Month: September 2011

HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE

The House Rules require all share­hold­ers to acquire Home Own­ers Insur­ance. The House Rules state:

“All Lessees must obtain com­pre­hen­sive Home Own­ers Insur­ance Lia­bil­i­ty Cov­er­age for any and all apart­ments or shares they own. A copy of the cer­tifi­cate of Home own­ers Insur­ance Lia­bil­i­ty must be sub­mit­ted to the Board of the Lessor or des­ig­nat­ed Man­ag­ing agent.”

WHY YOU NEED TO BE INSURED AND WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

(The fol­low­ing arti­cle by Robert E. Mack­oul, founder and Pres­i­dent of Mack­oul and Asso­ciates, pro­vides some basic infor­ma­tion on the­Home Own­ers Insur­ance. Please con­tact your insur­ance agent for advice and com­plete infor­ma­tion on the avail­able insur­ance.) Many coop­er­a­tive and con­do­mini­um dwellers tend to think that they don’t need home­own­ers insur­ance. This is gen­er­al­ly due to two basic mis­con­cep­tions: the first, that they do not need home­own­ers insur­ance because the build­ing already has cov­er­age; the sec­ond, that since banks and mort­gage com­pa­nies don’t require home­own­ers insur­ance in a coop­er­a­tive or con­do­mini­um, such cov­er­age is not a neces­si­ty. These beliefs are not only wrong, but they can also be dan­ger­ous. Build­ing insur­ance rarely pro­vides cov­er­age with­in units them­selves. And while banks may not stip­u­late home­own­ers insur­ance as a req­ui­site when mak­ing a loan, that’s cold com­fort if a fire or oth­er cat­a­stro­phe ren­ders your apart­ment tem­porar­i­ly unin­hab­it­able.

The issue is not whether you should have home­own­ers insur­ance, but how much cov­er­age you should secure. For co-op share­hold­ers and con­do unit own­ers, the ide­al pol­i­cy should cov­er the basics:

1. Improve­ments and Alter­ations,
2. Con­tents and Per­son­al Effects,
3. Loss of Use cov­er­age for extra expens­es that arise from being tem­porar­i­ly unable to occu­py the unit fol­low­ing a claim,
4. Per­son­al Lia­bil­i­ty to pro­tect against law­suits from oth­er par­ties or insur­ance com­pa­nies, and
5. Assess­ment Cov­er­age.

IMPROVEMENTS AND ALTERATIONS In a coop­er­a­tive or con­do­mini­um, improve­ments and alter­ations that are with­in the unit are the unit own­er’s or share­hold­er’s respon­si­bil­i­ty. These improvements/alterations are not cov­ered under the building’s insur­ance pol­i­cy. If there is a claim, the building’s insur­ance com­pa­ny is respon­si­ble for the build­ing itself and the infra­struc­ture, the pipes and elec­tri­cal wiring inside the walls. When it comes to the indi­vid­ual unit, the insur­ance com­pa­ny is only required to put the apart­ment “back to spec”; that is, exact­ly how it was when it was built. Thus, all the updates to a spe­cif­ic unit that have occurred since the build­ing was first built are the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the cur­rent own­er, and not the build­ing. This includes new bath­rooms and kitchens, floor­ing and car­pet­ing, and mold­ing put in by the cur­rent own­er. In addi­tion, the cur­rent share­hold­er is respon­si­ble for all the improve­ments and alter­ations done by pre­vi­ous own­ers. If, for instance, the floor­ing in a unit had been in place since the building’s incep­tion, that would be cov­ered under the building’s insur­ance. How­ev­er, espe­cial­ly with old­er build­ings, the prob­a­bil­i­ty of hav­ing a unit with all its orig­i­nal fea­tures intact is rather low. The build­ing insur­ance com­pa­ny will not pay for these alter­ations and repairs. This is where homeowner’s cov­er­age specif­i­cal­ly for improve­ments and alter­ations comes in; if prop­er­ly planned, it will cov­er all the alter­ations and improve­ments in a unit, regard­less of who put them in.

PERSONAL PROPERTY

Share­hold­ers or unit own­ers are respon­si­ble for insur­ing all of their apartment’s con­tents and per­son­al prop­er­ty. This includes every­thing from fur­nish­ings to kitchen­ware to cloth­ing – any­thing that can be moved around, picked up, and tak­en. What can’t be moved, such as bath­room fix­tures and kitchen cab­i­nets, qual­i­fy as improve­ments and alter­ations. Per­son­al prop­er­ty cov­er­age should be ade­quate to meet the cost of replac­ing items today, as opposed to the cost when they were orig­i­nal­ly pur­chased. If some­thing that is con­sid­ered per­son­al prop­er­ty is destroyed and there is no replace­ment cost cov­er­age, the insur­ance com­pa­ny will depre­ci­ate the loss and great­ly reduce the com­pen­sa­tion for the dam­aged item. For exam­ple, a tele­vi­sion pur­chased for $500 five years ago, with­out replace­ment costs, would be worth $250 today (assum­ing that the use­ful life of a tele­vi­sion is 10 years). But with replace­ment cov­er­age, the insur­ance would cov­er the full cost of a new tele­vi­sion. As a rule of thumb when decid­ing on the lev­el of cov­er­age for your new insur­ance pol­i­cy, you should typ­i­cal­ly esti­mate how much all your per­son­al prop­er­ty and apart­ment con­tents are worth and then dou­bling that val­ue.

LOSS OF USE

In the event of seri­ous dam­age to your unit, you will need mon­ey to live else­where. This is pro­vid­ed for under a part of the home­own­er’s pol­i­cy called “loss of use”. In insur­ance poli­cies for coop­er­a­tives, lim­it­ed loss of use only cov­ers 40 per­cent of the total per­son­al prop­er­ty cov­er­age amount. If your prop­er­ty is insured for $100,000, the max­i­mum loss of use com­pen­sa­tion that you could receive would be $40,000. If repairs to the unit go on for an extend­ed peri­od of time, which they often do, this may not be enough to cov­er liv­ing expens­es – espe­cial­ly the high cost of liv­ing in New York. This is why it is best to have an unlim­it­ed loss of use pol­i­cy. This fea­ture comes stan­dard with the plans offered by Chubb and Fireman’s Fund, and most oth­er com­pa­nies will allow the home­own­er to buy up their unlim­it­ed cov­er­age. Unlim­it­ed loss of use cov­er­age may be the most impor­tant fea­ture of your pol­i­cy. Con­sid­er the sto­ry of a co-op build­ing in Man­hat­tan: In the late 1990s, the pent­house res­i­dents decid­ed they did not like the way the roof drains looked, so they had them cov­ered with screens. In August 1999, when the city had 6.5 inch­es of rain in one day, the screens pre­vent­ed the water from drain­ing prop­er­ly. Water rose up over the para­pet walls and into the build­ing, drench­ing the under­ly­ing units from the ninth floor down to the sixth. The inte­ri­ors were so soaked that no work could be done until every­thing was dried out, which took some time. Restora­tion con­trac­tors then report­ed that all the elec­tric sys­tems in the build­ing had been destroyed, as was the beau­ti­ful plas­ter work­man­ship of this pre-war struc­ture. The apart­ments had to be gut­ted and rebuilt. The sit­u­a­tion only got worse: it took a long time to get the claim set­tled and work under way, because the board of direc­tors right­ly insist­ed that plas­ter, rather than sheetrock, be used to restore the build­ing. The board was cor­rect in expect­ing insur­ance to pay for the plas­ter, as this was dic­tat­ed in the orig­i­nal build­ing plans. But it took eight months to restore the build­ing, dis­plac­ing those liv­ing in the affect­ed units. For some, there was good news: the share­hold­ers on the eighth and ninth floors had unlim­it­ed loss of use cov­er­age. Their insur­ance pro­vid­ed hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars to house them in Man­hat­tan hotels. It also paid for them to eat out and for all the extra expens­es that result from not liv­ing at home. After six months, the insur­er decid­ed to reduce the ongo­ing expens­es and found these res­i­dents fur­nished two-bed­room apart­ments. But a hard les­son was learned by the res­i­dents on the sixth and sev­enth floors: their lim­it­ed loss of use cov­er­age ran out after about a month.

LIABILITY COVERAGE

Most home­own­ers insur­ance claims per­tain to res­i­dent-relat­ed inci­dents. For instance, if some­one slips and falls in your unit, you may be sub­ject to a lia­bil­i­ty law­suit. But lia­bil­i­ty does­n’t stop there. If your toi­let over­flows and dam­ages the down­stairs neighbor’s ori­en­tal rug, or if your cat scratch­es some­one in the eye – all these are poten­tial lia­bil­i­ty issues. The answer is personal/family lia­bil­i­ty cov­er­age. Most stan­dard home­own­ers insur­ance poli­cies include $100,000 of lia­bil­i­ty cov­er­age, but unit own­ers should not have less than $500,000 in lia­bil­i­ty cov­er­age because, “you nev­er know whose Picas­so you’re going to ruin.”

THE RISKS OF NOT BEING INSURED

When share­hold­ers or unit own­ers do not have home­own­ers insur­ance, it is not only their prob­lem but it could cre­ate sig­nif­i­cant prob­lems for the build­ing, as well. If an apart­ment is ren­dered unin­hab­it­able for an extend­ed peri­od of time and the own­er has no cov­er­age to pay the expens­es of tem­po­rary liv­ing accom­mo­da­tions, the per­son­al cost could dri­ve the own­er into arrears and poten­tial­ly into default on the unit. The same could hap­pen if an inci­dent in an unin­sured share­hold­er’s unit affects anoth­er unit in the build­ing: the result­ing law­suit could force the share­hold­er into bank­rupt­cy.

This is why many coop­er­a­tives and con­do­mini­ums have made home­own­ers insur­ance manda­to­ry for every share­hold­er and unit own­er. If your board con­sid­ers estab­lish­ing such a pol­i­cy, it should spec­i­fy the min­i­mum amount of each form of cov­er­age that the unit own­ers must take. The amount depends on the build­ing; for exam­ple, $25,000 is a good start­ing point for per­son­al prop­er­ty cov­er­age in a mid­dle-class build­ing, but a more upscale build­ing may be expect­ed to have con­sid­er­ably high­er min­i­mums. Min­i­mum cov­er­age for improve­ments and alter­ations and for lia­bil­i­ty should also be estab­lished. You should eval­u­ate based on the val­ue of the most expen­sive unit in your build­ing, and work back­ward from that. An annu­al mon­i­tor­ing process should also be estab­lished to ensure that every­one is cov­ered.

Extract­ed from:

CNYC 250 West 57th Street, Suite 730 New York, NY 10107–0730 Tel: (212) 496‑7400 Fax: (212) 580‑7801

E‑mail: info@cnyc.coop

Read the orig­i­nal arti­cle here.

RECYCLING

We con­tin­ue to receive fines from NYC for hun­dreds of dol­lars for recy­cling. The cost of each fine con­tin­ues to rise with each vio­la­tion. It is imper­a­tive that we all pay close atten­tion to our recy­cling respon­si­bil­i­ties. Please take anoth­er look at the fly­ers that will be dis­trib­uted.

SECURITY

We are aware of the recent issues that have come up with the door buzzer and believe that the prob­lem has been fixed. We do take build­ing secu­ri­ty very seri­ous­ly, so if you notice any changes, please noti­fy the board ASAP.

ROOF/FLOORS

The roof is almost fin­ished! Upon its com­ple­tion, our grimy floors will be stripped, scrubbed and sealed- essen­tial­ly renewed to mint con­di­tion. There will be more nox­ious chem­i­cals that we have to con­tend with, so you will be informed well in advance so that you are able to make arrange­ments if need­ed.

This infor­ma­tion was com­piled from the Pro­pri­etary Lease, includ­ing the House Rules; from the min­utes of Board of Direc­tors meet­ings, when­ev­er there have been new co-op poli­cies or pol­i­cy changes; from the pro­ce­dures fol­lowed by our man­ag­ing agent; and from New York City and New York State laws per­tain­ing to res­i­den­tial coop­er­a­tive build­ings.

This web­site men­tions many of the legal rights and respon­si­bil­i­ties of our co-op, its share­hold­ers, and its sub­lessees and renters, which are gov­erned by the terms of the Pro­pri­etary Lease and by city and state laws. How­ev­er, the infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed here is not exhaus­tive, and it is there­fore not intend­ed to replace those rights and respon­si­bil­i­ties. Instead, this web­site is offered as a col­lec­tion of guide­lines that will help pre­serve a degree of excel­lence in our res­i­dents’ lifestyles and ensure that our co-op is run in an effi­cient and effec­tive man­ner.

IMPORTANT RECENT AMENDMENTS
Sub-let­ting A share­hold­er may only sub­let an apart­ment with the express approval in writ­ing from the Board of Direc­tors or the Man­ag­ing Agent, and pro­vid­ed the share­hold­er has been res­i­dent for at least one year. The max­i­mum peri­od of the sub­let shall be for one year. Appli­ca­tions to extend the sub­let for sub­se­quent peri­ods beyond the ini­tial one year shall be sub­ject to a re-appli­ca­tion process and fee. Any share­hold­er wish­ing to sub­let their unit shall pay the Coop­er­a­tive a Sub­let Fee. That fee shall be the equiv­a­lent of one month’s main­te­nance for the said unit for each peri­od of sub­let. (Adopt­ed by a res­o­lu­tion of the Board on 12 Sep­tem­ber 2005).

Mov­ing Times

Moves in and out shall take place only on Mon­days to Fri­days, except pub­lic hol­i­days, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 

HOUSE RULES

1.         Cre­ation and Pur­pose of House Rules.  In addi­tion to its pro­pri­etary lease, 515 Edge­combe Avenue Corp. (here­inafter the Lessor) has adopt­ed the House Rules (as amend­ed by a res­o­lu­tion of the Board of Direc­tors on 23rd May 2005) set forth here­inafter for the safe­ty, care, clean­li­ness and appear­ance of the Build­ing and for the com­mon good of all lessees.

(a)        The Lessee has covenant­ed by the pro­pri­etary lease to com­ply with the House Rules of the Lessor and to see that they are faith­ful­ly observed by the Lessee’s invi­tees, licensees, employ­ees, agents, con­trac­tors and sub­tenants and oth­ers as are per­mit­ted to co-reside in the Apart­ment with the Lessee here­un­der. Breach of a House Rule by any of these par­ties shall be a default under the Lease. (b)       The Lessor shall not be respon­si­ble or liable to the Lessee for the non-obser­vance or vio­la­tion of these House Rules by any oth­er lessee or per­son. ©        The Board of Direc­tors (here­inafter the Board) may set such fees as it deems rea­son­able and prop­er, and such fines as it deems rea­son­able and prop­er, to fur­ther the obser­vance of the House Rules.

(d)       The Board may, from time to time, in its dis­cre­tion alter, amend or repeal any of these House Rules. Any such change shall take effect upon the Lessor’s giv­ing the Lessee writ­ten notice of the same.

2.         Emer­gency Con­tact Infor­ma­tion; Keys.  The Lessee shall pro­vide the Lessor or Lessor’s Man­ag­ing Agent (here­inafter the Man­ag­ing Agent) with a tele­phone num­ber where the Lessee may be reached at home and at the Lessee’s place of busi­ness. The Lessee also shall pro­vide the Lessor or Man­ag­ing Agent with an emer­gency con­tact name and tele­phone num­ber. The Lessor and its agents and their autho­rized work­men shall have right of entry into the Lessee’s apart­ment or any stor­age space assigned in accor­dance with para­graph (25) of the pro­pri­etary lease.

3.         No Obstruc­tion of Pub­lic Spaces and Pas­sage­ways. (a)        The Lessee shall not obstruct the front stoop and entrance, stair­ways, pub­lic halls, lob­bies, vestibules, entrances, side- and back­yards, side­walks, walk­ways, pas­sages, dri­ve­ways or oth­er pub­lic spaces in the Build­ing (here­inafter referred as “Pub­lic Spaces”). The Pub­lic Spaces shall be used only for ingress to and egress from the apart­ments in the Build­ing. No trash recep­ta­cles, bicy­cles, car­riages, shop­ping carts or sim­i­lar objects shall be placed or left unat­tend­ed in the Pub­lic Spaces. No Lessee, oth­er res­i­dent, or invi­tee shall sit on the front stoop of the Build­ing. (b)       No per­son shall loi­ter in the Pub­lic Spaces, and no per­son shall play in them except in the des­ig­nat­ed areas and in accord with rules and reg­u­la­tions spec­i­fied in the House Rules or by the Board or the Man­ag­ing Agent.

©        No arti­cle shall be kept or stored in the Pub­lic Spaces except in des­ig­nat­ed stor­age areas, nor shall any­thing be hung or shak­en from the doors, win­dows, ter­races or bal­conies, or placed upon the exte­ri­or sills or ledges of the Build­ings.

4.         Roofs. No per­son shall be per­mit­ted access to roofs of the Build­ing, except in the case of fire. The Lessor shall have the right to erect equip­ment on the roof, includ­ing radio and tele­vi­sion aeri­als and anten­nas, for its use and the use of the lessees in the Build­ing and shall have the right of access to the Apart­ment for such instal­la­tions and for the repairs there­of.

5.         Mes­sen­gers and Trades peo­ple. All mes­sen­gers and trades peo­ple shall use such means of ingress and egress, and shall com­ply with such rules and reg­u­la­tions, as shall be pre­scribed by the Lessor, the Man­ag­ing Agent or the Board.

6 .         Moves and Large Deliv­er­ies. Moves in or out and large deliv­er­ies shall take place only on such days and times, and in accord with such rules and reg­u­la­tions, as are pre­scribed by the Board or Man­ag­ing Agent. The Lessor reserves the right, in addi­tion to oth­er reme­dies, to pre­vent or halt any deliv­ery or move which vio­lates said rules and reg­u­la­tions.

7.         Trash and Garbage. The Lessee shall be respon­si­ble for plac­ing garbage and non-recy­clable trash into the recep­ta­cles pro­vid­ed for garbage and non-recy­clable trash dis­pos­al. Recy­clable, haz­ardous and over­sized trash shall be sep­a­rat­ed by the Lessee and dis­posed of in such man­ner as the Board or Man­ag­ing Agent may pre­scribe. The Lessee shall be respon­si­ble for plac­ing recy­clable trash into the recep­ta­cles pro­vid­ed for recy­clable trash dis­pos­al.

(a)        The Lessee will faith­ful­ly observe the fol­low­ing pro­ce­dures with respect to the use of the recep­ta­cles for trash dis­pos­al: (i) wrap dust, floor and pow­dered waste in com­pact pack­ages before deposit­ing the same; (ii) thor­ough­ly drain and wrap in paper all garbage before deposit­ing the same; (iii) refrain from forc­ing large bun­dles into the recep­ta­cles; (iv) crush into tight bun­dles all loose papers before plac­ing the same in the recep­ta­cles; (v) large trash items should not be left in the vicin­i­ty of the trash recep­ta­cles but placed in the des­ig­nat­ed area in the back­yard; (vi) refrain from deposit­ing waste of an explo­sive or inflam­ma­ble nature there­in; (vii) no trash dis­pos­al should take place between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. on week­days and between the hours of 10 p.m. and 9 a.m. on Sat­ur­days, Sun­days and pub­lic hol­i­days.

(b)       All lia­bil­i­ty, expens­es, costs and fees incurred by the Lessor in con­nec­tion with any dam­age or injury or in con­nec­tion with any vio­la­tion issued against Lessor or the Build­ing, by rea­son of the Lessee’s fail­ure to abide by this House Rule, shall be the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the Lessee and payable to the Lessor on demand. 

8.         Falling or Thrown Objects and Refuse. The Lessee shall not allow any­thing what­ev­er to fall from the win­dows, doors, bal­conies or ter­races of the Apart­ment, nor shall the Lessee per­mit any dirt or oth­er sub­stance to be swept or thrown into any of the cor­ri­dors or halls, ele­va­tors or any oth­er Pub­lic Spaces in the Build­ing. All lia­bil­i­ty, expens­es, costs and fees incurred by the Lessor in con­nec­tion with any dam­age or injury or in con­nec­tion with any vio­la­tion issued against Lessor or the Build­ing, by rea­son of the Lessee’s fail­ure to abide by this House Rule, shall be the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the Lessee and payable to the Lessor on demand. 

9.         Awnings, Pro­jec­tions and Signs. (a)        No awnings, win­dow air con­di­tion­ing units, ven­ti­la­tors or any oth­er object shall be attached to the out­side walls of the Build­ings, nor shall any such object be hung or allowed to project from win­dows or the exte­ri­or of the Build­ings or the perime­ter of ter­races or bal­conies, with­out the pri­or writ­ten con­sent of the Lessor. Clothes­lines are not per­mit­ted to be strung on ter­races or bal­conies or in Pub­lic Spaces. (b)       No sign, notice, illu­mi­na­tion or adver­tise­ment shall be exposed on or at any win­dow or oth­er part of the Build­ing, or placed on or in any ter­race or bal­cony, with­out the pri­or writ­ten con­sent of the Lessor. ©        No awnings, blinds, shades or screens shall be attached to, or hung in, or used in con­nec­tion with any door of the Apart­ment with­out the Lessor’s pri­or writ­ten con­sent.

(d)       The Lessee shall not uti­lize any ter­race or bal­cony for stor­age of box­es, fur­ni­ture or oth­er items that in Lessor’s judg­ment are haz­ardous or cre­ate a haz­ardous con­di­tion or present an unsight­ly appear­ance to neigh­bours or passers-by.

10.         TV Anten­na. No radio or tele­vi­sion aer­i­al, anten­na, dish or cable shall be installed by the Lessee on the roof, ter­race, exte­ri­or win­dow sill or ledge, bal­cony or exte­ri­or walls of the Build­ing.

11 .       Appli­ances.

(a)        The Lessee shall install all major appli­ances (such as stoves, refrig­er­a­tors, dish­wash­ers and air con­di­tion­ers) in accor­dance with all applic­a­ble pro­vi­sions of the lease, includ­ing the Lessor’s con­sent if and when required, and of law, and shall noti­fy the Man­ag­ing Agent in advance of all such instal­la­tions. All work required to be done by a per­son licensed to per­form the work, such as plumb­ing and elec­tri­cal work, shall be per­formed only by duly licensed per­sons. (b)       The Lessor shall have the right to con­duct peri­od­ic audits of the Lessee’s appli­ances. At its dis­cre­tion, the Board may levy a charge with respect to appli­ances, and may levy that charge retroac­tive­ly on appli­ances lat­er dis­cov­ered to have been installed with­out the Lessee giv­ing the required noti­fi­ca­tion or with­out the Lessor’s con­sent if and when such con­sent is required. ©        The Lessee shall be respon­si­ble for prompt­ly cor­rect­ing and ful­ly stop­ping any leak or drip com­ing from any appli­ance in the Lessee’s apart­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly as the same applies to air con­di­tion­ers.

(d)       Lessee shall pay a cartage fee as set from time to time by the Board for the removal and dis­pos­al of bro­ken or unwant­ed large appli­ances such as refrig­er­a­tors, stoves and air-con­di­tion­ers and large items of fur­ni­ture. Nei­ther the Lessee nor any­one in the Lessee’s house­hold or employ shall dis­pose of any appli­ance or oth­er prop­er­ty in the hall­ways, base­ment or oth­er Pub­lic Spaces, or store any such appli­ance in the Lessor’s stor­age rooms, unless and until writ­ten per­mis­sion is obtained from the Man­ag­ing Agent and the Lessee pays the cartage fee to the Lessor.

12.       Dec­o­ra­tions in Hall­ways. No pub­lic hall­way of any Build­ing, includ­ing the apart­ment door and oth­er doors open­ing into the pub­lic hall­way, may be dec­o­rat­ed, fur­nished or paint­ed by any Lessee with­out the con­sent of the Lessor and of all the lessees to whose apart­ments such hall­way serves as the means of ingress and egress. In the event of dis­agree­ment among such lessees, the Board shall decide and such deci­sion shall be con­clu­sive.

13.       Co-Res­i­dents and Sub-let­ting. A Lessee or joint Lessees are per­mit­ted to share their Apart­ment with an addi­tion­al res­i­dent or res­i­dents only to the extent express­ly per­mit­ted in this lease, and sub­ject to the Lessor’s max­i­mum occu­pan­cy require­ments as the same are deter­mined from time to time by the Board. At no time shall max­i­mum occu­pan­cy exceed stan­dards set by the hous­ing main­te­nance code or any oth­er gov­ern­ing author­i­ty.

(a)        Autho­rized co-resident(s) may occu­py the Apart­ment as their res­i­dence, pro­vid­ed the Lessee or joint Lessees con­tin­ue to occu­py the Apart­ment, and pro­vid­ed the co-resident(s) occu­py the apart­ment con­cur­rent­ly with the Lessee(s). Oth­er­wise, the arrange­ment shall con­sti­tute a sub­let, not a co-res­i­den­cy and must be applied for as a sub­let, sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of para­graph (15) of the pro­pri­etary lease. Any co-res­i­dents must vacate the Apart­ment prompt­ly when the Lessee(s) cease to occu­py it, for any rea­son; (b)       A domes­tic or per­son­al employ­ee of the Lessee, such as a nurse or house­keep­er, may reside in the Apart­ment, pro­vid­ed that the Lessee is also in occu­pan­cy at the same time, unless the Lessor shall oth­er­wise approve in writ­ing; ©        Lessees who share their apart­ment with a co-res­i­dent or co-res­i­dents are ful­ly respon­si­ble for the con­duct of the co-resident(s) with­in the Apart­ment and the Build­ing and for any vio­la­tions by said co-resident(s) of the lease or of poli­cies and rules adopt­ed by the Board;

(d)       With­in thir­ty (30) days after a co-res­i­dent begins to occu­py an apart­ment in the Build­ing, or as soon there­after as the Lessor may request it, the Lessee shall pro­vide the Lessor with the co-res­i­den­t’s name and oth­er rea­son­able infor­ma­tion. A for­mal appli­ca­tion is required. The Lessor fur­ther reserves the right to require that both the co-res­i­dent and the Lessee(s) be inter­viewed by the Lessor’s res­i­dent selec­tion com­mit­tee, the Man­ag­ing Agent and/or oth­er del­e­gate of the Board.  A basic back­ground check will be con­duct­ed at the expense of the lessee, and the Lessor reserves the right to reject for cause any co-res­i­dent.

14.       Guests. The right of Lessee to have guests in the Apart­ment shall not include pay­ing guests (which con­sti­tutes a sub­let sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of para­graph (15) of the pro­pri­etary lease) and shall not enti­tle Lessee to oper­ate a board­ing house, room­ing house or bed-and-break­fast or any sim­i­lar enter­prise in the Apart­ment.

15.       Max­i­mum Occu­pan­cy Stan­dards. The Board may estab­lish and vary, from time to time, and the Lessee shall com­ply with, max­i­mum occu­pan­cy stan­dards for the apart­ments in the Build­ing. At no time may they exceed the stan­dard set by the New York City hous­ing main­te­nance code or any oth­er gov­ern­ing author­i­ty.

16.       Noise and Play­ing of Music; Smok­ing in Pub­lic Spaces

(a)        No Lessee, oth­er res­i­dent, or invi­tee shall (i) make any dis­turb­ing nois­es or sounds that will inter­fere with the rights, com­forts or con­ve­nience of oth­er occu­pants of the Build­ing; (ii) oper­ate audio or oth­er such equip­ment in a man­ner as to dis­turb or annoy any oth­er occu­pant or occu­pants of the Build­ing; or (iii) play any musi­cal instru­ment or con­duct vocal or instru­men­tal prac­tice between the hours of 10 p.m. and 9 a.m. or at any time if the same dis­turbs or annoys any oth­er occu­pant or occu­pants of the Build­ing. Vocal or instru­men­tal instruc­tion may not be giv­en at any time in the Apart­ment except as lessons to autho­rized res­i­dents of the Apart­ment, sub­ject to the fore­go­ing restric­tions. (b)       No work shall be done, except between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Sat­ur­days, Sun­days and hol­i­days exclud­ed, pro­vid­ed, how­ev­er, that any work which can pro­duce noise that might be dis­turb­ing to build­ing occu­pants, shall not be done before 10 a.m. ©        The Lessor may require the Lessee to pro­vide car­pet­ing or equal­ly effec­tive noise reduc­ing mate­r­i­al in the Apart­ment in accord with rules and reg­u­la­tions adopt­ed by the Board; pro­vid­ed that such require­ment shall be imposed on the Lessee only if the same require­ment is imposed on all lessees in the Build­ing, or if the Lessor has deter­mined that the con­duct of the Lessee or his or her invi­tees, licensees or co-res­i­dents requires such car­pet­ing. (d)       No one may smoke in the pub­lic halls, stair­ways, ele­va­tors, laun­dry rooms or oth­er Pub­lic Spaces of the Build­ing

17.       Work by Lessor’s Employ­ees. No employ­ee of the Lessor shall per­form any pri­vate work or ser­vices for the Lessee, or the Per­mit­ted Occu­pants, or the Lessee’s employ­ees, invi­tees or con­trac­tors unless the Lessor has autho­rized its employ­ees to per­form such work and only at such times and in accord with such reg­u­la­tions as the Lessor may pre­scribe from time to time. The Lessor shall have no respon­si­bil­i­ty or lia­bil­i­ty what­so­ev­er with respect to any pri­vate work or ser­vices per­formed by its employ­ees regard­less of whether or not such work was autho­rized.

18.       Home improve­ment. To ensure the over­all pro­tec­tion of the phys­i­cal and struc­tur­al integri­ty of the build­ing, and as a cour­tesy to all share­hold­ers, all con­struc­tion or alter­ations under­tak­en in an apart­ment (with the excep­tion of dec­o­ra­tive work) must be approved in writ­ing by the Board or the Man­ag­ing Agent pri­or to the com­mence­ment of such work. Approval by the Board will require the Lessee to ful­ly com­ply with the fol­low­ing con­di­tions: (a)        The Lessee must pro­vide a copy of the writ­ten estimate/contract with the ven­dor. The con­tract must include the ven­dor’s full name, address, license num­ber, insur­ance cer­tifi­cate, can­cel­la­tion clause, a clause stat­ing that the ven­dor will secure any nec­es­sary per­mits, and a Work­ers Com­pen­sa­tion clause. Tar­get com­ple­tion dates should be includ­ed and the list­ing of work-relat­ed items should be clear and as detailed as pos­si­ble. (b)       Any ren­o­va­tions or alter­ations of an apart­ment involv­ing the floors or walls and ceil­ings will require that the Lessee seal and sound­proof those areas adja­cent to the apart­ment below, above, or adjoin­ing to the apart­ment that is being ren­o­vat­ed. ©        Dis­pos­al of demo­li­tion debris, con­struc­tion mate­ri­als, and any refuse asso­ci­at­ed to and aris­ing from the said con­struc­tion, ren­o­va­tion or alter­ation is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the Lessee and their con­trac­tor. The dis­pos­al of such mate­ri­als must be per­formed in com­pli­ance with New York City dust and debris man­age­ment and lead laws, and under­tak­en out­side of the building’s refuse removal sys­tem. The Lessee and their con­trac­tor must ensure that all pub­lic spaces of the build­ing are clean of debris, dust, con­struc­tion tools, mate­ri­als and/or equip­ment at the end of each work day.

(d)       The Lessee must report all prob­lems aris­ing from the defined con­struc­tion work to the con­trac­tor in writ­ing (Cer­ti­fied Mail pre­ferred) with pho­to­copies giv­en to the Board of the Lessor and/or its des­ig­nat­ed Man­ag­ing Agent.

19.       Water Clos­ets. Water clos­ets and oth­er water appa­ra­tus in the Apart­ment shall not be used for any pur­pos­es oth­er than those for which they were con­struct­ed, nor shall any sweep­ings, rub­bish, rags or any oth­er arti­cle be thrown into the water clos­ets. The cost of repair­ing any dam­age result­ing from mis­use of any water clos­ets or oth­er appa­ra­tus shall be paid for by the Lessee in whose Apart­ment it shall have been caused.

20.       Bro­ken Win­dows. The Lessee shall be respon­si­ble for replac­ing bro­ken win­dows unless the Lessor deter­mines that the break­age was caused by the neg­li­gence or wil­ful mis­con­duct of the Lessor’s employ­ees.

21.       Clean Win­dows; Dis­plays. The Lessee shall keep the win­dows of the Apart­ment clean. In case of refusal or neglect of the Lessee dur­ing ten (10) days after notice in writ­ing from the Lessor or the Man­ag­ing Agent to clean the win­dows, such clean­ing may be done by the Lessor, which shall have the right, by its offi­cers or autho­rized agents, to enter the Apart­ment for the pur­pose and to charge the costs of such clean­ing to the Lessee. Win­dow dis­plays shall be sub­ject to the Lessor’s reg­u­la­tions regard­ing hours, light­ing and the like.

22.       Ver­min. The Lessor or its des­ig­nat­ed agents, and any con­trac­tor or work­er autho­rized by the Lessor, may enter any Apart­ment at any rea­son­able hour of the day for the pur­pose of inspect­ing such Apart­ment to ascer­tain whether mea­sures are nec­es­sary or desir­able to con­trol or exter­mi­nate any ver­min, insect or oth­er pests and for the pur­pose of tak­ing such mea­sures as may be nec­es­sary to con­trol or exter­mi­nate any such ver­min, insects or oth­er pests. If the con­di­tion requir­ing such con­trol or exter­mi­na­tion was caused by the Lessee, then the costs there­of shall be payable by the Lessee to the Lessor on demand.

23.       Dogs and Oth­er Ani­mals. The Lessee agrees to com­ply with the pro­vi­sions here­of on the har­bour­ing of dogs or oth­er ani­mals or pets. No bird or ani­mal shall be kept or har­boured in the build­ing unless the same in each instance has been express­ly per­mit­ted in writ­ing by the Lessor, Man­ag­ing Agent or Board. Such per­mis­sion shall be revo­ca­ble by the Lessor. The Lessee here­by fur­ther agrees that these pro­vi­sions on the har­bour­ing of dogs or oth­er ani­mals or pets in this lease shall be deemed a sub­stan­tial oblig­a­tion of the Lessee’s ten­an­cy.

(a)        Dogs must be licensed by the New York City Depart­ment of Health. Cats must be spayed or neutered and must have received all required vac­ci­na­tions and immu­niza­tions. Pet own­ers are required to pro­vide the Lessor with doc­u­men­ta­tion of com­pli­ance with the require­ments of this house rule. In no event shall dogs be per­mit­ted in any pub­lic space of the build­ing unless car­ried or on leash. (b)       The Lessee shall be respon­si­ble for elim­i­nat­ing any odour from the har­bour­ing of dogs or oth­er ani­mals or pets. The Lessee shall prompt­ly clean up any soil­ing of Pub­lic Spaces by their dogs or oth­er pets, and will be respon­si­ble for any dam­age caused by the same.

©        No pigeons or oth­er birds or ani­mals shall be fed from the win­dow sills, ter­races, bal­conies or in the yard, court or Pub­lic Spaces of the build­ing, or on the side­walks or streets adja­cent to the build­ing.

24.       Plant­i­ngs. The Lessee shall not install any plant­i­ngs on the roofs of the Build­ing, fire escapes, ter­race or bal­cony with­out the pri­or writ­ten approval of the Lessor or, if the Lessor has issued rules regard­ing such plant­i­ngs, the Lessee shall not install any plant­i­ngs with­out com­ply­ing with the rules. The Lessee shall be respon­si­ble for all dam­age or injury caused by any such plant­i­ngs. All lia­bil­i­ty, expens­es, costs and fees incurred by the Lessor in con­nec­tion with any dam­age or injury or in con­nec­tion with any vio­la­tion issued against Lessor or the Build­ing, by rea­son of the Lessee’s fail­ure to abide by this House Rule, shall be the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the Lessee and payable to the Lessor on demand. 

25.       Clean up.  Nei­ther the Lessee, nor any per­son resid­ing in the Apart­ment nor any employ­ee, guest or invi­tee of the Lessee or of any per­son resid­ing in Apart­ment shall inten­tion­al­ly spill, drop, scat­ter, place or leave dirt, debris or oth­er unsight­ly or objec­tion­able liq­uids or mate­ri­als in any por­tion of the Pub­lic Spaces of the Build­ing. Lessee shall prompt­ly clean up all such dirt, debris or unsight­ly or objec­tion­able mate­ri­als or liq­uids inten­tion­al­ly or acci­den­tal­ly spilled, dropped, scat­tered, placed or left in any por­tion of the Pub­lic Spaces of the Build­ing by the Lessee or by any per­son resid­ing in the Apart­ment or any employ­ee, guest or invi­tee of the Lessee or of any per­son resid­ing in the Apart­ment.

26.       Stor­age. If and to the extent that stor­age space is pro­vid­ed to Lessees in the base­ments at the Lessee’s risk, such stor­age shall be sub­ject to rules and reg­u­la­tions adopt­ed by the Board, and may be cur­tailed or with­drawn at any time by the Board with­out in any man­ner affect­ing the Lessee’s oblig­a­tions. The Lessor shall have the right from time to time to cur­tail or relo­cate any space devot­ed to stor­age pur­pos­es. Stor­ing haz­ardous or flam­ma­ble mate­r­i­al, such as paint, in a stor­age bin is not per­mit­ted.

27.       Laun­dry Rooms. If and to the extent that laun­dry rooms are made avail­able to Lessees, the laun­dry rooms shall be used only dur­ing hours des­ig­nat­ed by the Lessor. Use of the laun­dry facil­i­ties shall be lim­it­ed to res­i­dents of the Build­ing and their house­hold employ­ees. Use of the laun­dry rooms shall be sub­ject to rules and reg­u­la­tions adopt­ed by the Board, and may be cur­tailed or with­drawn with­out in any man­ner affect­ing the Lessee’s oblig­a­tions.

28.       Park­ing. If and to the extent park­ing in or at the Build­ing is made avail­able to Lessees, the same shall be in accor­dance with rules and reg­u­la­tions adopt­ed by the Board. Vio­la­tion of any such rule or reg­u­la­tion, or breach of any park­ing agree­ment by the Lessee, shall con­sti­tute a default under the lease. Vio­la­tion of any pro­vi­sion under the lease shall con­sti­tute a default under the park­ing agree­ment. No vehi­cle belong­ing to the Lessee or to the Lessee’s invi­tees, licensees, employ­ees, con­trac­tors, sub­tenants and co-res­i­dents shall be parked any­where in the Build­ing except in the des­ig­nat­ed park­ing areas, nor shall any such vehi­cles be parked in such man­ner as to impede or pre­vent ready access to any entrance of the Build­ings by anoth­er vehi­cle or by pedes­tri­ans.

29.       Com­mu­ni­ty Rooms. If and to the extent Com­mu­ni­ty Rooms are made avail­able to Lessees in the Build­ing, the same may be used by the Lessor, Lessees, oth­er res­i­dents, and their invi­tees for meet­ings and social gath­er­ings in accor­dance with rules and reg­u­la­tions and any fees estab­lished by the Lessor. Such use may be cur­tailed or with­drawn with­out in any man­ner affect­ing the Lessee’s oblig­a­tions.

30.       Open Hous­es, Group Tours, Exhi­bi­tions. No open house, group tour, exhi­bi­tion of any Apart­ment or its con­tents shall be con­duct­ed by Lessees or agent(s) act­ing on their behalf, nor shall any auc­tion sale be held in any Apart­ment or in Pub­lic Spaces, with­out the con­sent of the Lessor, Board or Man­ag­ing Agent. (a)        On the day of an open house the Lessee(s) or their agents shall ensure that: (i) a typed or print­ed notice must be promi­nent­ly dis­played on the exte­ri­or door of the front entrance to the Build­ing, clear­ly indi­cat­ing the hours dur­ing which the open house will take place, the Apart­ment num­ber and cor­re­spond­ing buzzer num­ber; (ii) the exte­ri­or and inte­ri­or doors of the front entrance to the Build­ing are not left open and unlocked dur­ing the peri­od of the open house;  (iii) upon con­clu­sion of the open house all sig­nage, equip­ment, trash and oth­er debris shall be removed and the area(s) restored to the orig­i­nal con­di­tion imme­di­ate­ly before the com­mence­ment of prepa­ra­tions for the open house. (b)       Prospec­tive buy­ers wish­ing to enter the Build­ing must either be met at the front entrance by the Lessee(s) or their agent(s) or grant­ed entry by the remote door secu­ri­ty sys­tem from the Apart­ment.

©        The Lessee(s) and their agent(s) are respon­si­ble for ensur­ing that all appro­pri­ate locks and doors in the Build­ing are secured upon exit.

31.       Con­ser­va­tion. The Lessee shall use best efforts to con­serve con­sump­tion of water, elec­tric­i­ty and gas in order to keep com­mon costs down. The Lessee shall prompt­ly report to the Lessor’s Man­ag­ing Agent, or to emer­gency main­te­nance staff on week­ends, any leak­ing faucets, run­ning toi­lets or oth­er prob­lems relat­ing to water, gas and elec­tric­i­ty, so that repairs can be made with dis­patch.

32.       Com­plaints and Man­age­ment Issues. Com­plaints and queries regard­ing the man­age­ment and main­te­nance of the Build­ing shall be made in writ­ing to the Man­ag­ing Agent. In case of emer­gen­cies, the Super­in­ten­dent should be con­tact­ed in the first instance by tele­phone.

33.       Home Own­ers Insur­ance.  All Lessees must obtain com­pre­hen­sive Home Own­ers Insur­ance Lia­bil­i­ty Cov­er­age for any and all apart­ments or shares they own. A copy of the cer­tifi­cate of Home own­ers Insur­ance Lia­bil­i­ty must be sub­mit­ted to the Board of the Lessor or des­ig­nat­ed Man­ag­ing agent.

34.       Revo­ca­ble Con­sent. Any con­sent or approval giv­en under the House Rules by the Lessor shall be revo­ca­ble at any time.

35.       Amend­ment of and Addi­tion to the House Rules. These House Rules may be added to, amend­ed or repealed at any time by res­o­lu­tion of the Board of the Lessor, and such addi­tion, amend­ment or repeal shall become effec­tive upon writ­ten notice there­of to the lessees of the Build­ing.

[Adopt­ed by res­o­lu­tion of the Board of Direc­tors on May 23rd .2005.]

RECY­CLING­We con­tin­ue to receive fines from NYC for hun­dreds of dol­lars for recy­cling. The cost of each fine con­tin­ues to rise with each vio­la­tion. It is imper­a­tive that we all pay close atten­tion to our recy­cling respon­si­bil­i­ties. Please take anoth­er look at the fly­ers that will be dis­trib­uted.

ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS

In accor­dance with the Bylaws of this Cor­po­ra­tion, the annu­al meet­ing of Share­hold­ers will be held at 8:00pm, on Tues­day the 10th day of May 2011, at 515 Edge­combe Avenue, in the City of New York, State of New York.

The pur­pose of this meet­ing is to elect Direc­tors and to trans­act any oth­er nec­es­sary busi­ness.

Share­hold­ers of record at the close of busi­ness on Fri­day, 6 May 2011 are enti­tled to vote in per­son or by proxy at the meet­ing or any adjourn­ment or adjourn­ments there­of.

EMERGENCIES — WHOM TO CONTACT

*** CALL 911 FOR MEDICAL OR LIFE-THREATENING SITUATIONS *** For oth­er emer­gen­cies and prob­lems with the build­ing or your apart­ment call Build­ing Super­in­ten­dant, Mr Alex Mon­toya (917) 731‑0891 Fail­ing this, please con­tact the fol­low­ing per­sons in the fol­low­ing order    1. Build­ing Man­ag­er, Mr Adriel De La Rosa (917) 903‑0157               2. Man­ag­ing Agent Mr Jer­ry Edel­man (212) 721‑0424                4. Mem­ber of the Coop­er­a­tive Board.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Please email ques­tions and com­plaints to the fol­low­ing addre

ss: 311@edgecombe.us

MEDICAL OR LIFE-THREATENING SITUATIONS

              CALL 911

OTHER EMERGENCIES For oth­er emer­gen­cies and prob­lems with the build­ing or your apart­ment the

first per­son to con­tact is:

             Build­ing Super­in­ten­dant, Mr Alex Mon­toya (917) 731‑0891

Fail­ing this, please con­tact the fol­low­ing per­sons in the fol­low­ing order:

1. Build­ing Man­ag­er, Mr Adriel De La Rosa (917) 903‑0157
   
2. Man­ag­ing Agent Mr Jer­ry Edel­man (212) 721‑0424
   
3. Con­tact a Mem­ber of the Coop­er­a­tive Board.

COMPLAINTS

Please email com­plaints to the fol­low­ing address: 311@edgecombe.us

Elec­tions to the Board are held each year dur­ing the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing of Share­hold­ers.

Board Mem­bers 2010–2011

The fol­low­ing share­hold­ers were elect­ed to the Board of Direc­tors of 515 Edge­combe Avenue Cor­po­ra­tion for the term 2010–2011.

Dr. Eliz­a­beth Castel­li (Pres­i­dent) Mr. Alex Saave­dra (Vice-Pres­i­dent) Ms. Cath­leen Price (Sec­re­tary) Dr. Don­ald Lee (Trea­sur­er)

Ms. Sandy Dorsey (Com­mu­ni­ca­tions)

PREVIOUS BOARD MEMBERS

Board Offi­cers 2009–2010 Dr. Don­ald Lee [Pres­i­dent] Dr. Jide Williams [Vice-Pres­i­dent] Ms. Lisa Wil­son [Sec­re­tary] Mr. Andy Hadel [Trea­sur­er]

Dr. Eliz­a­beth Castel­li [Com­mu­ni­ca­tions]

BOARD MEMBERS, 2008–2009
Dr. Don­ald Lee [Pres­i­dent] Dr. Jide Williams [Vice-Pres­i­dent] Ms. Lisa Wil­son [Sec­re­tary] Mr. Andy Hadel [Trea­sur­er]

Dr. Eliz­a­beth Castel­li [Com­mu­ni­ca­tions]

BOARD MEMBERS, 2007–2008

Dr. Don­ald Lee [President]Dr. Jide Williams [Vice-Pres­i­dent] Ms. Lisa Wil­son [Sec­re­tary] Mr. Andy Hadel [Trea­sur­er] Dr. Eliz­a­beth Castel­li [Com­mu­ni­ca­tions]

BOARD MEMBERS, 2006–2007

Dr Ola­jide Williams [Pres­i­dent] Dr Don­ald Lee [Vice Pres­i­dent] Mr Andrew Hadel [Trea­sur­er] Ms Lisa Wil­son [Sec­re­tary]

Mr Ekker­hart Schwarz [Spon­sor]

BOARD MEMBERS, 2005–2006 Dr Ola­jide Williams [Pres­i­dent] Mr Neil Nash [Vice Pres­i­dent] Dr Don­ald Lee [Trea­sur­er] Ms Lisa Wil­son [Sec­re­tary]

Mr Ekker­hart Schwarz [Spon­sor] BOARD MEMBERS, 2004–2005

Dr Ola­jide Williams [Pres­i­dent] Mr Neil Nash [Vice-Pres­i­dent] Dr Don­ald Lee [Trea­sur­er] Ms Stacey Mor­ris [Sec­re­tary] Mr Ekker­hart Schwarz [Spon­sor]