What Are the Main Causes of Assessments for Condo and Co-op Buildings in NYC?

Nick at Hauseit (https://www.hauseit.com) reveals the main causes of assessments for condo and co-op buildings in NYC. Save 2% When Buying in NYC with Hauseit: https://www.hauseit.com/buyer-closing-credit/

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Before we share the main causes of assessments for co-op and condo buildings in NYC, let's take a step back and do a quick refresher on the concept of an assessment.

When you own an apartment in New York City, you are responsible for some apportioned share of the total cost of maintaining and operating the building. Typically, your share of responsibility is determined in the case of a condo by the percentage of common interests assigned to your apartment. In the case of a co-op, it is determined by the number of shares assigned to your unit.

From time to time there are certain expenses which significantly exceed the day-to-day budget of the building. And as a result, whatever you're paying each month simply is not enough to cover the requisite capital improvement project or repair for the building. This is when assessments come into play.

The long and short of it is that whenever something really expensive breaks in your building or when something big needs to be repaired, you might very well be assessed.

So, as far as the main things which can cause an assessment, let’s go ahead and start with the major category being mechanical items. Mechanicals include things like elevators. Elevators are extremely expensive. Certainly, a replacement for an elevator can cost several hundred thousand dollars but there are also other fairly large projects that don't necessarily go to the extent of replacing the whole elevator. For example, you may want to renovate the interior of the elevator car, that's very expensive too. There also be required DOB testing and other upgrades, such as, a door lock monitoring system which are very expensive. So basically your building having an elevator or elevators is going to be a potential source of assessments later down the line.

Another mechanical that is fairly expensive is the heating system in the building. Now, of course you have your routine heating inspections and minor repairs but from time to time you actually need to replace the entire boiler system for a large building. This can be very expensive and even in the case of a small six or seven unit building replacing the boilers can definitely cost five figures.

Another costly item in terms of mechanicals is potentially, the intercom. Other mechanical items which could cause an assessment include the riser pipes, and just more generally, plumbing.

To summarize, mechanical issues which may cause an assessment include things like your elevator, your building's heating system, perhaps your intercom system as well as plumbing. Another a mechanical item that may cost a lot of money is your fire sprinkler system. Certainly, replacing expensive things like the sprinkler system pump and the associated electrical and plumbing work are quite pricey.

What other things could potentially cause an assessment? Well in no particular order, let's start with the roof. Periodically, a roof does need to be replaced in New York City. Usually, what that means is you hire a roofing company to basically install a new additional membrane on top of the existing roof. This is rather expensive and it does have to be done periodically. So, this is one potential reason why you may be assessed.

Another item that can cause an assessment is facade related upkeep. Another item that can cause an assessment is your sidewalk outside the building, from time to time the sidewalk and perhaps the underlying vault as they call it.

Now, most of the things we've gone over are essential items to make sure that the building is a going concern and is safe to inhabit. But aside from that, you could potentially also be assessed for discretionary updates or upgrades to the building.
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https://www.hauseit.com

Save money when buying, selling and renting real estate in New York and Florida with Hauseit (https://hauseit.com). Available in NYC, Long Island, the Hudson Valley and South Florida. Est 2014.

Hauseit Group LLC, Licensed Real Estate Corporation
Tel: (888) 494-8258 | https://www.hauseit.com
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