L.S. from New Jersey writes:
Dear Mister Condo,
I have unit in a large co-op (almost 500 units) which is rented out. The Manager of the co-op is pushing me into renovation of 2 bathrooms in this unit. The claim is that high moisture reading in adjacent hallway is caused by my bathroom. The reading of moisture is provided by co-op engineer who does what Manager wants. The Board doesn’t want to help. The Manager has only 2 approved contractors who do all work in co-op and gets paid from them (no proof, all cash). The Manager has same bullying background and law suit from previous work place (co-op) requesting unit owners to do unnecessary repairs and getting kickback. Both bathrooms have no visible defects and look perfect from inside. What can I do? The Board doesn’t respond to my complaints. I wrote to them showing Manager’s background. All correspondence goes through Manager. Is there any organization that protects unit owners in co-op in NJ?
Mister Condo replies:
L.S., thank you for writing. I am sorry for your situation. I am not an attorney so I cannot offer you legal advice. You are describing a particularly legal situation that may very well require legal action to settle. Further, since the Board isn’t amenable to take your side and question the tactics of the Property Manager, that leaves you alone in your battle. If you can’t afford an attorney to represent your best interests you may have little other practical choice but to sell the unit and buy elsewhere.
In NJ, the Department of Community Affairs is tasked with investigating allegations of HOA abuse, which this may fall under. Their website is http://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/dhcr/ and I encourage you to look there and see if there isn’t a resource to assist you. Good luck!
I agree this is frustrating, I had a colleague face this a few months ago, and her lawyer said you can spend the money on lawyers and a couple years in court or you can pay the money and have your plumber upgrade it to the highest standards that exceed code, photograph it all and call it an equity upgrade to your unit.
How you spend your time and money is your business (but when the work is done be there and photograph it – you may need the proof later).