NJ Cooperator Spring 2020

Managing Through the Coronavirus Crisis What Condo, Co-op & HOA Boards Can Do BY JOSEPH COLBERT AND TEAM COLBERT LAW Spring 2020 NJCOOPERATOR.COM during the day for the unforeseeable future. The rules may have to change. For example, communities usually have rules against creating a nuisance condition; is having a fever and continuing to use common areas like the laundry room, rooftop recreational area, gym, playrooms, pool, etc., a ‘nuisance’? Perhaps that needs to be spelled out in a rule change. Before deciding that, however, you should confer with counsel to make sure the rule is within continued on page 14 205 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY 10016 • CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED continued on page 15 continued on page 16 Like so many other sectors of the economy, residential real estate manage- ment has changed and evolved since the turn of the millennium—and like those other sectors, much of that evolution is directly linked to the development and adoption of technology. Yet the essence of the manager’s mission remains the same: one of close interpersonal interac- tion. Technological advances may have sped up response times and analytics in many situations, but good, old-fashioned personal contact still remains the key- stone to effective management. The Game Changer, for Better or Worse What seems to have changed the most in the last couple of decades is the manager’s work hours. Daniel Wollman, the CEO of Gumley-Haft, a manage- ment firm based in New York City, ex- plains that years ago, his job—while not a traditional was more or less limited to regular business hours. Particularly during the summer months, the pace of work would slow as many people in the industry went away for long periods of time, often as much as a month or even the whole season. With the advent and adoption of email as the primary means of communication between managers and their client communities, that’s defi- nitely changed. “Email changed everything,” Wollman says. “Thirty years ago, there wasn’t an internet. Now I get north of 300 emails daily. This isn’t a criticism, but we now communicate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Email has substantially changed my life. Where we were virtually dead during the summer, now people fire off emails while sitting at the pool sipping a piña colada. People can contact you all On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Here in the US, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has detailed recommendations for individual preparation and response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. On March 14, President Trump declared a National State of Emergency, joining many states — including New York — that had already made their own declarations in the previous days. This is a scary time throughout the world, and we have to take immediate action to help our communities. This is especially true for condominiums, cooperatives and homeowners associations. Unlike schools, sporting events or other large gatherings, that can be cancelled or dis- persed to avoid proximity to other people, these communities contain residents who live amongst each other and share common areas. When quarantined, told to stay home from the office, or to work from home, residents are still a part of a mass of people who are stuck living amongst each other. So what can management and boards do to protect their community associations as we navigate this new reality? Here are some steps you and your board-management team can take right now. Consider Your House Rules For all practical purposes, your board is a quasi-governmental body. For the most part you are allowed to make your own rules, provided that you do so within the confines of the law. Your board should review your house rules and determine whether new rules are needed. Rule changes can be done by a board vote. With residents home from work and children out of school, there are going to be a lot more people in the common areas With few exceptions, most multifamily buildings or communities have at least one or two staff members (and sometimes many more) who maintain the safety, security, cleanliness, mechanical operations, and day- to-day functions that residents and visitors rely on. But who ensures the safety and se- curity of the staff themselves? What systems and protocols are in place to address how employees can keep themselves—and each other—safe on the job? The New Jersey Co- operator went behind the acronyms to find out. OSHA Workplaces throughout the United States and its territories are subject to the Occu- pational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), overseen by the U.S. Department of Labor. According to the OSHA website, “OSHA creates and enforces regulatory standards that require certain precautions to be taken in order to ensure the safety and health of workers.” OSHA regulations are the primary work- er safety statutes in the U.S., says Matthew Persanis, a partner with Elefante & Persanis, LLP, a labor, employment, and real estate law firm in Scarsdale who is also labor counsel to a number of employer associations. “If a building complies with OSHA regulations, they are complying with what they need to.” Part of keeping employees safe is mak- ing sure they’re properly trained for the tasks expected of them. According to an OSHA spokesperson, “Property staff must have training appropriate for the types of jobs and tasks they are performing. If they work on electrical equipment, they need to be quali- fied. If they work with chemicals, they need to be trained in the safe use of those chemi- cals. If they are performing servicing and maintenance on equipment, it is possible they will need training in the control of haz- ardous energy. It is their employer’s respon- sibility to ensure the workers are trained on the hazards to which they are exposed. OSHA offers free, confidential onsite safety and health consultation services.” More in- formation is available at www.osha.gov. It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that OSHA standards are followed and maintained; it is the responsibility of The Evolution of Property Management Big Changes in the Last Decade BY A.J. SIDRANSKY Staff Safety 101 Protecting Employees in Your Building BY DARCEY GERSTEIN