Page 10 - New England Condominium May EXPO 2019

10 NEW ENGLAND CONDOMINIUM — MAY 2019 NEWENGLANDCONDO.COM S o, you want to renovate your kitch- en. You’ve chosen your tile, cabine- try, and fixtures. You’ve gotten bids from several contractors, and are ready to dig in and overhaul the whole space. But not so fast. You live in a co-op. You need board approval before the first hammer falls. The same goes for you if you own a condo. The first step is what is known in the world of community living as an alteration agreement. What’s an Alteration Agreement? “An alteration agreement,” says Phyl- lis Weisberg, a partner at Armstrong Teasdale, a law firm located in New York City, “is the document that signifies the board’s consent to a particular alteration by a shareholder or unit owner, and sets forth the terms and conditions under which consent is given.” Weisberg goes on to explain that “without such an agree- ment, the responsibilities of the person performing the alteration would never be spelled out. These include, among other things, providing insurance coverage as specified by the board, and the neces- sary indemnities of the co-op/condo and others. Without such an agreement, the board’s right to shut down a job would also not be spelled out. This is of par- ticular importance if the job goes bad; if a contractor is creating issues in the building, such as by causing damage or excessive and unreasonable noise; if the work exceeds the permissible scope; or if the job runs over the time allotted for the project.” Kristopher Kasten, an associate at- torney with Chicago-based law firm Mi- chael C. Kim & Associates, explains that the term ‘alteration agreement’ as such isn’t used for condominium buildings in Illinois. However, there are documents, rules, and regulations that govern the same issues. “When a unit owner wants to do some kind of remodeling or con- struction work within their unit,” he says, “the first thing they must look toward is the declaration and bylaws of the associa- tion to determine what those governing documents say. The next step would be to review the association’s rules and reg- ulations. What you commonly see is that unit owners have a right to make changes to their units without board consent, but those changes or remodels can’t adverse- ly impact the common elements.” William Chatt, a partner at Cervantes Chatt & Prince, a law firm with offices in Chicago and Burr Ridge, Illinois, adds that in the condominium documents, “there will be some boilerplate language indicating that in the event a unit own- er is going to have work performed by a contractor. Before that happens, the owner must submit the proposed work, along with information on the contrac- tor and an insurance certificate with the association named as an insured,” to the association. For all intents and purpos- es, these requirements mirror what is re- quested in an alteration agreement by a co-op board. How It Works in Real Life and Real Time Meryl Sacks, President of Sacks Real Estate Management in New York City, has managed co-op and condominium buildings for over 30 years. “An altera- tion agreement,” she says, “is basically a contract between a shareholder in a co- op or a unit owner in a condominium— and yes, in New York, condominiums do use alteration agreements and refer to them as such. What it entails is the scope of the work to be done in the apartment, and it often includes the policies and procedures that are currently in place by the co-op or condo by which sharehold- ers must abide.” Building policies may include many different considerations. One example is ‘no wet over dry.’ In other words, in many (if not most) buildings, apartments are built on a common footprint. All the units in a particular vertical stack or ‘line’ have the same layout. Bathrooms are always over bathrooms, kitchens over kitchens, bedrooms over bedrooms, and so forth. ‘No wet over dry’ means that in the course of a renovation project, you can’t move your kitchen over someone else’s bedroom. Another typical policy is a prohibition against ‘channeling,’ which is removing the floor and cutting into the concrete underneath it to extend plumb- ing, electrical or other lines. Or there could be a policy that does not permit Jacuzzi tubs or clothes washer/dryers, for example. “Agreements and policies,” says Sacks, “can and do change and evolve over time.” Hope Kaye, a resident in a 54-unit co- op in New York City, says that when she moved into her apartment approximately 15 years ago, in-unit washer/dryers were prohibited. She learned from her neigh- bors that when the building was origi- nally converted to co-op from rental, washer/dryers were permitted. Word at the time was that they had caused prob- Alteration Agreements The Prerequisite to Any Project BY A J SIDRANSKY DESIGN ISTOCKPHOTO.COM continued on page 38