Page 4 - NY Cooperator December 2019

4 THE COOPERATOR —
DECEMBER 2019
COOPERATOR.COM
Thurs., December 12, 2019
CAI-LI Annual Chapter Holiday Party
Sangria 71 Restaurant, 1095 Jericho
Turnpike, Commack, NY
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
To pre-register for events or to obtain more
information, call (631) 882-8683 or send an
email to info@cai-li.org. Visit www.cai-li.org/
upcoming-events.html for more information.
Thurs., January 16, 2020
Workshop for Building Treasurers
Location to be announced
Treasurers are responsible for all aspects of
the financial health of their cooperatives and
condominiums—all are potential discussion
topics at the Treasurers’ Workshop. This is not
a “how-to” presentation, but rather an oppor-
tunity for treasurers to “talk shop” with one
another and to seek guidance from accountant
Rick Montanye. Issues raised by participants
set the agenda. Treasurers (and other board
members) of CNYC member cooperatives
and condominiums attend at no cost, as can
treasurers from FNYHC, CCC, ARC, and
UHAB, but advanced registration is required.
Non-members are very welcome at a fee of
$50, payable in advance. To pay at the door,
pre-register and add $15. Visit www.cnyc.com/
ahc/cnyc_eventreg_welcome.php?action=add
to register and for more information.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
REBNY 124th Annual Banquet
6:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
New York Hilton Midtown, 1335 Avenue of
the Americas, New York, NY
REBNY’s Annual Banquet is New York City’s
largest real estate networking event, providing
a unique and invaluable opportunity to share
space with top owners, developers, brokers,
and major city officials in one room. Bringing
together over 2,000 people, this event honors
these movers and shakers by presenting seven
prestigious industry awards throughout the
evening. Register at https://rebny.com/con-
tent/rebny/en/Event_Calendar/event.html/
REBNY_124th_Annual_Banquet_Gala_1791.
html or email Mckenna Warren for more infor-
mation at Banquet@rebny.com.
CAL EN D AR
Industry Pulse
Dec-Jan
Law & Legislation
A Push for Affordable Homeownership
Proposing that 2020 could finally be the
year that attention gets paid to housing af-
fordability in the ownership sector after the
state addressed the rental and public hous-
ing sectors through reforms in the Hous-
ing Stability and Tenant Protections Act of
2019, Matt Dunbar, VP of External Affairs
for Habitat for Humanity New York City, is
urging housing advocates and lawmakers to
focus on the benefits and opportunities that
homeownership can provide to low- and
middle-class families, and to neighborhoods
and cities themselves. In a
Gotham Gazette
opinion piece, Dunbar says that “Now it is
time for Albany to address the long-neglect-
ed affordable ownership sector of the hous-
ing continuum by passing a similar package
of comprehensive legislation aimed at sup-
porting existing affordable homes, as well
as the creation of new low-to-moderate-in-
come, first-time homebuyer opportunities.”
Dunbar cites his experience at Habitat for
Humanity, arguing that the interconnected-
ness of various housing segments suggests
that a more comprehensive approach could
lead to exponentially positive outcomes. The
inverse is also true: Dunbar points out that
when parts of the continuum are ignored or
perform poorly, negative effects snowball,
such as the 2008 foreclosure crisis, “which
had a cascading effect beginning with few-
er new homeowners, increasing rents, and
spikes in homelessness rates.”
Dunbar suggests that opening up home-
ownership to more families (particularly in
New York City, which has one of the lowest
homeownership rates in the country) would
also make inroads toward a more equitable
housing landscape. Rather than reinscrib-
ing decades of discriminatory and red-lining
policy that has disproportionately prevented
black families from building generational
wealth through homeownership, Dunbar
says that addressing funding, policy, and
programs targeted at permanently afford-
able homeownership would provide more
opportunities for underserved segments of
the population to participate in the owner-
ship model. Importantly, Dunbar concludes
that “Homeownership is a tool that helps
families build strength, stability, and self-
determination and is a foundation for eco-
nomic mobility. It is time for Albany to work
on pro-equitable homeowner legislation and
make 2020 the Year of the Homeowner.”
Pied-à-Terre Tax Threatens New York’s
Luxury Market
Bloomberg Quint reports that another
blow may be heading toward the high-end
real estate market, in the form of a revived
effort by state lawmakers to impose a tax
on second-home purchases of $5 million or
more. This tax follows the recently increased
“mansion tax” (part of a legislative compro-
mise to address opposition to the original
version of the proposal) and the elimination
of anonymous real estate purchases through
LLCs—a legislative trifecta that attempts to
improve transparency and exact funding for
the state’s needed services from the people
who park their money in New York proper-
ties.
Perhaps not surprisingly, high-end de-
velopers and clients—as well as their law-
yers, appraisers, and brokers—oppose the
idea on the grounds that there is already a
glut of luxury condos with no buyers, with
thousands more in the development pipe-
line. To this corner of the market, the new
tax “would further dent demand in the al-
ready struggling luxury real estate market,”
according to Bloomberg. “And [in this envi-
ronment,] would the city really want to dis-
courage pied-à-terre owners from coming to
New York?” asks William Zeckendorf, de-
veloper of such billionaire addresses as 520
Park Ave. and 15 Central Park West.
Whether the tax will actually deter multi-
million-dollar purchases of second (or third,
or fourth) homes is debatable. According
to James Parrott, the economist who wrote
the report that spurred State Senator Brad
Hoylman to first push for the pied-à-terre
tax back in 2014, a course correction might
be just what the city’s real estate market
needs. “The way a market economy adjusts
to something like this is that the prices come
down, and in the future, high-end develop-
ers will be more circumspect in what they
build,” Parrott suggests.
But to Donna Olshan, president of luxury
brokerage Olshan Realty Inc., wealthy clients
like hers aren’t going to invest in a depreciat-
ing asset. As she tells Bloomberg, “The no-
tion that they’re just going to spend money
because they want something and not con-
sider the consequences or the risk is ridicu-
lous.”
Recent Rules and Regs for Residential
Buildings
The Council of New York City Coop-
eratives & Condominiums (CNYC) has an-
nounced a number of new amendments and
changes to city rules and regulations in a no-
tice to members.
Effective November 15, 2019, there are
new requirements for content and distribu-
tion of the Fire and Emergency Prepared-
ness Guide (FEP), checklist, and notices. The
2018 guide includes several components: a
Building Information Form describing the
building’s construction, fire protection sys-
tems, means of egress, and presence of any
emergency voice communication systems;
the guide itself, titled NYC Apartment Build-
ing Emergency Preparedness Guide, with
preparation and protection advice for oc-
cupants, particularly those who might need
help in the event of an evacuation; an Emer-
gency Preparedness and Evacuation Check-
list (currently under development) designed
to help residents plan for emergencies, again
with particular focus on housebound resi-
dents; and a Fire and Emergency Prepared-
ness Notice, with evacuation instructions
based on the building’s combustibility status.
Distribution of these components must
follow a specific schedule: the new Checklist
must be distributed by April 30, 2020 to all
residents, either with the other documents
or by itself. Thereafter, the Form, Checklist,
and any changes to the Guide can be dis-
tributed either in January with the window
guard notices, or in October each year. Ev-
ery three years thereafter, the Guide and FEP
Notice must be distributed building-wide in
whichever month the Form and Checklist
were distributed. All new residents must be
given the Guide, Form, Checklist, and No-
tice when they first move into the building.
Distribution can be electronic via email to
residents who have provided email addresses
for purposes of receiving building commu-
nication.
As part of the amendments issued in
2019, buildings must now post a ‘Close the
Door’ sign on the public hallway side of
stairwell doors. Specific wording and visuals
for the sign are part of the regulation.
Effective October 23, 2019, the Depart-
ment of Buildings (DOB) finalized and ad-
opted the rules regulating Local Law (LL)
152 of 2016 that requires buildings to vi-
sually inspect all exposed gas piping and
perform checks for gas leaks. Inspections
must be performed by a qualified gas pip-
ing system inspector and filed once every
four years, according to a schedule based on
the Community Board District of the build-
ing. Any necessary corrections must be per-
formed and reported within 120 days of the
initial inspection. Buildings without gas pip-
ing must file a certification of such prepared
by a registered design professional once ev-
ery four years during the year before their
inspection would be due.
Buildings that fail to file in a timely fash-
ion may be subject to a $10,000 fine.
Additionally, Con Edison has hired Preci-
sion Pipeline Solutions to perform the NYS
Public Service Commission’s three-year in-
spections of exposed gas piping up to the
outlet of all gas meters and gas leakage sur-
vey at each site. Customers are required to
grant access to Precision Pipeline Solutions
and allow them to perform the mandated in-
spections.
n
Legislation
New State Law Requires LLCs to Disclose
Identities in Residential Transactions
2019/20
PULSE/CALENDAR
Please submit Pulse items to
Darcey Gerstein at
darcey@cooperator.com