Go see a lawyer. It might be a quick visit. If you've exceeded the statute of limitations for this type of issue, then you won't have a case. But you really have two different issues.

One is whether or not you have any recourse against your original lawyer and/or the seller (probably not, given the length of time--though you say about five years when a property search suggests you bought in July 2010 so you might not have exceeded the time limit).

The other is getting a lawyer involved to help get your association organized going forward. But that would have to be someone that everyone (i.e., the association) agrees to work with. As I don't think any of you will be able to sell until you get one in place and have financial reserves, this seems like it would be in the best interest of all parties.

Do you honestly think the JC Post Office is sophisticated enough to be using xray technology? LOL

I don't blame you for thinking that the JC Post Office had something to do with it's disappearance. But it's 'just' because they are completely incompetent.

Even if you pay for tracking, it's a crap shoot whether they will be able to locate the package.

I would expect roof repairs to be an association expense, but this should be outlined in your bylaws.

Pest problems and wear and tear depend on whether they were in common areas. If common areas, I would expect them to be association expenses, but again, this should be outlined.

Are you saying that you've personally been paying for maintenance of common areas? Have you been having regular association meetings? Does your association collect monthly maintenance fees?

Online, it looks like your condo association was established in 2002. Didn't your lender require financial statements before approving the mortgage?

Quote:

The spots are privately deeded parking spots and not all units come with parking spots. I'm not sure what the exact number is, but I'm guessing maybe half the units have a parking spot? Occasionally, owners rent out their spots out. But let's be clear.... "a few bucks" is actually $150-225 a month.

99% of the time, I park on Columbus, west of Coles. That's where I see my neighbors park too. I doubt that is impacting you too much?

We've been there since December and are very happy.

I haven't seen a rodent or any sign of a rodent in our condo (second floor, building B). Nor have I seen any other pests. Quite a lovely change from the previous 12 years in a brownstone on 2nd st.

Only once since moving in have we heard a neighbor. She was doing a deep cleaning and had the stereo blasting. I have been pleasantly surprised at how quiet it is, and our windows look over Columbus Drive!

Walking through the hallways, I hear an occasional dog barking, but that's it.

All in all, we love it.

First, can someone merge this thread in with your other thread about this condo purchase? It answers the question about whether you are buying at canco.

Second, how many red flags do you need to walk away from this property?

I do not know who was legally or ethically responsible for advising you about these risks, but the fact that your real estate agent didn't is troubling. Mine informed me upfront about these issues so we could factor into whether we wanted to pursue a property.

Is your agent in cahoots with the developer? I already thought you were getting bamboozled when you posted on the other thread.

Best of luck.

FYI, we went with guaranteed rate, who sold our mortgage one months later to someone who sold our mortgage to another lender (who failed to pay our taxes). No joke....3 lenders in 7 months. 13 years of dealing with mortgages in JC and we've never experienced anything like this. I would NOT recommend Guaranteed Rate to anyone.

Yep, that's my understanding....that the property owner is responsible to the end of the curb. My understanding is also that the property owner is liable for any injuries that result from the uneven sidewalks. I'm surprised we don't hear about lawsuits related to this. I've tripped and fallen twice walking around downtown but was lucky to only end up with a few scrapes and bruises.

That seems like a major red flag...the seller expects it to appraise low and wants you locked in. Not a risk I would personally take because all the evidence in front of me would be saying "the condo isn't worth this." I mean, what if it appraises significantly lower than even the seller expects (i.e., even with your 30% downpayment, you still might have to put in more to avoid mortgage insurance)?

I lived around the corner on 2nd/Erie at that time. I don't recall seeing any flooding there, nor do I recall seeing people pumping water out of basements.

I've found the most effective approach in my back yard is one or two strategically placed box fans. They can't handle the breeze.

You also have to consider that though the ground unit is most directly impacted, you want the foundation walls and building structure to remain sound. So a lot of this stuff can't simply be left to the ground unit to address. I know that one building I'd looked at had a pretty ugly fight between owners, until the above-ground owners realized that they had an interest in making sure the downstairs was protected (both for electrical/water heater and structural reasons). So the condo association as a whole invested in sump pumps and other 'anti-flood' measures. You should definitely look into what flood insurance is carried by the association vs individual units. I don't know how that works.

The listing is inaccurate. The owners of that property pay $19,396.80.

They appear to own a number of properties in Jersey City.

Looks like that was a pretty old post that referred to 2 years free HOA. I imagine the developer needed to give those kind of incentives then, but that's not the case now.

So, like the comments about pests,

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this too doesn't describe current state.

I'm being literal when I said I've seen one piece of mouse poop and one roach in our place in the past six months. And I've done nothing to deter pests. Maybe I'm lucky!? But, minimally, I would say that you can't generalize pest issues to the entire complex.

The dryer has to be ventless, which limits the options. I've heard from other owners that there's a Bosch unit that is good. Ours is LG and does a great job of holding the dog food container up off the floor. :) We use ours for small loads (underwear, socks) on occasion. But honestly, I find it much more efficient to start a number of loads, head to the gym, switch the laundry to dryer, head home and shower, and return to fold. It saves me a lot of time using the laundry rooms.

Not sure which buildings have issues with pests or if it can even be generalized to entire buildings (I don't get that sense at all). In our time here, I've seen one mouse poop and one roach in our unit. A million times better than our previous home.

I have been living there about 6 months after living a few blocks away in a brownstone for about 12 years. My husband and I (and dog) love it. I have only heard my neighbors on a few occasions, am pleasantly surprised that I can't really hear much traffic (I'm on the second floor along Columbus), and have not experienced any pest issues. It's about a 6-7 minute walk for me to get to the PATH, and though I thought it was silly and that I would never take advantage of it, the shuttle has come in handy on numerous occasions. Love having someone to sign for packages, as well as having the gym onsite. I still fell very centrally located and safe. I have a car--briefly thought about renting out a parking space (owners list them for rent fairly regularly)--but found that I have no trouble finding parking in the neighborhood. All in all, two thumbs up.

My only complaints are that the unit came with a high end combined washer/dryer unit that is utterly useless (unless I want to invest 4 hours in a single, very wrinkled load). But, there are a number of (clean, usually empty) laundry rooms in the complex, so I've had zero challenges getting laundry done. Also, the water heaters seem kind of wimpy. So it's hard to get two full back to back hot showers (not sure if that will just be a winter issue). These are minor inconveniences to which we adjusted easily.

Please also note that when we say transfer, it's not a free transfer. You would have to buy a light rail ticket (or monthly pass) and then use a PATH card (monthly or per trip) or a pay-per-ride metrocard (you can't use the monthly MTA metrocard on the PATH). Then, depending on where you need to go in NYC, you may be able to walk, or you may have to take a subway (using an MTA pay-per-ride or monthly card). It probably makes sense to look at the bus options to Manhattan. If you give us a sense of where you need to end up, I'm sure someone has identified the most efficient route.

It looks like after 9 pm on weekdays, the light rail only runs twice an hour out to West Side. Is that right? May want to factor that in to your anticipated commute time. Or the additional cost of taking a taxi home from JSQ. As others indicated, 45 minutes from West Side to 33rd is probably when everything aligns perfectly during rush hour.

Squeeg, if you want anyone to take you seriously, you need to stop acting crazy. I mean, I'm kind of getting a kick out of it. But a part of me feels sad because I can only assume you are mentally ill.

Please provide the addresses of the homes that you believe were single family broken into multi-families. Then we can easily look up the property and see what it's status is. Your assumptions may be flawed.

For example, in my old building we were two families living in a legal three family building. One couple got a two-floor duplex, while the other family lived across two separate one floor apartments (we didn't alter any entrances or anything). So from an outsiders perspective, when we sold and the new owner had three separate units, some might mistakenly believe that the new owner had changed the number of units. I realize this is a highly unusual situation. But it happens.

Also, while I too believe that maintaining historical interior details, I also know that owners all over the city over the past many, many decades have done shitty remodeling and 'upgrades' that are in no way historic, high quality, or, in many cases, legal. You can't control what other owners are going to do inside their buildings. You can't control what the next owner does to your former home. It doesn't work that way.

And how do you have so much time to devote to stalking Dixon properties? The word that comes to mind is creepy.

I should also note that the place had been under contract several times before us. The first time it fell through because the owner hadn't disclosed the Irene flooding. The second time because the condo association would not cooperate--I think they were reluctant to let the unit sell so low because they thought it would bring down their property values.

Someone on another thread asked about the disclosure rules. Doe anyone know specifics? I think you have to disclose anything that happened while you owned the home (e.g., this person should have to tell you about whether the place flooded in both Irene and Sandy if they owned it during this time). But, I'm not sure.

We almost took a similar risk on a place down on Bright St near Grove/Grand that had been flooded during Irene. It had been completely gutted, renovated (nothing fancy, but we were mainly looking for a crash pad), and the owner had installed a sump pump (maybe even got the condo association involved).

While in attorney review, Sandy hit. And the place was suddenly under 5-6 ft of water. Needless to say, we backed out. I don't think a sump pump would have helped, even if the owner had bothered to purchase a generator/battery back up.

I think you should factor in the extra expense of annual flood insurance, any one-time costs such as generator or sump pump, the anticipated costs of being homeless if it floods again, etc. You may find that it's not such a great deal. Or you might hit the lottery! As someone else said, certain blocks are notorious at this point.

Doesn't it mirror the new FEMA flood map? I thought someone posted the FEMA map a while ago but can't find it again.

I think the fact they put sand bags out for a non-hurricane rain storm is revealing...

What is the ballpark estimate for installing a sump pump? For a generator (and will you have a place to store it)?

Do you know if you will be required to buy flood insurance?

I find it surprising that they didn't install a sump pump after flooding.

Squeeg...I'm suspicious of the fact that this you have only posted twice on jclist ever--solely on this thread. Of all the things that happen in JC, this is the first time that you've felt the need to be a concerned neighbor? Did you lose out on a bid to these guys? There's obviously more to your story.

I have have read the posts on this topic over the past few months with great interest. Some people indicate that they are actually making positive changes in their neighborhoods. There are pros and cons to selling to them, and I'm sure that people have a variety of reasons for doing so.

BTW, is there such a thing as a landlord who is not in it for the money?

If indeed they are changing a legal two-family into an illegal three-family, you should report them instead of wasting your time insulting others on this list whose opinions differ from yours.

And no, I don't work for them.

Thank you, JustJames, for starting what is sure to be an amusing thread.

Many places (e.g., salvation army) won't even take fabric furniture donations anymore, due to bed bugs.

As mentioned, put them out on trash night, and maybe post something on freecycle, craigslist, etc. But, generally things will quickly disappear on their own.

I think I'm most confused by the notion of driving to the Gramercy Park area daily (in terms of time, money, and stress), as opposed to what neighborhood to recommend. I encourage you to seriously evaluate whether you want/need to do that, as it has implications for where you choose to live.

I can?t think of a reason why anyone would do this unless they had to. So, I can only assume that you are required to have your car for work?and that your work will be picking up most of the expense? Otherwise, consider living within walking distance of the PATH and you could boost your rent budget by several hundred dollars (possibly $600/month when you account for tolls, parking, and gas), not to mention save time, and reduce stress. Go down to one car, and you would save the car insurance/payments/etc?and have even more money for that second bathroom.

Not sure if you currently live a reasonable distance to here, but you may want to consider doing a test run before committing to a neighborhood to evaluate driving in to Gramercy in the morning. But don?t forget to include a return test run during rush hour?as waiting to get into the Holland Tunnel from the NYC side is its own form of torture. You might quickly find that you would not want to do this on a daily basis and therefore decide that it makes more sense to center your search around access to transportation. That?s a bad realization to have belatedly.

We've been using John Ng for a few years and have had nothing but good experiences. He has an office right by the Grove St PATH.

Stay away from Sal Grasso in Hoboken.

I'm a woman, and from the limited information in the article, I agree that it sounds ridiculous that this person was arrested. BTW, there is absolutely nothing in Bill's post that could in any way be interpreted as sexist.

I wonder if the "victim" is new to an urban environment and hadn't ridden a crowded train before? Yeah, you are going to come into contact with people. Welcome to city life. And there's a good chance that they will be a different age, gender, and/or race/ethnicity than you. If that makes you uncomfortable, then don't live in one of the most diverse places on the planet.

She acknowledges that it was crowded. So she was surrounded by people who could have helped her as she was supposedly attacked. And she didn't seek any help? I'm calling bullsh!t on this.

That was my first instinct about the post--i.e., that this was a Port Liberte resident. 07310 threw me off though, as it suggests that the person doesn't live in Port Liberte.

07310, please clarify for us, as I'd be curious to know whether other abated properties were undertaxed for the last several years.

Sorry to be kind of snarky, but I look forward to you being able to afford to move. It must be awful having to slum it with those of us who actually like living here and being part of our neighborhoods.

We ordered delivery from them last night just before 7:30 pm and it arrived in about 45 minutes to Columbus/Coles.

Maybe we were lucky? Regardless, it was delicious!