Your Condominium's Board of Managers is governed by the NY Condominium Act, and the two governing principles it must abide by are a fiduciary duty to the owners and the business judgment rule.
Cooperative and condominium directors owe a fiduciary duty to the membership to exercise their authority in the best interests of the corporation or association and all of its shareholders and owners. The business judgment rule provides that a board action is protected from challenge if there is a good business justification for the decision and it isn’t fraudulent or an abuse of discretion.
So there's been a flood - what should they do?
1) Secure the property.
2) Contact the building's flood insurer.
3) Notify the owners that this has been done.
4) Begin debris removal, cleaning and mold remediation
5) Allow the owners to retrieve salvageable items.
6) Solicit bids for the repair and reconstruction.
7) Hire a contractor using a sealed bid process.
8) Make sure the contractor has the proper licenses, insurance, and permits in place.
9) Notify the owners that this has been done.
10) Supervise the work, including all inspection reports provided to the Building Department.
11) Provide progress reports to the owners as the job proceeds.
12) Provide the insurance adjustment report for each apartment to each owner. Provide the common area insurance adjustment report to all owners.
13) Address any owner's concern immediately and professionally.
Well, that didn't happen here. The condo board and its managing agent hired an old friend - let's call him Schneider, after the inept handyman character on 'One Day At A Time'. Schneider didn't even have to bid competitively for the job, and a surety bond was apparently viewed by the board as an unnecessary expense.
Red Flag # 1: Schneider ran around telling everyone that he was financing the job himself and that Park Place owed him over a million dollars. That's not how insurance works on my planet. On Earth, in New York, insurance companies pay an initial amount to get things started and additional amounts as work progresses prior to settling a claim. Homeowners generally don't get their contractors to advance funds for materials or wages for their workers.
Schneider was a bit rude and crude, and both he and the managing agent refused to provide me with the actual cost allowance for basic items like tile, flooring or bathroom fixtures. Instead, I was given a 'range' for these items. That was Red Flag #2. Then I noticed that the work was a bit shoddy, and Schneider's staff acted like they were doing me a favor by doing it. Rather than fight that out with Schneider, I decided to look into hiring my own contractor.
That was how I found out that Schneider didn't have ANY permits to do ANY work in the building at all. RED FLAG #3.
I immediately fired him - and notified the building manager that the work that had been done so far was not done under the proper permits. No plumbing inspections. No electrical rough-in inspections. We still don't know if licensed professionals did the work.
Schneider only had a commercial license, which doesn't allow him to do work for individual apartment owners unless the Building Commissioner allows it. Of course, the Building Commissioner could not have indicated that he allowed it, because Schneider never filed for permits. That didn't stop Schneider from issuing a fraudulent invoice for the flooring in my apartment. Red Flag #4.
The building manager told me that "Schneider knows people at the Building Department" and therefore permits were not needed.
Wut? Wait. Was my condo's managing agent seriously telling me that Schneider's massive contracting prowess exempted him from proving that he was licensed, insured, and employed licensed people whose work would be inspected as required?
Yes, he was. That was exactly what he was telling me. Red Flag #5.
After I was assured by Scott Kemins and his staff that permits ARE required, my contractor applied for them. I received notes from both the Building Department and the condo manager that work could not commence until the permits were approved. This was kind of interesting, considering that Schneider had been able to operate without them for months. But we proceeded by the book.
The next time my contractor went to the apartment, my locks had been broken, the new air conditioner / heaters had been removed and replaced with contaminated, broken ones, and there was a huge note on my door telling me not to park in the parking lot. He took pictures of them and immediately called me.
'Now', I thought, 'we've passed red flags'. I contacted the Long Beach Police Department. What followed was reminiscent of the most Keystone-y Keystone Kops episode I've ever seen.
I'll have a few words about Detective Miguez, Detective Lt. Chernaski and LBPD Commissioner Tangney's response to the burglary in my apartment first thing tomorrow morning. When I roll the tape on that, you're going to wonder what the hell has to happen in order to get the police in Long Beach to enforce the law.
Especially when people like this are operating the LBPD: http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/5772
