Page 9 - New England Condominium February 2021

NEWENGLANDCONDO.COM NEW ENGLAND CONDOMINIUM -FEBRUARY 2021 9 ddlevy@roofmaxx.com 5 0 8 -4 4-4 7 66 3 DON’T REPLACE YOUR ROOF… REJUVENATE IT WITH ROOF MAXX! 185 Devonshire Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02110 Quality Representation at Reasonable Rates. (617) 988-0633 Contact Attorney Frank Flynn: FRANK@FLYNNLAW-NE.COM Flynn_E4C.qxp:Layout 1 12/8/14 2:30 PM Page 1 DAL CPA David A. Levy, CPA, P.C. Certified Public Accountants Areas of expertise in Condominiums ■ Cooperatives ■ Timeshares ALL COMMON INTEREST DEVELOPMENTS Call our office for a complimentary review of your financial needs 617-566-3645 or 866-842-0108 20 Freeman Place, Needham, MA 02492 DavidALevy_E4C_NEC_Sept15:Layout 1 10/7/2015 3:54 PM Page 1 SERVICING THE EAST COAST FOR OVER 30 YEARS Member AICPA, CAI-NE www.DALCPAPC.net dlevy@dalcpapc.net as trash collection, but as the homeowner, you’re in charge of maintaining your prop- erty, both the structure you call home and the land upon which it sits. If it snows, you remove the snow from your driveway. If your water pipes freeze and burst, you are responsible for repairing them. You are the king of your castle—and all the responsi- bilities that come along with it. There is a short step between condo and co-op ownership and single-family homeownership, and that is the HOA—the homeowner’s association. In these com- munities, the owners within the commu- nity own their homes (which may be free- standing and not attached to anyone else’s dwelling) outright, but band together to assume certain responsibilities that would not normally be attended to by individual homeowners. These include things like maintenance and management of roads in- side the community’s borders; a commu- nity clubhouse, pool, and any other private amenities; and com- mon elements that may include utilities, facades, or landscap- ing, depending on how the association is set up. But gen- erally, like single- family homeowners, HOA members are in charge of their homes, both inside and out. From HOA membership, the next step to a communal ownership structure is condominium ownership. Like owners of single-family homes and units in HOAs, condominium owners own their property outright—but their owned property en- compasses only what is within the dividing walls of their units. All other parts of the property, whether in a high-rise, mid-rise, or townhouse setting, is owned and main- tained by the condominium association, of which the unit owner is a member. The condominium owner is for the most part free to sell—or even rent out—their unit without the interference or approval of the condominium association. Co-op ownership is significantly more restrictive. Co-op owners don’t own their apartments in the sense of having a deed to a piece of real property. They own shares in a cooperative corporation that in turn owns the building in which their apart- ment is located, and are issued a proprie- tary lease for their unit by the corporation. They can sell those shares and transfer the lease applicable to their apartment—but only to an approved buyer. That approval is given (or withheld) by the co-op’s board of directors—and most boards flatly forbid renting or subletting units, though there are some exceptions. The ‘Landlord Complex’ Many owners—both co-op and condo alike—have a misconception that their board and/or manager functions just like a landlord, and that as such, all of their complaints, minor or major, should be di- rected to either or both of those entities. “The biggest misconception condo owners have,” says Ellen Shapiro, an attorney with the law firm of Marcus, Errico, Emmer & Brooks (MEEB), located in Braintree, Massachusetts, “is that the board exists to serve the owners individually. The board is not the landlord; the board is representing the community as a whole. It represents the organization, not the individual own- ers—and many owners don’t understand that. This problem is created when unit owners have (or are given) the impres- sion that they can call management, the board, or even the association attorneys at any time and speak with them about any- thing in their interest. The board governs the common elements, not the individual units—although decisions they make may affect individual units. ‘If it hap- pens in my unit, the board has to deal with it,’ is not how it works. The board is not your landlord, or your parent, and it can’t fix your individual prob- lems.” This mis- understanding tends to be even more prevalent in co-op buildings—which is perhaps understand- able, given how much power co-op boards do actually have over how their buildings are governed—but is no less incorrect. Co- op owners in New York, where the housing model is especially common, often move directly from being rental tenants to being co-op shareholders with little instruction and extremely limited knowledge of who is responsible for what in their new com- munity. Accustomed for years to calling the landlord when anything goes wrong in their apartment, they’re often surprised to learn that repairs that would be required of a landlord—fixing a leaky faucet, for ex- ample, or replacing a ceiling light fixture— are now very much their responsibility, and are actually detailed in the proprietary lease they were furnished with upon clos- ing on the apartment. The transition from a tenant mentality to a cooperator mental- ity may take time, and it is sometimes met with resistance along the way. “People need to realize that living in a co-op or a condo is very different from renting an apartment,” says Julie Schech- ter, an attorney with the law firm of Arm- strong Teasdale in New York City. “Where- as a landlord remains responsible for most repairs in a rental apartment even though a tenant is occupying it, the owner of a co- operative or condominium unit is respon- sible for many of their own repairs within the apartment. “Typically, as a general rule of thumb,” Schechter continues, “shareholders and unit owners are responsible for whatever is within the four walls of their individual unit, and the cooperative or condominium is responsible for everything in the com- mon areas of the property, and any build- ing system that serves more than one apartment. However, there are some gray areas where it is not always obvious who is responsible for the maintenance and re- pair; for example, HVAC systems, plumb- ing risers and valves, and windows.” Read the Fine Print The pros agree that the best way for a new shareholder or unit owner to edu- cate themselves about his/her individual responsibilities is simply to read the gov- erning documents for the building—and if questions arise, or if any of the legal ter- minology throws them, to ask for clarifica- tion from their closing attorney or another qualified legal expert. “There’s no application process in con- do purchases” as there is in a co-op, says Shapiro. “Condo buyers get a copy of their governing documents from their attor- ney—if he’s worth his salt—but supplying A LOOK AT... continued from page 1 “The biggest misconception condo owners have is that the board exists to serve the owners individually.” — Ellen Shapiro continued on page 10