CooperatorNews NY January 2021

January 2021 COOPERATORNEWS.COM continued on page 12 about to start now!” Another reported that he had to set up sup- port groups for the staff in his building because the stress of traveling to and from the building and the nervous behavior of the residents were causing pervasive, chronic feelings of fear and despair. The truth is that never before had property managers and their client communities faced a crisis of this type, presenting NEW YORK THE CO-OP & CONDO RESOURCE COOPERATORNEWS continued on page 10 Buildings are in many respects like cars; they’re a synthesis of a number of mechani- cal systems with lots of moving parts. To keep a car running at peak performance, it requires regular maintenance: oil changes, engine tune-ups, regular emissions inspec- tions. Buildings are the same. If a boiler is not properly maintained, its efficiency drops, and heating costs increase. If roofs or facades aren’t inspected and kept up, they can leak, causing water damage to in- terior walls, wiring, and ceilings. The key to avoiding these problems is staying on top of them with regular inspections and upkeep. To that end, scheduling is everything when it comes to maintaining optimal perfor- mance. Why Inspect, and When? “Preventive maintenance helps extend the useful life of a building’s infrastructure and makes sure all systems operate effec- tively and efficiently,” says Dan Wollman, CEO of Gumley Haft, a management firm based in Manhattan. “It also allows us to evaluate where cost savings may be found, as well as forecasting major repairs which become necessary as buildings age. Inspec- tions, servicing major building equipment systems, and assessing what needs to be re- paired or replaced, all fall under year-round schedules of preventive maintenance. At Gumley Haft, we set up preventive main- tenance programs in all our buildings to oversee different building systems at differ- ent times of year. Programs like these are very important to how a building operates optimally.” Scott Wolf, managing partner at BRIGS Property Management located in Boston, Massachusetts, adds, “Regular maintenance of building components extends the life and The day-to-day life of a property manager—while not quite as predictable as that of, say, an accountant—does revolve around certain cyclical tasks, like building inspec- tions, staff meetings, and keeping boards informed of what is going on with various projects in their buildings. That’s not to say that there isn’t an occasional emergency, of course; a boiler fails, a visitor slips and falls, a vendor doesn’t deliver. And while any good manager takes these challenges in stride, there’s little that could have prepared managers for what they would face with the arrival of COVID-19. The novel coronavirus is called ‘novel’ for a reason. It’s a newly emerged public health threat that you can’t see, smell, taste, or feel—at least until you’ve contracted it. It’s there, everywhere, and at the beginning of the pandemic, no one knew exactly where. It created paralyzing fear for both our leaders and individuals, particularly in New York City, its first epicenter. In a hyper-urban environment where people were packed in like sardines to begin with, physical distance between loved ones, neigh- bors, and strangers went from being a luxury to being a requirement. The many non- verbal cues we receive and interpret from facial expressions disappeared behind fea- tureless masks; no more smiles from the porter when he came to deliver a package to your apartment. The mental and emotional stress foisted upon literally millions of people in what many would agree was often already a stressful environment has frayed nerves, short- ened tempers, and in some cases ignited conflict between neighbors and between resi- dents of co-ops and condos, their boards, and their management agents and staff. The stress has extended to the smallest of things. One manager reported that when the board of a building she manages decided to ban domestic helpers from entering the property, she received a call from an irate shareholder. The shareholder told her in no uncertain terms that she “hadn’t picked up a vacuum in 50 years—and wasn’t While many condominium associa- tions and co-op corporations hire profes- sional property managers or management firms to handle the routine (and not-so- routine) tasks involved in running a mul- tifamily building or HOA, a significant number take the opposite route, eschew- ing formal management and running their properties themselves. While most of these self-managed communities tend to be on the smaller side, self-management can be successful at any size, from a handful of units to hundreds. Self-management involves numerous skills, however; everything from account- ing to minor home repairs may need to be handled directly by the board, rather than being delegated by a manager or firm. Ob- viously, anyone with a plumbing problem can call a plumber; you don’t have to be a professional manager to intervene when a leak rears its head. But that said, the most successful self-managed properties are those that do have a range of practical skills distributed between owners, and a positive, community-oriented view from members. It’s a ‘pitch-in’ sort of atmo- sphere, and it’s not for everyone. The arrival of COVID-19 has had ma- jor implications for all properties and their management of course, but the pandem- ic-related restrictions on close personal contact has had a particularly personal effect on smaller, self-managed communi- ties. CooperatorNews spoke with several self-managed community leaders to un- derstand how the global health crisis has changed the way they live, and how they manage themselves. A Condo Grows in Brooklyn Benjamin Weinstein is the vice presi- dent of a 10-unit condominium building located on Lorimer Street in the Williams- burg section of Brooklyn. The five-story elevator property was built in 2018 and is 100 percent sold. Weinstein explains that when the as- sociation was originally formed, they had outside management. However, with minimal reserves and residents and board Management in Crisis: How the Pandemic Changed an Industry BY A J SIDRANSKY Self-Management in Stressful Times Some Communities Go it Alone—Others Outsource BY A. J. SIDRANSKY Inspection Timetables Maintaining Maintenance, Keeping Your Building Healthy BY A.J. SIDRANSKY 205 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY 10016 • CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED continued on page 14