Riverdale co-op residents seek relief from local law compliance costs

Fairfield Avenue cooperative housing resident Aaron Sidlo is calling for a remedy to what he calls a “severe financial strain” caused by building compliance costs. Two hundred and thirty other people signed his petition in agreement.

The petition, which was posted to social media May 26, asked Council member Eric Dinowitz to introduce or support legislation that provides targeted relief for cooperative apartment buildings.

In New York City, building owners are required to comply with two local laws — Local Law 97, which aims to help the environment, and Local Law 11, which aims to make sure the building’s exterior is secure. In a regular building, the landlord or property manager is responsible for payments, but in a cooperative apartment, it falls on residents.

Charges are passed to residents by raising monthly maintenance fees, or with an additional charge that can be paid in a lump sum or over time, called an assessment. Finances are managed by a co-op’s elected board of directors, who are also residents.

Local Law 97 was created as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings are required to limit their emissions, and some have to make capital improvements to comply. These can include upgrading lighting systems, installing green roofs or solar electricity systems, or replacing fossil fuel heating with heat pumps, according to the New York City Department of Buildings.

Local Law 11, or the Façade Inspection and Safety Program, ensures buildings aren’t falling into disrepair, and aims to protect pedestrians from potential hazards such as falling debris, especially during construction.

For him and other co-op residents, Sidlo said assessments are causing financial hardship, forcing shareholders to consider selling, and also decreasing property value and disproportionately impacting middle-class and elderly residents.

Alan Charney, who is on the Fairfield Avenue co-op’s board of directors, said the building has a reserve fund, but assessments are still the most financially responsible way to deal with local laws. As a resident himself, Charney said it’s clear Sidlo’s petition “tapped into some raw nerve in not just people in our building, but in other buildings as well.”

“We want to comply and do the best job we can to keep our building as safe and energy efficient as possible,” Charney said. “But at the same time, we’re having difficulty. People are having to dig deeper and deeper into their savings to pay for the assessments.”

He attributes rising fees to new requirements added onto existing local laws, new local laws being passed and the fact that, sometimes, inspections do reveal costly repair projects that need to be completed.

“There’s no one thing you could put your finger on,” he said.

In the description of his petition, Sidlo wrote that many co-ops don’t have outside capital and rely on shareholders to fund mandated work. Though city mandates were “well-intentioned,” he wrote, they “did not account for the financial structure of cooperative housing.”

Another resident and petition signer, Bat-Sheva Guez, is a filmmaker who has lived in the Fairfield Avenue co-op for seven years. She recalled two or three years ago having to “pony up $12,000 out of nowhere” for brick facade work related to Local Law 11. She is concerned about affording childcare for her 6-year-old daughter amid mounting costs.

“We’re solidly middle class, barely, so for us it’s a lot of money, ” Guez said. “The upcoming assessments give us a lot of fear.”

Guez added in a statement to The Press that while the idea of being a homeowner may suggest wealth, there are small pockets across the city where middle- and lower-middle-class residents can afford to own. Local law fines put those pockets under threat, she said.

Sidlo’s petition garnered social media attention, and it became clear to him that the issue was not only impacting his co-op, but was being felt across the neighborhood.

Alicia Peralta, a longtime resident in a Riverdale Avenue co-op, said last July her building had to increase their maintenance fees by 12 percent — or $180 per month for a one-bedroom apartment. This was in part due to refinancing the building’s mortgage, but mostly to cover local law-related capital improvements, she explained. Peralta said for an older building like hers, which was built in 1960, it’s more expensive to make the necessary changes.

“The way some of these laws are being implemented … they’re cookie-cutter to each property,” Peralta said. “The costs to make these improvements are unattainable for some.”

Peralta said the building found some relief in a city tax abatement program, called J-51, which was recently extended to include co-ops and reduces property taxes for buildings that complete capital repairs. She encouraged other residents to look into securing a tax deduction on improvement costs, but said the parameters to qualify are difficult.

Tao Morgan, an Independence Avenue co-op resident, said smaller buildings are hit even harder. Morgan lives in one of 50 units, and said costs spread over fewer people is a greater burden.

In the petition, Sidlo asked Council member Dinowitz to consider a few solutions: a city subsidy or grant program, a property tax abatement, a hardship relief program or access to low-interest, city-backed financing.

Dinowitz said he has seen the petition, and told The Press he believes it is true that compliance costs add up to be burdensome. He said the issue lies in the fact that some of the recommended programs do exist — such as the J-51 tax abatement Peralta’s building was able to secure — but are not readily accessible to residents or easy to navigate.

It is something his office is working on, and has worked on in the past, he said. City Council has amended local laws to extend the timeline given to meet them, Dinowitz explained, and requested tax abatements from the state.

“I’ve been hearing this stuff for a long time and it’s about time we do something about it,” Dinowitz said. “We deserve to live in a city that’s affordable … That can’t just mean affordable for rent-stabilized tenants, it has to mean affordable for the working class families who’ve put down roots in the community by purchasing shares in a co-op.”

In the meantime, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development Press Secretary Andrew Stern said the J-51 tax program will help offset the cost of efficiency upgrades for many building owners.

Andrew Rudansky, press secretary for the New York City Department of Buildings, emphasized the importance of Local Law 97 to the environment, and Local Law 11 to the safety of the public.

For Local Law 11, the department of buildings is currently developing new rules that will make it easier for owners to comply with inspection requirements, Rudansky said, which will reduce costs associated with the program for co-ops. For example, the department will propose a rule that changes the inspection cycle from once every five years to once every six years. Rudansky said the department will also propose allowing some buildings to replace expensive hands-on inspections with virtual inspections through telephoto camera lenses and drones. The department will release proposed rules to the public later this year, according to Rudansky.

For Local Law 97, the city has prioritized supporting building owners, Rudansky said, which led to a 93 percent rate of owners submitting Local Law 97 compliance reports. That statistic reflects the “dedication of building owners who understand the consequences that inaction on climate change will have on our city,” as well as the combined work of the Department of Buildings’ Sustainability Bureau and the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, Rudansky said.

Aside from the J-51 tax abatement, there is a city program that exists designed to help building owners. Joe Chavez, director of sustainable buildings at the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, said NYC Accelerator can work with co-op and building owners to create a plan that looks at their compliance obligations.

“The city understands that these can be complex to navigate, which is why we have a free program to help owners find incentives, rebates, special financing tools and other resources to help achieve compliance in the most affordable way possible.”

Chavez added the city is exploring neighborhoods to do Local Law 97 workshops in, and Riverdale is one of the top priorities.