FNYHC | Federation News

ALBANY PASSES THREE-YEAR REAL ESTATE TAX ABATEMENTS EXTENSION

The Albany legislator has passed and sent to Governor Pataki a three-year real estate tax abatement extension. As of this writing, the Governor has yet to sign the bill, but there are no indications that he would not sign. (Budget games) The legislation keeps the abatements at the same levels - 25% for building with an average assessment under $15,000.00 per unit and 17.5% for building with an average assessment over $15,000.00 per unit. Also, there are several bills floating around the Albany legislative houses that will increase the abatement. The budget talks have put almost all other legislation on hold. The Federation will keep you posted on the progress in Albany.

Assuming the Governor will sign the extension, the New York City Department of Finance will adjust you real estate tax bill starting January 1, 2002. In addition, the schedule of all the abatements and exemptions will be mailed by year's end (As previously done in November).

COOP/CONDO 101

The Federation has joined the Coordinating Council of Cooperatives for the Greater New York and the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums in providing a series of educational seminars for all City Council prospective candidates. The seminar includes basic cooperative and condominium information as well as our issues of the day, such as Property Tax Fairness, Sponsor problems, Special Needs of Elderly Residents, Energy and Housing Court. The Federation hopes that by doing these seminars we can bring the "New City Council " up to speed on our issues. Those issues being: Property Tax Fairness for homeowners in cooperatives and condominiums; Affordable Energy ( J-51 benefits for investing in energy conservation equipment); Senior Services (e.g. NORCs); J-51 benefits for the cost of any city mandated modifications; Recognize housing cooperatives and condominiums as self-governing entities and no building wide mechanic's lien for work done on an individual apartment unit. In addition surveys were sent to all candidates, those responses will be on the Federation web page fnyhc.coop. Be sure to encourage all to vote in the primary on September 11, 2001.

J-51 BENEFITS EXPANDED

Mayor Guiliani recently signed into law a bill to extend J-51 benefits to the previously left out segment of our community of cooperative and condominiums buildings who change from direct electrical metered apartments to master metered to sub metered building. These building will receive the same J-51 benefits as those building who go from master meter to sub meter (see June, 2001 Newsletter). The benefit to those building who go from direct meter to master meter to sub meter is that their residents will benefit from a reduced electrical rate (any where from 10 to 20 percent). The Federation would like to thank Jorge Reyes-Montblanc of the Housing Development Financing Council (HFDC) for spearheading this effort.

NEW ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD - MOLD

The Federation has received "white papers" from the National Association of Home Builders and the National Apartment Association on the hazards to residents' health from mold. Although at the moment there is no Federal, State or City legislation or regulations concerning mold, there has been several hundred lawsuits filed by health problem caused by mold. In 1999 there has been over 140 lawsuits filed seeking over 30 billion dollars in damages. A 1998 lawsuit has been filed for 8 billion dollars in a wrongful death suit which claims mold was the cause of death. Mold can be found in an apartment (especially the bathrooms), in common areas, and basements. As this new environmental concern develops the Federation will keep you informed. For more detail information you can visit the Federal Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) web site at www.epa.gov/ or call "indoor air quality" at 800-438-4318 or 202-484-1307. The only New York City information on the subject is a 1993 NYC Health Department report called "Guidelines on assessment and remediation of fungi in indoor environments". For a copy of the report you must visit their web site at:

www.ci.nyc.us/html/doh/html/epi/moldrpt1.html

Below is useful information from the Federal (EPA) web site:

Ten Things You Should Know About Mold

Membership renewal invoices were recently mailed out. This invoice covers the period of April 2001 to March 2002. If you did not pay your invoice yet, please do so. If you did not receive an invoice, please let the Federation know.

Thursday, October 18, 2001: New York Association of Realty Managers (NYARM) Trade Show at Pier 88 at 48th Street (see enclosed flyer)

Sunday, November 11, 2001: Council of NY Cooperatives and Condominiums (CNYC) 21st Annual Housing Conference (Reduced price for Federation Members)

Sunday March 31, 2002: Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives 45th Annual Trade Show and Seminars

A BULK OF THE FEDERATION'S TIME HAS BEEN DEDICATED TO OFFERING OUR MEMBERSHIP SERVICES THAT MAY HELP TO SAVE YOU MONEY AND HELP YOUR BUILDING.

The Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives, in collaboration with the engineering firm of Herbert E. Hirschfeld, P.E., has received funding from the State of New York (The New York State Energy Research & Development Authority) to provide direct assistance to master metered residential buildings interested in evaluating the technical and economic feasibility of electrical submetering.

These services include a building survey and preparation of a study specific to your building and a meeting with your Board of Directors to review this report, answer questions and address all pertinent submetering issues. Also available, incentive payments from NYSERDA and cost sharing engineering services to those buildings, which implement shall be presented.

All Fees for these services are paid by NYSERDA and there is NO COST nor obligation to your building.

The Federation urges you to take advantage of this opportunity to reduce your building operating costs now as funding is limited and buildings will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis.

Further information regarding this electrical submetering program is also currently available through the Internet via the NYSERDA website. Go to www.nyserda.org and click on Residential Programs. Next click on the submetering icon and you will be connected to www.submeteronline.com or you can access this website by going directly to www.submeteronline.com.

Additionally, NYSERDA has granted this Project Team including the FNYHC additional funding to develop information which will be accessible from the FNYHC website regarding cogeneration. This should be available later this year.

Interested buildings regarding the submetering program may contact Herbert E. Hirschfeld, P.E. at (516) 759-2400 or Greg Carlson at (718) 760.7540.

The Federation's web site is now online in its' infancy stage. We will be mailing to all our members, an opportunity to list their building's information at our web site. Right now, the site provides a legal corner, event list with links to other cooperative sites, legislative issues, a question and answer page where you can ask your questions directly to the Federation and the Federation Newsletter. Please visit our site at "FNYHC.ORG", let us know what you think and don't hesitate to ask us questions. See above article.

The Federation has signed on with the Durnan Group Managers Workers Compensation Safety Group. One of the line items' on all of our member buildings with staffs is workers compensation insurance. The Federation has been studying different workers compensation insurance providers and has concluded that the Durnan Group best fits the needs of our membership. With discounted premiums up-front and a substantial dividend at the end of the year, this makes the safety group the best deal around. Each claim is investigated thoroughly, which is why this group can offer the best workers compensation package in the state. To find out more information or to sign up, please call the Durnan Group Managers at 1-212-768-9191 and make sure to tell them you are a Federation member.

With all the confusion concerning electric deregulation, a new Energy Service Company (ESCO) is consumer oriented. 1st Rochdale Cooperative is an energy company that is owned by buildings who belong to 1st Rochdale. They are not just an energy provider, as the other ESCO's. Similar to what happens when you belong to a cooperative, there are no investors, so the consumers are the owners. In addition, they will do energy audits on your building to see what can be done to diminish or reduce your demand side electric bill, which will save you kilowatts and money. Start now in preparing your building, talk to all the "ESCO's" and talk to 1st Rochdale, you will be surprised in what you hear. For further information, please call 1st Rochdale at 1-212-673-3900.

TO BE SURE THE INTEREST OF ALL COOPERATIVES AND CONDOMINUIMS HOMEOWNERS ARE HEARD WE MUST GET OUT THE VOTE FOR PRIMARY DAY - TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 11,200