn't find in the by-laws anything that said I could not submit my plans as per the current alteration agreement. So, unless they produce it today, I'm going to ahead and mail it in with my checks. It seems against the rules to prevent me from doing so.

RE: Conflict of interest.

I had initially contacted the architect in the building and considered hiring that person. It's all in emails that I have retained. However, I then changed my mind.I thought I shouldn't hire someone in the building as it might make things uncomfortable should something go wrong.

I only found out AFTER moving into the building that the architect was cohabitating with one of the board members. Seems to me that in itself could raise a red flag. One could assume because I didn't follow through with hiring the architect that the board member living with the architect might not be able to fairly decide on my plans?

I don't think you can hire the reviewing architect as your architect anyway. Wouldn't that be another huge conflict of interest?

FireDragon,
So you think the board member doing the renovation had someone besides the one living with the do the design? Or do you think they hired someone else to review it?

I just think both being the same person sounds really unprofessional. Maybe they did it anyway, but I'd stay away from such a building if I knew in advance.

I'm not really sure if the reviewing architect was the same as the architect hired. It's safe to assume they were the architect hired (why would they hire anyone else but themselves to do something they can do)

I learned that the in-house architect is not a shareholder. So, the board member obviously is and their live in partner/in-house architect is not. I guess that's how they would get around that and be able to reap the financial benefits of being the reviewing architect on any alteration done in the building. Still all strikes me as a bit odd. I certainly will make my concern known. I don't believe anyone is at the whim of a co-op board if you approach things in a professional manner. After all, everyone must follow the rules, including them.

In my experience coop boards think they can do absolutely anything they want and hide behind the Business Judgement Rule.

So, it's been like 2 weeks (13 days) since I sent over questions that my attorney brought up about the alteration agreement that didn't make sense and about the conflicting information coming from management. I've gotten a "the board is reviewing and will get back ASAP" a week ago but no solid answers.

It'll be 2 weeks tomorrow. Am I being unreasonable in thinking this is taking a long time to get answers?