Recent Videos
00:00 [Music]
00:13 my name is Jason sky Johnno and I’m
00:16 president of Lovett first associates in
00:18 Tarrytown New York I wanted to talk
00:21 about a topic today that a number of
00:24 boards of condominiums and coops are
00:26 unaware and it’s a topic that can
00:29 drastically affect their liability
00:31 exposure and ultimately their insurance
00:33 premiums for many years to come if it’s
00:35 not properly addressed the topic is
00:38 related to a law and New York State
00:41 called the New York State scaffold law
00:42 New York is the only state in the United
00:45 States of America that has this type of
00:47 law and basically the law says that if a
00:51 worker for instance for a contractor
00:53 working at the condo or co-op building
00:56 is injured particularly in a fall from a
00:59 height like a ladder or a tree or a roof
01:02 that the building will be absolutely
01:04 liable for that contractor’s injuries in
01:07 a court of law under a liability suit so
01:10 obviously the law has huge implications
01:13 and risks for buildings many boards are
01:16 under the assumption mistakenly that if
01:19 the board or the managing agent collects
01:22 a document called a certificate of
01:25 liability insurance and if that document
01:28 lists in the description box that the
01:33 building and the managing agent and
01:35 board are additional insurance on the
01:38 contractors general liability policy the
01:41 board assumes that they’ve got
01:42 protection and that one of the
01:44 contractors workers is injured that the
01:46 board in the building will be protected
01:49 by the contractors insurance policy
01:51 because this thing says their additional
01:53 insured in fact if you read the words
01:57 that are highlighted at the very top of
01:58 this document they say this certificate
02:01 is not worth anything it transfers no
02:04 rights no protection to the additional
02:07 insurance and it specifically says that
02:10 if the certificate holder is an
02:12 additional insured
02:13 the policies of the contractor must be
02:16 endorsed well what does that mean
02:18 endorsed most contractors general
02:22 liability policies have what’s called an
02:25 additional insured endorsement that
02:28 states that the contractor is allowed to
02:31 name anyone that the contractor wishes
02:34 as an additional insured any entity any
02:36 building any person as an additional
02:38 insured as long as the contractor agrees
02:41 to do that in a written agreement before
02:44 the work is started and before the
02:46 accident happens
02:47 that’s called a blanket additional
02:49 insured we’re required by written
02:50 contract endorsement such as this so the
02:54 thing is this certificate of insurance
02:56 is absolutely not
02:59 a written agreement a written agreement
03:01 states the parties and is also signed by
03:04 the parties to the agreement so in order
03:08 for a board and a building to be an
03:11 additional insured on a contractor’s
03:13 general liability policy in addition to
03:16 the certificate of insurance you need an
03:19 agreement two pieces of paper working
03:21 together the agreement which your
03:24 attorney should really write up in
03:26 review before it’s used it needs to
03:28 state a few things the contractor’s name
03:30 the type of work to be done the client
03:33 or the building the location of the
03:36 building and usually the managing agent
03:38 you’ll want to name is additionally
03:39 insured as well along with the board of
03:40 directors the agreement should state
03:43 that the contractor agrees to indemnify
03:46 and hold harmless the building the board
03:49 in the managing agent and that also the
03:52 contractor agrees to name all of those
03:55 parties as an additional insured on its
03:58 general liability policy the contractor
04:01 should also maintain workers
04:02 compensation in this agreement requires
04:04 that as well because a contractor such
04:06 as a sole proprietor working without
04:08 workers compensation adds even more risk
04:11 and liability to the building so with
04:13 these terms the contractor signs the
04:15 agreement and then the managing agent
04:17 can sign the agreement on behalf of the
04:19 managing agent and the building that
04:21 that he or she represents and now you
04:24 have a written agreement this agreement
04:26 does
04:26 have to be a separate agreement it can
04:28 be embedded into the contract for work
04:30 along with how much the works good at
04:33 cost and what with the scope of the
04:36 works going to be or can be separate but
04:38 there needs to be an agreement as the
04:41 endorsement states so now that you know
04:44 what’s required to be an additional
04:46 insured you might think well that sounds
04:49 pretty easy the fact of the matter is
04:50 most boards rely on their managing
04:53 agents to collect this type of
04:54 documentation and the problem with that
04:57 is if you have a typical managing agent
05:01 and in some cases these numbers are
05:03 actually understated but let’s say a
05:05 managing agent manages 40 buildings
05:07 let’s say and this wouldn’t be unusual
05:09 25 different contractors service that
05:12 building service one building plumber
05:15 roofer electrician brick pointing guy
05:20 masonry guy painter etc 25 contractors
05:24 and I already explained you need at
05:27 least two documents could be if the
05:30 additional or if the workers comp roof
05:32 is on a separate piece could be three
05:34 documents but let’s say two times 40
05:37 buildings times 25 contractors that’s
05:38 2,000 documents that that managing agent
05:41 needs to maintain for the 40 buildings
05:43 that his firm is or her firm is agent
05:47 for that’s a lot of documents and well a
05:51 lot of managing agents say that they do
05:53 this process well the fact of the matter
05:55 is it’s a very difficult process to do
05:58 well and completely all of the time
06:00 especially if you’re getting
06:02 certificates of insurance for each and
06:05 every policy or because the policy
06:06 renews each and every year and then you
06:08 should have a certificate of insurance
06:10 updated to show the current policies
06:12 enforce for each and every contractor so
06:16 the point of this discussion is that
06:19 boards may not be aware of the exposure
06:23 by not getting these documents in place
06:26 properly these are called risk transfer
06:28 documents and the risk in not doing this
06:31 properly
06:32 however small it is it’s a risk and it
06:35 can be severe is that if a contractor’s
06:37 employee is injured it
06:40 building and falling off of a ladder for
06:42 instance and is unable to work for the
06:45 rest of his life or her life he’s gonna
06:48 sue and because of the scaffold law
06:50 which is unique to the New York that
06:52 worker will win that lawsuit even if
06:55 he’s drunk
06:56 even if he’s been affected by drugs even
06:59 if he forgot all of his safety equipment
07:01 and broke all of the rules the building
07:03 will still be absolutely liable under
07:05 this law the only way to protect is
07:08 either the building’s insurance which if
07:11 the building’s insurance has to pay that
07:12 claim premiums are going to go through
07:14 the roof for the next five years the
07:15 quality of insurance the building will
07:17 be able to go get will go down or
07:20 ideally the contractors insurance and
07:22 the only way you get the contractors
07:24 insurance is making sure he has the
07:26 insurance with the certificate and
07:28 making sure you’re an additional insured
07:30 through the agreement I discussed
07:33 [Music]
00:13 my name is Jason sky Johnno and I’m
00:16 president of Lovett first associates in
00:18 Tarrytown New York I wanted to talk
00:21 about a topic today that a number of
00:24 boards of condominiums and coops are
00:26 unaware and it’s a topic that can
00:29 drastically affect their liability
00:31 exposure and ultimately their insurance
00:33 premiums for many years to come if it’s
00:35 not properly addressed the topic is
00:38 related to a law and New York State
00:41 called the New York State scaffold law
00:42 New York is the only state in the United
00:45 States of America that has this type of
00:47 law and basically the law says that if a
00:51 worker for instance for a contractor
00:53 working at the condo or co-op building
00:56 is injured particularly in a fall from a
00:59 height like a ladder or a tree or a roof
01:02 that the building will be absolutely
01:04 liable for that contractor’s injuries in
01:07 a court of law under a liability suit so
01:10 obviously the law has huge implications
01:13 and risks for buildings many boards are
01:16 under the assumption mistakenly that if
01:19 the board or the managing agent collects
01:22 a document called a certificate of
01:25 liability insurance and if that document
01:28 lists in the description box that the
01:33 building and the managing agent and
01:35 board are additional insurance on the
01:38 contractors general liability policy the
01:41 board assumes that they’ve got
01:42 protection and that one of the
01:44 contractors workers is injured that the
01:46 board in the building will be protected
01:49 by the contractors insurance policy
01:51 because this thing says their additional
01:53 insured in fact if you read the words
01:57 that are highlighted at the very top of
01:58 this document they say this certificate
02:01 is not worth anything it transfers no
02:04 rights no protection to the additional
02:07 insurance and it specifically says that
02:10 if the certificate holder is an
02:12 additional insured
02:13 the policies of the contractor must be
02:16 endorsed well what does that mean
02:18 endorsed most contractors general
02:22 liability policies have what’s called an
02:25 additional insured endorsement that
02:28 states that the contractor is allowed to
02:31 name anyone that the contractor wishes
02:34 as an additional insured any entity any
02:36 building any person as an additional
02:38 insured as long as the contractor agrees
02:41 to do that in a written agreement before
02:44 the work is started and before the
02:46 accident happens
02:47 that’s called a blanket additional
02:49 insured we’re required by written
02:50 contract endorsement such as this so the
02:54 thing is this certificate of insurance
02:56 is absolutely not
02:59 a written agreement a written agreement
03:01 states the parties and is also signed by
03:04 the parties to the agreement so in order
03:08 for a board and a building to be an
03:11 additional insured on a contractor’s
03:13 general liability policy in addition to
03:16 the certificate of insurance you need an
03:19 agreement two pieces of paper working
03:21 together the agreement which your
03:24 attorney should really write up in
03:26 review before it’s used it needs to
03:28 state a few things the contractor’s name
03:30 the type of work to be done the client
03:33 or the building the location of the
03:36 building and usually the managing agent
03:38 you’ll want to name is additionally
03:39 insured as well along with the board of
03:40 directors the agreement should state
03:43 that the contractor agrees to indemnify
03:46 and hold harmless the building the board
03:49 in the managing agent and that also the
03:52 contractor agrees to name all of those
03:55 parties as an additional insured on its
03:58 general liability policy the contractor
04:01 should also maintain workers
04:02 compensation in this agreement requires
04:04 that as well because a contractor such
04:06 as a sole proprietor working without
04:08 workers compensation adds even more risk
04:11 and liability to the building so with
04:13 these terms the contractor signs the
04:15 agreement and then the managing agent
04:17 can sign the agreement on behalf of the
04:19 managing agent and the building that
04:21 that he or she represents and now you
04:24 have a written agreement this agreement
04:26 does
04:26 have to be a separate agreement it can
04:28 be embedded into the contract for work
04:30 along with how much the works good at
04:33 cost and what with the scope of the
04:36 works going to be or can be separate but
04:38 there needs to be an agreement as the
04:41 endorsement states so now that you know
04:44 what’s required to be an additional
04:46 insured you might think well that sounds
04:49 pretty easy the fact of the matter is
04:50 most boards rely on their managing
04:53 agents to collect this type of
04:54 documentation and the problem with that
04:57 is if you have a typical managing agent
05:01 and in some cases these numbers are
05:03 actually understated but let’s say a
05:05 managing agent manages 40 buildings
05:07 let’s say and this wouldn’t be unusual
05:09 25 different contractors service that
05:12 building service one building plumber
05:15 roofer electrician brick pointing guy
05:20 masonry guy painter etc 25 contractors
05:24 and I already explained you need at
05:27 least two documents could be if the
05:30 additional or if the workers comp roof
05:32 is on a separate piece could be three
05:34 documents but let’s say two times 40
05:37 buildings times 25 contractors that’s
05:38 2,000 documents that that managing agent
05:41 needs to maintain for the 40 buildings
05:43 that his firm is or her firm is agent
05:47 for that’s a lot of documents and well a
05:51 lot of managing agents say that they do
05:53 this process well the fact of the matter
05:55 is it’s a very difficult process to do
05:58 well and completely all of the time
06:00 especially if you’re getting
06:02 certificates of insurance for each and
06:05 every policy or because the policy
06:06 renews each and every year and then you
06:08 should have a certificate of insurance
06:10 updated to show the current policies
06:12 enforce for each and every contractor so
06:16 the point of this discussion is that
06:19 boards may not be aware of the exposure
06:23 by not getting these documents in place
06:26 properly these are called risk transfer
06:28 documents and the risk in not doing this
06:31 properly
06:32 however small it is it’s a risk and it
06:35 can be severe is that if a contractor’s
06:37 employee is injured it
06:40 building and falling off of a ladder for
06:42 instance and is unable to work for the
06:45 rest of his life or her life he’s gonna
06:48 sue and because of the scaffold law
06:50 which is unique to the New York that
06:52 worker will win that lawsuit even if
06:55 he’s drunk
06:56 even if he’s been affected by drugs even
06:59 if he forgot all of his safety equipment
07:01 and broke all of the rules the building
07:03 will still be absolutely liable under
07:05 this law the only way to protect is
07:08 either the building’s insurance which if
07:11 the building’s insurance has to pay that
07:12 claim premiums are going to go through
07:14 the roof for the next five years the
07:15 quality of insurance the building will
07:17 be able to go get will go down or
07:20 ideally the contractors insurance and
07:22 the only way you get the contractors
07:24 insurance is making sure he has the
07:26 insurance with the certificate and
07:28 making sure you’re an additional insured
07:30 through the agreement I discussed
07:33 [Music]
Habitat Magazine: Jason Schiciano discusses the NY Scaffold Law
00:00 I had my music next year let it first be
00:22 50 years old honored by Andres and we
00:35 congratulate you on 90 years of
00:37 excellent history but I’m really
00:40 wondering how we’re going to get from 50
00:43 tonight but for me this night is really
00:48 about human connections a few years ago
00:52 I was talking to my friend and he
01:00 realized that together the wonderful
01:03 opportunity to make a connection between
01:05 love at first and animus and for the
01:08 past three years we’ve been leaving a
01:11 skeleton crew back at our office in
01:14 Tarrytown and those of you that were on
01:16 the skeleton crew raise your hand
01:18 thank you for a hanging back our
01:26 insurance clothing put on jeans and
01:30 t-shirts and headed over to Andres or a
01:33 workday that consisted of real work on
01:39 various projects in Andres and with the
01:43 systems of special Andrus people like
01:45 Fiona Stefan
01:48 Juliana Brianne Eric and Hector through
01:53 some hard work of bee sting or to a lot
02:04 of laughs our connections with Andres
02:06 have grown over each of our three years
02:10 there as we worked on site and beside
02:14 the students we’ve seen the wonderful
02:16 staff of an vez extends a hand to
02:18 connect to the young people that in many
02:21 cases have no other person in the world
02:25 with which to connect and I’ve seen
02:28 children look at their Andres teachers
02:31 and counselors as you and I looked at
02:35 our own parents when we were young and
02:38 that connection is strong and it lends
02:42 perspective
02:43 Andres makes an invaluable and an
02:47 indelible mark on each child that passes
02:50 through its gates sits in its inspiring
02:53 classrooms walks its beautiful gardens
02:56 and fields in calls Andres home for a
02:59 time on behalf of my wife Andrea my
03:03 sister-in-law of every level my partner
03:06 Ken first and his wife Sue in all of the
03:09 let first family here tonight we want to
03:12 thank Brian Murphy Jason Honaker the
03:14 board of directors in all of our friends
03:17 at Andres for allowing love at first to
03:20 connect with you we want to recognize
03:23 all of you for helping us get to this
03:26 evening and we are proud to participate
03:29 in your future success thanks very much
00:22 50 years old honored by Andres and we
00:35 congratulate you on 90 years of
00:37 excellent history but I’m really
00:40 wondering how we’re going to get from 50
00:43 tonight but for me this night is really
00:48 about human connections a few years ago
00:52 I was talking to my friend and he
01:00 realized that together the wonderful
01:03 opportunity to make a connection between
01:05 love at first and animus and for the
01:08 past three years we’ve been leaving a
01:11 skeleton crew back at our office in
01:14 Tarrytown and those of you that were on
01:16 the skeleton crew raise your hand
01:18 thank you for a hanging back our
01:26 insurance clothing put on jeans and
01:30 t-shirts and headed over to Andres or a
01:33 workday that consisted of real work on
01:39 various projects in Andres and with the
01:43 systems of special Andrus people like
01:45 Fiona Stefan
01:48 Juliana Brianne Eric and Hector through
01:53 some hard work of bee sting or to a lot
02:04 of laughs our connections with Andres
02:06 have grown over each of our three years
02:10 there as we worked on site and beside
02:14 the students we’ve seen the wonderful
02:16 staff of an vez extends a hand to
02:18 connect to the young people that in many
02:21 cases have no other person in the world
02:25 with which to connect and I’ve seen
02:28 children look at their Andres teachers
02:31 and counselors as you and I looked at
02:35 our own parents when we were young and
02:38 that connection is strong and it lends
02:42 perspective
02:43 Andres makes an invaluable and an
02:47 indelible mark on each child that passes
02:50 through its gates sits in its inspiring
02:53 classrooms walks its beautiful gardens
02:56 and fields in calls Andres home for a
02:59 time on behalf of my wife Andrea my
03:03 sister-in-law of every level my partner
03:06 Ken first and his wife Sue in all of the
03:09 let first family here tonight we want to
03:12 thank Brian Murphy Jason Honaker the
03:14 board of directors in all of our friends
03:17 at Andres for allowing love at first to
03:20 connect with you we want to recognize
03:23 all of you for helping us get to this
03:26 evening and we are proud to participate
03:29 in your future success thanks very much
2018 ANDRUS 90th Anniversary Gala Honoree, Jason Schiciano Acceptance
00:00 [Applause]
00:01 Thank you very much for that warm introduction
00:05 if you have a predgit version of that
00:09 where you talk about how the employees
00:11 finish their tasks we want a copy of that
00:17 to put it in our lobby
00:19 thank you very much
00:21 and just one administrative notes and I am sorry
00:25 to diverge
00:26 based on how beautiful that everyone looks tonight
00:30 Jason and I have decided that
00:31 we are changing the dress code so
00:34 on Monday to formal dress code
00:36 five days a week and no dress down Fridays anymore
00:42 so I am just here to thank two groups of people
00:45 first, Levitt Fuirst staff and you know nothing makes us
00:51 (applause)
00:55 nothing makes Jasin like fatter than
00:58 like when Fiona and Stefan comes up
00:59 as we are sitting there working
01:01 in a garden or painting the walls in the
01:04 classroom or decorating your birdhouses
01:06 and they come up and said your employers are really, I mean they are working hard
01:14 and that is a reflection that you guys take this
01:15 seriously it’s not a day off you realize
01:18 the impact of what we’re doing and how
01:21 we’re changing people’s lives and that
01:23 really means a lot to Jason I and that’s
01:26 why we continue to do things like this
01:28 because we are changing people’s lives
01:30 so thank you to all eleven first
01:33 employees in everything guys
01:37 (applause)
01:41 and it a great opportunity tonight we’re Jason and I very rarely get
01:44 to see the spouses of our employees and
01:47 Jason likes to say frequently in company
01:50 meetings now you end up spending more
01:52 time with your you know work partners
01:56 than you do with your own families so we
01:59 Jason and I just want to thank the spouses
02:01 and significant of others of our
02:03 employees for supporting the employees
02:06 we’re tolerating their stories that they
02:08 group us bring on that idea and
02:10 everything else that you do so that they
02:11 show up the next day with a smile on
02:13 their face thank you and thank you thank you very much
02:16 [Applause]
00:01 Thank you very much for that warm introduction
00:05 if you have a predgit version of that
00:09 where you talk about how the employees
00:11 finish their tasks we want a copy of that
00:17 to put it in our lobby
00:19 thank you very much
00:21 and just one administrative notes and I am sorry
00:25 to diverge
00:26 based on how beautiful that everyone looks tonight
00:30 Jason and I have decided that
00:31 we are changing the dress code so
00:34 on Monday to formal dress code
00:36 five days a week and no dress down Fridays anymore
00:42 so I am just here to thank two groups of people
00:45 first, Levitt Fuirst staff and you know nothing makes us
00:51 (applause)
00:55 nothing makes Jasin like fatter than
00:58 like when Fiona and Stefan comes up
00:59 as we are sitting there working
01:01 in a garden or painting the walls in the
01:04 classroom or decorating your birdhouses
01:06 and they come up and said your employers are really, I mean they are working hard
01:14 and that is a reflection that you guys take this
01:15 seriously it’s not a day off you realize
01:18 the impact of what we’re doing and how
01:21 we’re changing people’s lives and that
01:23 really means a lot to Jason I and that’s
01:26 why we continue to do things like this
01:28 because we are changing people’s lives
01:30 so thank you to all eleven first
01:33 employees in everything guys
01:37 (applause)
01:41 and it a great opportunity tonight we’re Jason and I very rarely get
01:44 to see the spouses of our employees and
01:47 Jason likes to say frequently in company
01:50 meetings now you end up spending more
01:52 time with your you know work partners
01:56 than you do with your own families so we
01:59 Jason and I just want to thank the spouses
02:01 and significant of others of our
02:03 employees for supporting the employees
02:06 we’re tolerating their stories that they
02:08 group us bring on that idea and
02:10 everything else that you do so that they
02:11 show up the next day with a smile on
02:13 their face thank you and thank you thank you very much
02:16 [Applause]
2018 ANDRUS 90th Anniversary Gala Honoree, Ken Fuirst Acceptance
Commercial Insurance
00:00 [Music]
00:13 my name is Jason sky Johnno and I’m
00:16 president of Lovett first associates in
00:18 Tarrytown New York I wanted to talk
00:21 about a topic today that a number of
00:24 boards of condominiums and coops are
00:26 unaware and it’s a topic that can
00:29 drastically affect their liability
00:31 exposure and ultimately their insurance
00:33 premiums for many years to come if it’s
00:35 not properly addressed the topic is
00:38 related to a law and New York State
00:41 called the New York State scaffold law
00:42 New York is the only state in the United
00:45 States of America that has this type of
00:47 law and basically the law says that if a
00:51 worker for instance for a contractor
00:53 working at the condo or co-op building
00:56 is injured particularly in a fall from a
00:59 height like a ladder or a tree or a roof
01:02 that the building will be absolutely
01:04 liable for that contractor’s injuries in
01:07 a court of law under a liability suit so
01:10 obviously the law has huge implications
01:13 and risks for buildings many boards are
01:16 under the assumption mistakenly that if
01:19 the board or the managing agent collects
01:22 a document called a certificate of
01:25 liability insurance and if that document
01:28 lists in the description box that the
01:33 building and the managing agent and
01:35 board are additional insurance on the
01:38 contractors general liability policy the
01:41 board assumes that they’ve got
01:42 protection and that one of the
01:44 contractors workers is injured that the
01:46 board in the building will be protected
01:49 by the contractors insurance policy
01:51 because this thing says their additional
01:53 insured in fact if you read the words
01:57 that are highlighted at the very top of
01:58 this document they say this certificate
02:01 is not worth anything it transfers no
02:04 rights no protection to the additional
02:07 insurance and it specifically says that
02:10 if the certificate holder is an
02:12 additional insured
02:13 the policies of the contractor must be
02:16 endorsed well what does that mean
02:18 endorsed most contractors general
02:22 liability policies have what’s called an
02:25 additional insured endorsement that
02:28 states that the contractor is allowed to
02:31 name anyone that the contractor wishes
02:34 as an additional insured any entity any
02:36 building any person as an additional
02:38 insured as long as the contractor agrees
02:41 to do that in a written agreement before
02:44 the work is started and before the
02:46 accident happens
02:47 that’s called a blanket additional
02:49 insured we’re required by written
02:50 contract endorsement such as this so the
02:54 thing is this certificate of insurance
02:56 is absolutely not
02:59 a written agreement a written agreement
03:01 states the parties and is also signed by
03:04 the parties to the agreement so in order
03:08 for a board and a building to be an
03:11 additional insured on a contractor’s
03:13 general liability policy in addition to
03:16 the certificate of insurance you need an
03:19 agreement two pieces of paper working
03:21 together the agreement which your
03:24 attorney should really write up in
03:26 review before it’s used it needs to
03:28 state a few things the contractor’s name
03:30 the type of work to be done the client
03:33 or the building the location of the
03:36 building and usually the managing agent
03:38 you’ll want to name is additionally
03:39 insured as well along with the board of
03:40 directors the agreement should state
03:43 that the contractor agrees to indemnify
03:46 and hold harmless the building the board
03:49 in the managing agent and that also the
03:52 contractor agrees to name all of those
03:55 parties as an additional insured on its
03:58 general liability policy the contractor
04:01 should also maintain workers
04:02 compensation in this agreement requires
04:04 that as well because a contractor such
04:06 as a sole proprietor working without
04:08 workers compensation adds even more risk
04:11 and liability to the building so with
04:13 these terms the contractor signs the
04:15 agreement and then the managing agent
04:17 can sign the agreement on behalf of the
04:19 managing agent and the building that
04:21 that he or she represents and now you
04:24 have a written agreement this agreement
04:26 does
04:26 have to be a separate agreement it can
04:28 be embedded into the contract for work
04:30 along with how much the works good at
04:33 cost and what with the scope of the
04:36 works going to be or can be separate but
04:38 there needs to be an agreement as the
04:41 endorsement states so now that you know
04:44 what’s required to be an additional
04:46 insured you might think well that sounds
04:49 pretty easy the fact of the matter is
04:50 most boards rely on their managing
04:53 agents to collect this type of
04:54 documentation and the problem with that
04:57 is if you have a typical managing agent
05:01 and in some cases these numbers are
05:03 actually understated but let’s say a
05:05 managing agent manages 40 buildings
05:07 let’s say and this wouldn’t be unusual
05:09 25 different contractors service that
05:12 building service one building plumber
05:15 roofer electrician brick pointing guy
05:20 masonry guy painter etc 25 contractors
05:24 and I already explained you need at
05:27 least two documents could be if the
05:30 additional or if the workers comp roof
05:32 is on a separate piece could be three
05:34 documents but let’s say two times 40
05:37 buildings times 25 contractors that’s
05:38 2,000 documents that that managing agent
05:41 needs to maintain for the 40 buildings
05:43 that his firm is or her firm is agent
05:47 for that’s a lot of documents and well a
05:51 lot of managing agents say that they do
05:53 this process well the fact of the matter
05:55 is it’s a very difficult process to do
05:58 well and completely all of the time
06:00 especially if you’re getting
06:02 certificates of insurance for each and
06:05 every policy or because the policy
06:06 renews each and every year and then you
06:08 should have a certificate of insurance
06:10 updated to show the current policies
06:12 enforce for each and every contractor so
06:16 the point of this discussion is that
06:19 boards may not be aware of the exposure
06:23 by not getting these documents in place
06:26 properly these are called risk transfer
06:28 documents and the risk in not doing this
06:31 properly
06:32 however small it is it’s a risk and i
06:35 can be severe is that if a contractor’s
06:37 employee is injured it
06:40 building and falling off of a ladder for
06:42 instance and is unable to work for the
06:45 rest of his life or her life he’s gonna
06:48 sue and because of the scaffold law
06:50 which is unique to the New York that
06:52 worker will win that lawsuit even if
06:55 he’s drunk
06:56 even if he’s been affected by drugs even
06:59 if he forgot all of his safety equipment
07:01 and broke all of the rules the building
07:03 will still be absolutely liable under
07:05 this law the only way to protect is
07:08 either the building’s insurance which if
07:11 the building’s insurance has to pay that
07:12 claim premiums are going to go through
07:14 the roof for the next five years the
07:15 quality of insurance the building will
07:17 be able to go get will go down or
07:20 ideally the contractors insurance and
07:22 the only way you get the contractors
07:24 insurance is making sure he has the
07:26 insurance with the certificate and
07:28 making sure you’re an additional insured
07:30 through the agreement I discussed
07:33 [Music]
00:13 my name is Jason sky Johnno and I’m
00:16 president of Lovett first associates in
00:18 Tarrytown New York I wanted to talk
00:21 about a topic today that a number of
00:24 boards of condominiums and coops are
00:26 unaware and it’s a topic that can
00:29 drastically affect their liability
00:31 exposure and ultimately their insurance
00:33 premiums for many years to come if it’s
00:35 not properly addressed the topic is
00:38 related to a law and New York State
00:41 called the New York State scaffold law
00:42 New York is the only state in the United
00:45 States of America that has this type of
00:47 law and basically the law says that if a
00:51 worker for instance for a contractor
00:53 working at the condo or co-op building
00:56 is injured particularly in a fall from a
00:59 height like a ladder or a tree or a roof
01:02 that the building will be absolutely
01:04 liable for that contractor’s injuries in
01:07 a court of law under a liability suit so
01:10 obviously the law has huge implications
01:13 and risks for buildings many boards are
01:16 under the assumption mistakenly that if
01:19 the board or the managing agent collects
01:22 a document called a certificate of
01:25 liability insurance and if that document
01:28 lists in the description box that the
01:33 building and the managing agent and
01:35 board are additional insurance on the
01:38 contractors general liability policy the
01:41 board assumes that they’ve got
01:42 protection and that one of the
01:44 contractors workers is injured that the
01:46 board in the building will be protected
01:49 by the contractors insurance policy
01:51 because this thing says their additional
01:53 insured in fact if you read the words
01:57 that are highlighted at the very top of
01:58 this document they say this certificate
02:01 is not worth anything it transfers no
02:04 rights no protection to the additional
02:07 insurance and it specifically says that
02:10 if the certificate holder is an
02:12 additional insured
02:13 the policies of the contractor must be
02:16 endorsed well what does that mean
02:18 endorsed most contractors general
02:22 liability policies have what’s called an
02:25 additional insured endorsement that
02:28 states that the contractor is allowed to
02:31 name anyone that the contractor wishes
02:34 as an additional insured any entity any
02:36 building any person as an additional
02:38 insured as long as the contractor agrees
02:41 to do that in a written agreement before
02:44 the work is started and before the
02:46 accident happens
02:47 that’s called a blanket additional
02:49 insured we’re required by written
02:50 contract endorsement such as this so the
02:54 thing is this certificate of insurance
02:56 is absolutely not
02:59 a written agreement a written agreement
03:01 states the parties and is also signed by
03:04 the parties to the agreement so in order
03:08 for a board and a building to be an
03:11 additional insured on a contractor’s
03:13 general liability policy in addition to
03:16 the certificate of insurance you need an
03:19 agreement two pieces of paper working
03:21 together the agreement which your
03:24 attorney should really write up in
03:26 review before it’s used it needs to
03:28 state a few things the contractor’s name
03:30 the type of work to be done the client
03:33 or the building the location of the
03:36 building and usually the managing agent
03:38 you’ll want to name is additionally
03:39 insured as well along with the board of
03:40 directors the agreement should state
03:43 that the contractor agrees to indemnify
03:46 and hold harmless the building the board
03:49 in the managing agent and that also the
03:52 contractor agrees to name all of those
03:55 parties as an additional insured on its
03:58 general liability policy the contractor
04:01 should also maintain workers
04:02 compensation in this agreement requires
04:04 that as well because a contractor such
04:06 as a sole proprietor working without
04:08 workers compensation adds even more risk
04:11 and liability to the building so with
04:13 these terms the contractor signs the
04:15 agreement and then the managing agent
04:17 can sign the agreement on behalf of the
04:19 managing agent and the building that
04:21 that he or she represents and now you
04:24 have a written agreement this agreement
04:26 does
04:26 have to be a separate agreement it can
04:28 be embedded into the contract for work
04:30 along with how much the works good at
04:33 cost and what with the scope of the
04:36 works going to be or can be separate but
04:38 there needs to be an agreement as the
04:41 endorsement states so now that you know
04:44 what’s required to be an additional
04:46 insured you might think well that sounds
04:49 pretty easy the fact of the matter is
04:50 most boards rely on their managing
04:53 agents to collect this type of
04:54 documentation and the problem with that
04:57 is if you have a typical managing agent
05:01 and in some cases these numbers are
05:03 actually understated but let’s say a
05:05 managing agent manages 40 buildings
05:07 let’s say and this wouldn’t be unusual
05:09 25 different contractors service that
05:12 building service one building plumber
05:15 roofer electrician brick pointing guy
05:20 masonry guy painter etc 25 contractors
05:24 and I already explained you need at
05:27 least two documents could be if the
05:30 additional or if the workers comp roof
05:32 is on a separate piece could be three
05:34 documents but let’s say two times 40
05:37 buildings times 25 contractors that’s
05:38 2,000 documents that that managing agent
05:41 needs to maintain for the 40 buildings
05:43 that his firm is or her firm is agent
05:47 for that’s a lot of documents and well a
05:51 lot of managing agents say that they do
05:53 this process well the fact of the matter
05:55 is it’s a very difficult process to do
05:58 well and completely all of the time
06:00 especially if you’re getting
06:02 certificates of insurance for each and
06:05 every policy or because the policy
06:06 renews each and every year and then you
06:08 should have a certificate of insurance
06:10 updated to show the current policies
06:12 enforce for each and every contractor so
06:16 the point of this discussion is that
06:19 boards may not be aware of the exposure
06:23 by not getting these documents in place
06:26 properly these are called risk transfer
06:28 documents and the risk in not doing this
06:31 properly
06:32 however small it is it’s a risk and i
06:35 can be severe is that if a contractor’s
06:37 employee is injured it
06:40 building and falling off of a ladder for
06:42 instance and is unable to work for the
06:45 rest of his life or her life he’s gonna
06:48 sue and because of the scaffold law
06:50 which is unique to the New York that
06:52 worker will win that lawsuit even if
06:55 he’s drunk
06:56 even if he’s been affected by drugs even
06:59 if he forgot all of his safety equipment
07:01 and broke all of the rules the building
07:03 will still be absolutely liable under
07:05 this law the only way to protect is
07:08 either the building’s insurance which if
07:11 the building’s insurance has to pay that
07:12 claim premiums are going to go through
07:14 the roof for the next five years the
07:15 quality of insurance the building will
07:17 be able to go get will go down or
07:20 ideally the contractors insurance and
07:22 the only way you get the contractors
07:24 insurance is making sure he has the
07:26 insurance with the certificate and
07:28 making sure you’re an additional insured
07:30 through the agreement I discussed
07:33 [Music]
11/12/2018: Scaffold Law with Jason Schiciano
Habitat Magazine
00:00 at this point we’d like to call up our
00:02 panel members for tonight’s meeting on
00:04 and insurance check up for boards of
00:08 coops and condos our keynote speaker is
00:11 Jace’s Kishan Oh Jason is a principle of
00:15 leven first associates which as you all
00:17 know is the insurance manager for the
00:20 call a condom council and the building
00:22 and realty Institute joining Jason are
00:26 excuse me David babester chairman of our
00:30 Advisory Council I’m sorry of managing
00:33 agents and our two vice chairs John
00:37 Bonita and check and Stillman thank you
00:40 albert jason will start us off introduce
00:44 the program and then our panel will join
00:47 Jason again many many thanks for your
00:49 participation I will now turn it over to Jason
00:52 just go look at this yeah
01:00 thank you good evening my name is Jace’s
01:03 gaetano I’m president of love adverse
01:06 associates were the insurance matters to
01:08 the building realities Institute and
01:11 this evening we’ve got an interesting
01:14 probs everybody loves insurance right so I mean this is
01:17 this is the highlight of the of the
01:20 agenda for the for the kind of man we
01:22 call provider house of yours is the
01:24 insurance program so thank you for for
01:26 attending I want to first of all thank
01:29 my fellow panel members David Amster
01:33 from prime locations Jeff Stillman from
01:36 Stillman management and John bonito from
01:38 Garth Chester and I also want to thank
01:40 God my colleagues from Levitt first who
01:44 are here my partner Ken first Pat Claire
01:47 David Frederick Darrell Frederick’s
01:49 Jennifer Apicella bonita teats in Robin
01:52 comb many of you work with these people
01:54 every day and I appreciate them being
01:56 here to support us so I want to start
02:00 out by answering the most important
02:02 question related to this program to see
02:05 me it’s already been asked several times
02:06 to me this evening which is what is this
02:11 (laughs)
02:13 it’s obvious isn’t it you know when you
02:16 when you get a charge sheet, a handout the
02:20 first rule of handouts is you should
02:22 know what it is without having to read
02:25 instructions so I failed miserably in
02:29 this regard and I must say I’m on a bad
02:32 street because the hand sanitizer that I
02:35 did before this people were mistaken for
02:38 mouthwash breath freshener that didn’t
02:42 go over well either so at any rate Vicki
02:45 so maybe I’ll get lucky the third time
02:47 right but what this is you can peel it
02:48 off get a ring all right listen to her
02:51 and you put it on your cell phone back
02:55 all right like that you can put a
02:58 business card in there or credit card
03:00 you don’t have to take your wallet out
03:02 and then it even like stands up like
03:04 that if you go for a little TV okay now
03:07 we got that out of the way all right I
03:12 wanted to have you know one of my
03:15 colleagues do that demonstration they
03:17 all refused nobody wanted to take
03:19 responsibility for the sand so I had
03:22 that coming to me everybody’s grabbing
03:24 them yeah now that they know is there
03:27 okay so what now that we got that out of
03:29 the way what’s the second most important
03:31 question that everybody wants to know
03:33 about insurance what I heard over there
03:39 what’s going on with premiums right and
03:43 it’s been a rough few years for condos
03:46 and co-ops with respect to insurance
03:49 premiums you know premiums if you’re
03:52 lost history has been and everybody
03:54 knows what look lost history isn’t for
03:56 those of you that dumb if you take the
03:58 losses if the insurance company is paid
04:00 out in claims legal expenses other fees
04:05 to do investigation work or reserve it
04:09 expects to pay on a claim for those
04:12 types
04:12 expenses those are the those are the
04:15 current claim costs divided by your
04:18 premium that you paid over a period of
04:20 time like five years that’s your loss
04:22 ratio so over the last few years even if
04:27 your loss ratio has been really
04:29 outstanding you know maybe under twenty
04:32 percent under ten percent even then your
04:35 premiums have still gone up maybe on
04:37 average five percent year six seven
04:40 percent a year you you know got lucky
04:43 you are live at less than five percent a
04:45 year over the last few years but it’s
04:48 been tough if your losses if your loss
04:50 ratio has been poor you know well above
04:53 thirty percent forty percent fifty
04:55 percent or you had a real bad loss like
04:57 multiple buildings if you have like a
04:58 garden style condo or co-op and you had
05:01 a big ice damming event where you know
05:04 six or eight buildings are affected in
05:06 multiple units we had a fire or
05:09 something like that or big slip and fall
05:11 liability plane you know where they
05:13 reserved a quarter of a million dollars
05:15 to sell the thing something like that
05:16 your premium may have gone up fifty
05:19 percent a hundred percent or more and
05:23 I’ve seen it I’ve had to you know
05:26 explain it and it’s not easy to explain
05:27 so the good news is in to you know get
05:30 all of the most important information
05:32 out front so you can put your mind at
05:34 ease and enjoy
05:35 dessert is it I think we are starting to
05:38 see in half see for the last several
05:40 months a departure from that trend I
05:44 don’t know and everybody knows that the
05:47 insurance industry like anything else is
05:49 a financial market so it goes up and
05:51 down not sure what’s going on with how
05:53 the stock markets can affect this but for
05:56 right now insurance premiums are pretty
05:58 stable said you can see on the chart
06:01 that I that I had put the handout that
06:04 you can expect to pay overall an
06:08 increase if you’re lost history is good
06:11 over the last several years five percent
06:14 or less on your insurance premiums five
06:17 percent or less typical on uninsurance
06:20 renewals over the last couple months and
06:22 no reason to expect to think that that
06:25 is going to change in the future you
06:27 know some of your insurance policies are
06:29 going to be going up less and others
06:31 more your directors and officers I’ll
06:33 mention is an issue there are very very
06:35 few carriers that right directors and
06:37 officers insurance and it’s obviously a
06:39 critical not optional coverage and if
06:42 you have any claim activity whatsoever
06:44 even if it didn’t happen last year your
06:46 premium is going to go up and it may go
06:48 up a lot your premium could easily go
06:51 off without any claims five to ten
06:53 percent and if you have claims pretty
06:56 good to go up twenty percent more a lot
06:58 more you might have to replace the
07:00 carrier and go to accurate it doesn’t
07:02 typically right kind of coop do you
07:04 know insurance and you can be faceless
07:06 so point being is this there’s a lot of
07:08 programs on the CCAC agenda dealing with
07:11 house rules and pets and how to deal
07:14 with bad neighbors and all those things
07:16 just be mindful that when you take a
07:19 position as a board on something that
07:22 could invite a lawsuit against the board
07:25 which is I’m not saying
07:27 you know you guys stand your ground
07:28 right you gotta make choices in life and
07:31 in business to drink just be mindful
07:33 that your dno insurance if there’s an
07:35 action started against the board is
07:36 going to be affected and affect your
07:38 premium potentially for several years to
07:40 come okay so that’s that that’s the
07:44 previous does anyone have questions on
07:46 premiums okay the next thing I thought
07:50 you might be interested in is since
07:52 what’s coming this weekend all the
07:54 skiers out there snow maybe all the
07:58 property managers are like patience
08:00 right it’s been a pretty pretty mild
08:03 winter incredibly mild winter great for
08:05 for for condos coops great for the
08:08 managing ages that have the character
08:09 the property great for insurance
08:12 companies that’s what the pursuit but
08:15 maybe this weekend that that might
08:17 change so you know keep in mind snow
08:21 removal contractors it’s critical
08:23 critical to to be named as an additional
08:27 insured on your insurance policies make
08:29 sure that that’s actually the case to
08:31 verify that to to look over the
08:34 indemnification agreement within the
08:37 contract and you should have a contract
08:39 with your snow removal company to make
08:41 sure in particular that it’s at what’s
08:43 called a reverse indemnification
08:45 agreement where you is a condo or co-op
08:47 we’re actually indentifying or holding
08:50 the snow removal contractor harmless for
08:52 accidents bodily injury property damage
08:55 that occurs from his work at your profit
08:58 that’s that’s actually happening now
08:59 you’ve got to be mindful of that some
09:02 people not reading those agreements sign
09:04 it and it should be the exact opposite
09:06 so you don’t want to put yourself in
09:08 that kind of liabilities series and have
09:10 your premiums affected if dis acclaimed
09:12 shut off your your faucets obviously you
09:16 have wood fireplaces chimneys can be a
09:18 big problem that you should have some
09:20 sort of a method for getting those clean
09:22 by a
09:23 insured qualified contractor portable
09:26 heaters every year we get a claim or two
09:29 on portable heaters starting a fire you
09:32 know there’s nothing you can do I
09:33 understand the boards and managing
09:35 agents can’t dictate that you’re not
09:37 allowed to use portable heaters and
09:39 there’s no way to police it anyway but
09:41 people hopefully have some value you
09:43 know on their own life and the life star
09:45 family the people that living around it
09:46 how long remind them that old heaters
09:48 are dangerous that they should go out
09:50 and buy a new portable heater that’s got
09:52 safety features etc and you know the
09:56 light they say if you might pay their
09:57 own this is about another big one
10:00 thermostats many unit owners
10:03 shareholders when they leave they go to
10:05 Florida or wherever for the winter they
10:07 go away for a week or two and if they’re
10:10 especially in a townhome tight community
10:12 or a community that has each unit has
10:15 their own thermostat you shut the
10:17 thermostat way down and of course we get
10:20 freezing cold weather in the next thing
10:22 you know there’s a pipe burst or pipe
10:24 freeze and there’s tremendous damage not
10:28 only to the unit but also to the common
10:30 area so again I notice in in in the mail
10:35 in your and your when you send your
10:38 billing statement and email posting if
10:41 you have common areas that people look
10:43 at noting all of these winter
10:46 preparation reminders now the winter
10:48 apparently is actually upon us is
10:49 probably can’t hurt it might help
10:52 tremendously and it might end up helping
10:54 you with your insurance premiums the
10:58 last thing I want to comment on in
10:59 winter things is is ice damming
11:01 everybody we’ve covered ice damming
11:03 before everybody knows after you get
11:04 snow on the roof and it melts and
11:06 freezes and backs up into the gutters
11:08 tremendous damage to units etc there’s
11:11 this horrible thing called a per unit I
11:12 stand
11:13 deductible did some carriers put out
11:15 policies especially after you have ice
11:17 damming claims don’t give them an excuse
11:19 to do that if you get an accumulation of
11:23 snow on your roofs think about ways to
11:27 get that snow off hire qualified ensure
11:29 intractable impatient of me if the snow
11:32 up possibly install heating elements to
11:34 melt the snow those ice damming planes
11:37 wreak havoc on your insurance premiums
11:40 for years to come if you have a major
11:42 claim the next thing I put on my list
11:44 with fuses if you’re an older building
11:47 that has not converted to circuit
11:49 breakers don’t wait any longer it’s a
11:54 tremendous expense it’s hard to do how
11:56 do you get into shareholders and health
11:58 you know force it into their unit and
12:00 force them to change i know its pain but
12:03 if you still have fuses you’re going to
12:06 have an increasingly difficult time of
12:09 not only getting competitively priced
12:11 insurance push insurance altogether it’s
12:14 that big of a deal okay insurance
12:17 carriers are assuming by now that you
12:19 will have transferred over to circuit
12:20 breakers and if you haven’t you’re going
12:22 to be in a whole different world of
12:23 insurance premiums if you’re not already
12:25 very soon so keep that in mind a couple
12:29 final things cyber liability what is it
12:33 everyone’s heard about data breaches
12:35 they’ve been in the news all over the
12:37 finest invest in in in in in wealthiest
12:40 companies in the world have been hit by
12:42 cyber data breaches so you should assume
12:44 for any reason that you’re somehow
12:46 immune to a data breach either of emails
12:52 floating back and forth between board
12:55 members of a co-op regarding the
12:56 finances and social security number and
12:59 aggressive of a potential coop purchaser
13:02 or anything along those lines bank
13:05 accounts and etc so cyber liability
13:07 is a new relatively new threat and there
13:10 is insurance that can be purchased to
13:12 mitigate that exposure it’s relatively
13:16 inexpensive a condo or co-op can buy a
13:19 policy
13:20 for under a thousand dollars and it’s
13:23 it’s something to think about and
13:25 finally Jeff and Albert Albert mentioned
13:29 labor law 240 the scaffold law it does
13:33 affect contractors it also affects your
13:36 buildings since as property owners you
13:39 are liable for any gravity related
13:43 injury to a contractor working at your
13:45 building even though you’re not
13:48 supervising them even though you’re not
13:49 providing the ladder even if they were
13:51 drunk etc so that’s a horrible law that
13:54 makes you absolutely liable there’s no
13:56 comparative negligence in New York like
13:58 in other states we’ve been fighting it
14:01 forever we’re going to be fighting it
14:03 again in February the Bri and I’ll BF
14:05 will be up in Albany trying to make a
14:07 case to the legislature the only change
14:09 this year is it Sheldon Silver the head
14:11 of the New York State Assembly is not
14:13 they’re not fond of shots you won’t be
14:16 able to block legislation but
14:18 legislation has to be brought obviously
14:19 to the floor so we’ll be trying to make
14:21 that happen hopefully we’ll be
14:22 successful if there’s any type of reform
14:24 or repeal whatsoever it could end up
14:27 benefiting all of us so any questions on
14:31 the topics that I hit on because the
14:33 next three speakers are much more
14:35 entertaining so much
14:38 you’re smoking yes to sign of
14:41 reliability is that more of a function
14:43 of the management company than the coop
14:45 so well it’s a good question it depends
14:48 it’s an exposure that can face is a
14:51 management management company for the
14:54 condo or co-op certain is probably based
14:57 on what I understand to be information
15:00 flows more of an exposure for co-op in
15:03 for condo with respect to in particular
15:06 emails with financial information social
15:09 security number being shared amongst
15:11 board members of a co-op the managing
15:15 agents have exposure as well and I know
15:19 several of them are looking at this
15:21 insurance as well so it is a you know
15:24 it’s sort of a new frontier and if in
15:27 everybody goes to managing agent side
15:30 and the pad or coops I have some
15:32 exposure anything else yes to think of
15:37 (question from audience)
15:49 there’s no there’s been no change in the
15:53 law that would recoup it that would
15:55 require that no that’s not me it’s
15:59 strongly that and you know the best
16:01 thing and I think David is going to
16:04 speak to this so I don’t want to steal
16:05 is all I’ll say is that you know from
16:07 from the insurance perspective because
16:09 it is a shareholder or union or if you
16:11 don’t have an H 0 6 policy and someone
16:14 slips and Falls and hurts themselves in
16:16 your unit there’s no protection but even
16:18 bigger than that nice to me this is what
16:20 really you know it’s t is I’ve been for
16:24 for somebody in this room a building that
16:26 was managed I’ve been at a building that
16:28 burned down you know right before the
16:30 holidays and a number of shareholders
16:34 were put out in essence into the street
16:36 if you have an H06 policy with loss of use
16:40 coverage your your alternate residents
16:44 your hotel room where your apartment
16:46 building over the next six months or a
16:48 year or whatever it is while the
16:49 buildings in while your units getting
16:51 rebuilt is covered by insurance if you
16:53 don’t have that you better hope you have
16:55 a relative it really likes you so you
16:59 know just you get sometimes you got to
17:01 scare people into doing the right thing
17:03 anything else okay so next on the agenda
17:09 is David apster from prime locations who
17:12 is the president of Ibakma the chairman
17:17 of Ibakma and he’s going to be speaking
17:19 on communication with boards residents
17:22 regarding insurance matters thank you oh
17:25 thank you I think it’s really important
17:31 for managing agents to educate boards
17:34 and you know a lot of times boards
17:36 really don’t understand insurance they
17:40 understand insurance by saying some
17:41 little gieco on TV on you know
17:44 they understand you know well thousand
17:47 insurance companies out there competing
17:49 for my business and you know quite
17:51 frankly that’s not the case we live in a
17:54 very limited insurance area there aren’t
17:58 that many insurance companies that
18:00 actually can supply and ensure your
18:02 buildings especially in this area so
18:05 when you go out and you know we did out
18:09 insurance every year with Jason’s
18:11 company and number of others you have to
18:15 understand it’s not that simple if you
18:19 have a insurance agent and imaginating
18:21 you’re very happy with and it done the
18:22 right thing by you every year it’s not
18:25 necessarily like you can go out and did
18:27 your insurance out to everybody else
18:29 because there’s probably five or six
18:31 different companies that would write a
18:33 policy in Westchester County for
18:35 buildings like yours coughs and condoms
18:37 and the problem is there’s probably a
18:40 thousand different insurance agents out
18:41 there who are all offering the same
18:44 thing but quite honestly these policies
18:47 are pretty limited to who you can go to
18:49 and once one agent bits with a company
18:53 the next station coming in is kind of
18:55 blocked out so you know I try to give my
18:58 boards information and teach them that
19:01 you know what it’s not like your incall
19:03 Fall state and Gieco and get a quote
19:05 to the next day just doesn’t happen that
19:08 way the other thing is you know you
19:10 should be familiar with the coverages
19:11 you need I think Jason went over those
19:13 things I mean standard coverages for any
19:15 co-op or condo is property coverage
19:18 general liability coverage umbrella
19:21 coverage directors and officers coverage
19:23 crime coverage pollution coverage the
19:28 flood coverage back up and then there’s
19:30 this little thing out on the outside
19:32 which is not necessarily include in your
19:33 policies to an adequate extent
19:35 earthquake coverage we live in New York
19:37 putting an earthquake coverage for I
19:39 remember sitting my office about two
19:41 years ago and my building was shaking
19:43 I’m saying you know going to him I think
19:46 we went to a meeting actually Jason a
19:48 few a month later or so I’m going to
19:50 large client
19:52 first they say why don’t we need
19:53 earthquake coverage I’m saying well I’m
19:56 not the one going to tell you and that’s
19:57 to take it but you really have to take
19:59 the advice of your insurance I don’t
20:02 have to have a lot of confidence and the
20:04 people you deal with to understand what
20:06 kind of coverages that you need the
20:09 other thing is the cheapest is not
20:10 necessarily the best a lot of times you
20:15 get bored to look at a thing say well we
20:18 can switch to this company but we can
20:20 switch to this company and that’s not
20:22 necessarily the case love dishes at five
20:25 thousand dollars less than we’re paying
20:26 on our $80,000 premium and okay you
20:31 advise them not to they go ahead and
20:33 they say well let’s go with that you
20:35 move to a different company and say you
20:36 know a month layer two months later oh
20:39 by the way you should sprinkle your
20:40 building or we have some insurance
20:43 recommendations that have to be dealt
20:44 with so you have to be very careful the
20:47 marketplace and where you go switching
20:50 companies for small savings sometimes
20:52 not what sometimes you stay with your
20:54 company that you had to have a history
20:56 with you you’re probably in a better
20:59 position one of the things to educate
21:03 boards as I always say it’s good idea to
21:05 invite the broker who is the expert
21:07 we’re managing agents we deal with
21:10 insurance all day but I’m not an
21:11 insurance broker I usually like to
21:13 invite the broker to a board meeting
21:16 usually right before renewal and let
21:18 them explain to the boards what their
21:20 coverages are where they may be lacking
21:22 what understand the policies that you
21:25 have what’s covered what’s not covered
21:29 you know what do you really need and you
21:31 know quite honestly your broker is the
21:33 one can best advise you based on your
21:36 history your your loss history and other
21:40 factors that are involved something that
21:43 comes up more and more nowadays with
21:45 with boards is the crime infidelity
21:48 conference that basically covers you
21:50 from fifth for money stolen by the
21:52 managing agents board members employees
21:55 etc
21:56 and bored sometimes under insure and
22:00 then there’s an issue now that’s coming
22:03 up more and more with Fannie Mae
22:04 guidelines and when people are buying
22:07 apartments and they’re looking for
22:08 insurance Fannie Mae comes in and they
22:11 have certain guidelines if they want to
22:12 see if they’re going to issue mortgages
22:14 and a lot of times we get calls from the
22:18 mortgage brokers representing a
22:19 purchaser and a building and they say
22:21 well you know what the insurance on the
22:24 liability coverage is not adequate for
22:27 our guidelines usually I think it’s a
22:30 three month three months of income is
22:33 the minimum requirement you may have
22:36 some more to say why do I need that much
22:37 coverage it’s really not that expensive
22:39 to increase it but you should certainly
22:41 come to the amount of money you have
22:42 your bank accounts obviously there’s
22:44 some buildings where they don’t have a
22:45 lot of money in bank accounts
22:46 fortunately this year we’re getting away
22:48 with a lot with you know fuel prices and
22:50 things being down but you really have
22:52 that the proper coverage is so that you
22:54 can make sure you share holders don’t
22:56 have problems getting mortgages if
22:57 they’re selling their apartments and
23:00 last but not least it’s you know
23:02 shareholder protection why your
23:05 shareholders need to have insurance on
23:07 their apartments you know the building’s
23:09 ensured the building burns down they’re
23:11 going to rebuild it right well I can
23:13 tell you about in two thousand it was
23:18 2003 we had a 106 unit building that
23:22 basically I got a call on a Sunday
23:24 morning I was actually having to New jersey
23:27 with my wife shopping at ikea
23:29 i remember this estately my manager
23:31 calls because i think we have a problem
23:32 is a fire one of the buildings not
23:35 unusual for managing you can get a call
23:36 like that other than i said okay i’ll be
23:39 going coming over there figured by the
23:42 time i got there you know what it’ll be
23:45 out you know we’ll have a little flame
23:46 you have an apartment into this damage
23:48 what’s going to happen but I get there
23:50 probably about you know a hour later 45
23:53 minutes later the entire building is
23:55 engulfed I it started believe it or not
23:59 in Department 18 right in the center
24:01 lobby was an old building built in 1926
24:04 went up through
24:06 hidden lofts and through they used
24:09 to have the dumb waiters that were
24:11 sealed in apartments went up to the roof
24:13 went over by the time it was done 13
24:17 hours later with about five or six power
24:21 lines pouring water into the building
24:23 the top floor had collapsed into the
24:25 fifth floor the entire building was a
24:27 total loss I can’t tell you any feelings
24:31 I had when probably at that point in
24:35 time i’d say probably seventy percent of
24:37 the people who owned in that building
24:40 did not have insurance under apartments
24:43 and for two or three hundred dollars a
24:46 year to ensure those apartments these
24:49 people are building took three years to
24:50 rebuild so they had to find alternative
24:53 housing obviously they didn’t pay for
24:55 your maintenance charges during the time
24:56 they were out but an enormous amount of
24:59 people just didn’t have insurance and I
25:01 bring that up to every board meeting
25:03 every annual meeting I go to I tell that
25:05 story where you know what this is
25:07 something that you you know you spent
25:09 two or three hundred dollars for
25:10 insurance you should have it most common
25:13 kind of those can’t mandate it because
25:15 your private area leases do not have
25:18 that requirement but we try to make sure
25:20 that you know people understand when
25:23 they’re purchasing it’s very important
25:25 that you get insurance you’re important
25:28 sometimes you think about and then
25:30 necessarily the necessary a require
25:34 insurance is placed with a new character
25:37 recommendations will follow an initial
25:40 inspection of nuts and Tara insurance
25:43 carriers the option to cancel it
25:45 insurance is renewed with the existing
25:47 carrier there will be an inspection
25:50 with possible
25:50 recommendations in this case there’s
25:53 generally more flexibility and room for
25:55 discussion with Jason sets with a
25:57 ruffler can be particularly helpful and
26:01 how these recommendations are being
26:02 addressed where the border management
26:04 company have established a good long
26:06 relationship with the company Jason say
26:09 you don’t you switch it around and your
26:11 claims and lawsuits are hopefully love
26:13 and that’s the beer and you have
26:16 addressed recommendation to the past and
26:19 maintain the building’s to the insurance
26:21 company’s standards of satisfaction the
26:25 recommendations could become too costly
26:27 to address insurance throughout your
26:29 management can intervene and assist in
26:32 finding other alternatives you always
26:35 think them address the risk benefit of
26:38 these recommendations
26:42 insurence companies are looking for
26:44 reasonable effort from words and
26:46 management’s provide a safe and secure
26:48 investment recommendations provide
26:51 actions to assist risk management which
26:54 is the key another scaling what is
26:57 mismanagement exposure I wanted to find
27:00 risk natural negress management is the
27:02 effort to deal with many uncertainties
27:04 that exist at a property by
27:08 understanding their nature and the
27:09 likelihood of occurrence motor control
27:12 reduce these risks to acceptable levels
27:16 these risks Charlie fall into four
27:18 categories safety security emergencies
27:21 and liabilities liability coaches the
27:25 magic risk law their avoidance you like
27:29 to eliminate it altogether retention or
27:33 something scheduled anything about
27:35 there’s control to reduce the risk and
27:37 transfer properties look the transfer
27:41 risk o to insurance companies insurance
27:43 companies look to reduce the risk by
27:45 making these recommendations premiums
27:48 are also affected by risks of the work
27:50 the five levels recommendations better
27:53 opportunity you have to lower your
27:55 premiums in a period of rising rates
28:00 Jason talked about before necessarily in
28:03 the tremendous rise amazing job in years
28:07 we’re pretty severe the markets will
28:10 tighten and here’s competition and
28:12 limits to your choices so also by
28:15 following these recommendations you can
28:17 avoid accidents and claims which would
28:19 be costly in quite time consuming to
28:22 result second area will talk about with
28:27 some examples of common insurance
28:29 recommendations so the father if you can
28:32 we’ll be building and because say
28:35 exposure and recommendations still have
28:38 some fire hazard exposure for example a
28:40 barbecue grill kept at a little distance
28:43 according with local building Calvin’s
28:45 fire hazards talk about this with Jacob
28:49 Kutner Jason covered or any circuit
28:52 breakers and remove it select super
28:54 babies and removing fuses water damage
28:57 for example get repair loose shingles of
29:00 fleshing a particular location and the
29:03 water damage exposures should repair
29:06 brake pointing we listen water exists a
29:09 particular locations flooding the parent
29:12 Seward catch basins replacing them
29:16 another property damage exposures trees
29:19 hitting buildings are close to them you
29:21 take those cut off the branches of trees
29:24 or rituals and you can get into examples
29:28 of general liability exposure and
29:30 recommendations tripping at all to
29:33 replace cracks or an evenness in the
29:36 sidewalks repair the tracks not only
29:39 injury repair loose handrails for
29:42 example to amount of brackets and air
29:44 stereo conditioner in this contract of
29:47 liability general liability third party
29:50 and drink mostly prop was his property
29:53 damage these certificates of insurance
29:56 at defcon years additional insured and
29:58 dedication in their eyes that most
30:03 people focus on a lot is life safety
30:05 recommendations exposure liability today
30:10 with emergency legs no protective suit
30:12 detectors and Cheer entrance is locked
30:15 each other panic bars on the roof if you
30:19 have a large that properly working alarm
30:23 maintenance a lot of places have gyms
30:27 equipments working properly this
30:29 exposure there those are just few of the
30:33 examples third category I want to talk
30:39 to about how to prioritize the budget or
30:41 insurance recommendations near think you
30:44 should try to establish a criteria start
30:48 with what exposure that was identified
30:50 lenders recommendations without the
30:52 greatest adverse impact on signing a
30:55 monetary impact a good place to start
30:58 that’s not always easy to do you
31:01 identify the risk since the likelihood
31:03 of its occurring a lot of other
31:05 potential consequences some risks are
31:08 prevalent in most associations such as
31:11 building issues and security and life
31:13 safety another risks can be unique to
31:16 your particular property basically
31:19 mentioned before cyber liability
31:21 cyberattacks somebody asked the question
31:25 earlier there are some properties that
31:27 have their own psychosis is that if
31:29 there now that there’s there are
31:31 equipment sometimes that puts interview
31:33 that companies sometimes I saw a very
31:35 critical
31:36 properties there you might have some
31:38 exposure another risk can be unique to
31:43 your property examples like
31:45 environmental potential environmental
31:48 potential for natural disasters so if
31:50 you live there stream or river you have
31:53 more exposure in place property
31:56 generally isn’t in there so you have to
31:58 look at what you need to you as well
32:01 should say proposals from contractors
32:04 examining here on operating capital
32:05 budgets and based on that criteria
32:08 priority criteria and I should include
32:12 that see what work can be done by the
32:13 building staff versus outside
32:15 contractors as well this one’s the city
32:18 we’re making the budget sometimes an
32:20 item i require replacement or major we
32:23 care you might have enough funds in the
32:26 budget in that case you might have
32:28 called the further maintenance can make
32:30 the temporary repair which are carried
32:32 robert so you have the funds surance
32:34 companies sometimes you accept that
32:36 apology also sometimes get to timing
32:38 issue at the time of the year you might
32:43 want you to make that repair so you have
32:45 to work with the other give your time
32:46 and they want to see a plan what’s or
32:48 something a lot of let’s see here is to
32:51 it when you’re doing your budget review
32:55 prior requirements set up a plan to
32:58 address those it was a good time the
33:00 plot was recommendation equal prior
33:02 years and look at what’s going on
33:04 pre-inspection when you’re doing your
33:06 budgets operators ross capital so you
33:09 have that money available we get decided
33:14 where those funds going to come from a
33:16 couple operating budget but we can come
33:18 to the capital improvement program you
33:20 have to look at your reserves if the
33:22 side do assessments those are all issues
33:26 if the month last time quickly wanted to
33:32 talk about was how to avoid recognitions
33:35 by having a South capital improvement
33:37 and annual maintenance repair
33:40 maintenance repair touching that little
33:45 earlier but God years basically be
33:47 proactive carefully potential losses
33:51 that company should be conducted routine
33:54 building-wide inspections what all the
33:57 angles i mean i only have checklists and
33:59 a follow-up protocol thorough enough to
34:03 have enough time to correct the issues
34:04 before the removals a lot of programs
34:08 out there for inspections technology
34:13 tablets with software the military
34:16 analysis there take pictures to my cell
34:20 phone and then try to establish a
34:24 preventive maintenance program which is
34:27 the inspections generally part of that
34:30 identify all the areas in the building
34:33 set up recorder excel sheets or their
34:36 programs with action list and make sure
34:39 these items were taken care of basically
34:44 these programs these maintenance
34:45 programs and fall to four categories
34:49 whenever call deferred maintenance
34:50 touched on before another is preventive
34:54 maintenance and just trying to get ahead
34:55 of her it was like well is there a
34:59 custodial maintenance and staffs very
35:01 important you and the staffs working there
35:03 everyday they should be trained suppose so
35:07 what these risks are the property there
35:10 they’re working at working around the
35:13 property the reason they can to put it
35:15 back to the managers or pretend I think
35:20 I’ve seen you do need that train to show
35:21 ahead of time it’s a look for that could
35:26 be big help in lowering risks insurance
35:30 so anyway that was the heiress I want to
35:33 talk about it would provide web with
35:36 some reasons why the recommendations are
35:38 important and should not be ignored so
35:41 some ways of handling recommendations
35:43 that we collected have Jews over there
35:59 and we don’t have gym but we have the
36:02 request from shareholder may modify an
36:05 existing Bible page one area where that
36:08 can be secured and they you see this can
36:11 have a place to go to jet does that
36:14 bring up extra liability issues for my
36:18 experience trench companies doing sure
36:22 James on properties as long as the
36:25 proper protections are
36:28 talk about a little more my experience
36:32 seeing properties house you’re not sign
36:36 waivers right the main thing is plan to
36:43 make sure that is properly saying my
36:50 service contract for the companies as
36:52 quality good daddy basically we just
37:00 said yes put a gym and workout facility
37:06 yes it increases your liability guest
37:08 insurance company normally has no
37:11 problem with it whatsoever and yes and
37:13 everything that you can do and form of
37:15 waivers maintenance plans for the
37:18 equipment etc to reduce your mitigate
37:19 your liability is as good a place wasn’t
37:23 a kid it’s just 47 you don’t have to do
37:30 no you don’t have it just mean listen to
37:42 start watching I think I happy I thought
37:45 you got up every way you could do it not
37:48 wrong alright so you know quite a
37:51 meeting would jump and jumping over a
37:52 lot of small details on recommendations
37:54 it’s unbelievable how detailed and
37:57 important recommendations are monitored
37:59 planning forth and how those relate to
38:02 insurance so appreciate the
38:06 to on recommendation next and last is
38:10 Dominator from guard chester was going
38:12 to discuss when you have a plane you
38:15 know if you give all else fails if you
38:18 did the recommendations or you didn’t do
38:19 the recommendations you communicated
38:21 with before does david was talking about
38:23 you know the make changes or your
38:26 Tolzien owners or shareholders you know
38:28 picture figure a fireplace clean dirt
38:31 you change the hoses on your washer and
38:35 dryer something results and you have a
38:37 claim and john’s going to talk about the
38:39 different types of claims that you can
38:41 add and the different responses is a
38:43 management engine and a board if you
38:46 might have depending on the type of plan
38:53 even if you’re going i am going to touch
38:57 on insurance claims this week that
39:02 sounds like we’re going to have our
39:03 first snow event I’m just very happy
39:06 it’s a scared and a little property
39:08 managers or not and it’s interesting
39:12 there’s the number one thing for me that
39:14 I am a note up and you’ll probably have
39:17 with your apps know you’re going to have
39:19 a slip-and-fall plan you’re going to
39:22 have somebody in slips and Falls and you
39:24 may have a situation where somebody just
39:26 took some goals and it’s kind of my hell
39:28 no problem with the insurance company on
39:32 those you never know they go home the
39:36 back starts hurting whatever the case
39:37 may be you get a plane later on
39:40 reporting a flame as soon as possible is
39:43 the most important thing the stat should
39:48 be made aware of that to somebody comes
39:50 in and claims
39:52 they have gone down but then I hurt make
39:59 sure the step is Austin tells the
40:01 managing agent and report the claim
40:05 damage their property and he damaged
40:09 that warmer to claim work first of all
40:12 let the managing agent through their job
40:14 the board should not get involved
40:16 sometimes boys will get involved if it’s
40:19 a situation with a resident whatever the
40:24 case report claimed the claimed results
40:30 does that Blue David mentions and it’s a
40:34 sad thing even to this day I cannot
40:37 understand why every renter and every
40:41 Cheryl does not have insurance but you
40:43 will be amazed how many not the
40:49 unfortunately if the client results in
40:53 loss of damage to personal property that
40:57 resident has a real problem the other
41:01 thing I think also David mentioned about
41:03 if you have the old tub overflow and my
41:08 accident it happens people get a Bunco
41:10 their child out in California talking
41:15 away and tough fills that overflows
41:17 causes damage to the building and causes
41:20 a lot of damage and personal property
41:21 below any damage to the personal
41:24 property is between the residents your
41:29 coops and condos to not lose your
41:32 personal property your master policy
41:34 will not cover that it’s always it’s a
41:39 sad sad thing so the more you can
41:41 encourage people to be properly insured
41:46 will be the last thing actually my my
41:52 reports going to be very fruitful as
41:54 they’ve covered the number of things
41:56 when you have a minimal flame a small
41:59 flame knowledge ended up the bullets the
42:02 deductible is five thousand dollars for
42:04 example and it ladies fifty eight
42:06 hundred dollars don’t put it in play
42:09 it’s a nuisance point more claims you
42:12 put in more difficult it can be on your
42:15 loss credits obviously if it’s
42:19 substantially more then you would submit
42:21 your claim avoiding the claims is Jason
42:26 men and mentioned thermostats people go
42:29 away townhouses and they lower the
42:32 thermostat too much and many of these
42:34 down houses are poorly insulated this
42:37 happens all the time and you have free
42:40 soaps it’s an expensive damage in mid
42:44 rise high rise buildings the roof drains
42:48 nobody goes our prom group reminder
42:51 super intense make sure the drains are
42:54 clearly many many leaks occur because of
42:57 what drains that are blocked and again
43:01 back to town houses cleaning gutters
43:03 it’s amazing to me that is the source of
43:07 more weeks especially in basements so
43:10 and will contribute to your right
43:14 standing problems so the important thing
43:17 is doing preventive type programs such
43:21 as that anybody has any questions I’m
43:24 happy
43:28 eh oh right type of insurance is
43:35 basically say worth of dangerousness
43:38 well the HR 6 policies appear your
43:41 personal homeowners policy and we’ll
43:44 cover you you’ll have a liability and
43:47 pepper to your personal items there’s
43:52 variations of it depending on how much
43:55 your personal items are coverage and
44:00 also damage to a neighbor yes if you’ve
44:06 caused a leak such as overflowing a tub
44:11 and their property is damaged below it
44:14 will help you insurance co rec in the
44:18 policy that a condo or co-op owner would
44:22 get is going to have property coverage
44:25 and you need to discuss this with your
44:27 broker cover the improvements and
44:29 veterans additions and alterations to
44:32 your unit as well as your contents and
44:36 what also covers we discuss loss of use
44:39 if you’re forced to leave your part due
44:42 to a cover cause of loss and then to
44:44 your point it covers liability if you
44:48 have liability to a third party which
44:51 could be a shareholder or you know
44:53 you for bodily injury or in the case
44:57 you’re describing property because
44:59 that’s the liability side the personal
45:01 life and one thing again that old
45:07 speakers mentioned the importance of
45:10 having a broker that’s familiar with
45:14 condominiums and especially colors that
45:18 understands and proprietary list and
45:19 what’s covering and what’s not again i
45:22 have many people over the years that
45:24 I’ve been in a national business who are
45:26 ensuring the property I’m destroy
45:28 property the master policy will ensure
45:32 the property you have preserve your
45:34 personal time your life oh that’s what’s
45:37 the most important so don’t over ensure
45:39 and when you speak to your broker yes
45:42 them if they’re firm a especially if you
45:44 live in a cold it’s a different opinion
45:46 it’s a it’s important that they
45:50 understand what is covered and what is
45:52 not I feel sometimes like we’re the
45:59 catch-22 we have an occupancy period of
46:04 the party early success exactly what the
46:06 hell our cover story doesn’t so if the
46:09 toilet goes from close Angelo plus
46:12 well that’s easy that was my fault right
46:14 there but if hide behind the toilet
46:16 leaves goddamn stairs and rooms every
46:21 unveiled stairs now according to my I
46:24 understand it because that’s time on
46:26 walls in instant power it’s not the
46:29 shareholders insurance that they need to
46:31 be ten pages get what you’re saying is
46:34 don’t submit a small claim so we end up
46:38 spending thousands of dollars a year the
46:40 coop paying for just exactly those
46:42 things where I’ve fallen behind the wall
46:45 leaked so we have thousands and
46:47 thousands of dollars of those kind of
46:48 claims that maybe they’re too small to
46:51 click our shirts come by the
46:53 shareholders so choose I marsh or
46:56 generally men Congress identity I think
46:58 if I should I heard what you said in
47:01 there you you may be paying for claims
47:03 where pipe behind the wall in the common
47:07 area building breaks it’s so important
47:10 ok play behind the wall in someone’s
47:12 apartment breaks and causes damage to a
47:15 to an apartment below including the
47:18 contents and the cabinetry of wall and
47:21 etc and if you’re paying the unit owner
47:26 shareholder for all their personal stuff
47:29 they got damaged their rugs and carpets
47:31 and everything and wall hangings and
47:34 repainting you may want to discuss that
47:37 with your insurance broker and your
47:39 attorney because it’s probably not your
47:43 responsibility if the shareholder or
47:47 your wants to sue the coop for liability
47:52 in negligence then possibly your
47:55 liability policy will pay for that but
47:58 you shouldn’t necessarily just start
47:59 paying up cash to the unit over
48:04 they don’t fit yeah thats that’s pretty
48:07 much it but to put your point also to
48:09 have a maintenance program to take a
48:12 hundred units and to go through and say
48:15 we know our history shows that you know
48:19 hi see my employers are breaking our
48:21 crazy it’s costing us thousands of
48:23 dollars is it reasonable to go to co-op
48:25 students sort of nations program to go
48:28 here after year to a vehicle departments
48:31 and replaced in typing in hand good
48:42 fun and I was started touching on that a
48:44 little bit when I talk the answer is
48:47 that’s your history probably a good idea
48:52 for here to start looking at it from
48:55 African operating perspective from the
48:57 capital budget reserve pilot perspect
49:01 strike leader have over some time
49:09 structure out setup started with
49:12 replacement product that’s happening
49:14 though it’s all that all the time but
49:20 love is very funny we have some years
49:23 now partly into another year is going to
49:27 matter what for the air is the years
49:30 feels roughest ride and discussions on
49:33 what that’s all about talked of any
49:36 clutter to that and seems to take a life
49:38 it’s all such respect but we’re really
49:42 under issue for that starting out slow I
49:50 would just put a little bit more
49:52 emphasis on that I mean he’s absolutely
49:54 right it what you said you probably
49:57 realize how important it was that you
49:59 said it your loss history your written
50:03 insurance company lost history is like
50:05 your driving record or your credit
50:07 report and if it shows if you had three
50:11 or four five flushometer breaks over the
50:14 last few years any insurance company
50:18 looking
50:18 insurance the last century to look at
50:20 that and say I am not touching this
50:21 building with a 10-foot Pole history
50:27 from you sure that’s why if you don’t
50:28 find it that’s great your problems and
50:31 you better start fixing them because at
50:34 one point you’re going to have a claim
50:36 that you can’t pay out of pocket you’d
50:37 have to go to the insurance company
50:38 they’re going to pay the claim and then
50:41 you’re going to not review because they
50:42 just pay 240 million dollars or whatever
50:44 and they lost their shirt and you’re
50:46 going to look for you insurance
50:47 companies are you looking for lost
50:48 history you’ll see that you’re only
50:50 going to see one claiming that case but
50:53 any type of multiple reporting of the
50:57 same line could be a big problem you’re
51:00 in a catch-22 right now like you said
51:01 you gotta get out we forget the
51:04 insurance issue you’re having closed
51:06 loops bother your life to the residence
51:09 we take your little comfortable so i
51:12 would probably focus more that would be
51:14 good yeah i’m normally we are we talking
51:18 about and right now i’m talking about
51:20 damage to the building not first
51:22 property so they understand the ceiling
51:25 pages customs another question the NIGC
51:29 touched on my question it’s my
51:32 understanding i presided the world
51:34 breaks and grips downstairs bed co-op
51:37 will be placed whoa deep unit owner had
51:42 10,000 all of the square foot wealthy
51:44 that’s their problem thats Sarah and
51:47 they have special paint on here please
51:49 Jeremy over you’re supposed to put the
51:52 crime and if they got $10,000 pink that
51:55 is destroyed that’s their problem I
51:57 think it’s also quite understand the
52:00 reporting
52:01 you know what it goes up to go 100 or 40
52:05 year lot of anything but definitely a
52:09 different kind of property claiming a
52:12 liability and white all of policy my
52:16 office is if somebody called are all I
52:19 opened the front door I got a hangnail
52:21 we’re going to notify the insurance
52:23 company that particular incident when
52:26 somebody home said well we have a link
52:27 or so I’m going to assess it as they
52:29 said is you know John Jeff said you know
52:32 you have a 5800 dollars 5000 deductible you don’t
52:36 necessarily want to build up a loss
52:39 history based on those places that will
52:42 make your insurance bill much higher
52:44 what does my building things you have to
52:46 be very very careful because i’ll give
52:49 you this it that happened with one of
52:50 our buildings and board members should
52:52 be very well aware it it’s not only
52:54 asthmatic you talking about to be aware
52:55 of a somebody slipped in cows butts
52:58 building camp has to make sure they’re
53:00 aware of it so we had an incident number
53:02 of years ago property where board member
53:05 was walking with a friend of the garage
53:07 Fred slipped and fell hurt her ankle
53:10 port number never said anything like
53:12 like a private thing probably six months
53:15 later we get a lawsuit because it video
53:17 and your sofa finding the time which
53:21 every time you buy
53:22 then consider crazy David but we didn’t
53:26 know anything about it turned into the
53:27 insurance companies netted over George
53:29 commie does her investigation turns out
53:31 all the the first was injured center
53:34 while I was walking with this act she’s
53:36 the president for housing there was no
53:40 the insurance company denied coverage
53:41 okay what I’ve made not claiming settle
53:44 for about ten thousand dollars or
53:46 something like that but understand if
53:48 board members have a fiduciary
53:49 responsibility building and if you hear
53:52 anything you should notify your manager
53:54 to imagine agent so if they do put the
53:56 proper notice into the insurance company
53:58 a lot of times of notes of nothing
53:59 wanted a nose but at least protect
54:01 yourself you know put it on record
54:03 undersized includes clowns good so one
54:07 of the brand commented 1 items there are
54:11 situations sometimes about a lot of
54:12 people this personal property versus
54:15 building property coverage there are
54:18 times where x examples Explorer these
54:22 employers the responsibility of the car
54:27 someone you have decides to change that
54:30 for its on some special special would
54:35 tie on special tile tomorrow of that is
54:39 ultimately a train that the floor that
54:42 basic structure would be the cost
54:45 take care of it but that additional
54:47 amount of money with an additional
54:49 texture I or enhancement everything time
54:52 would be the responsibility of the year
54:55 that this happened play dead just like a
55:00 fancy wallpaper anything
55:13 facing patient
55:32 yes in many cases I mean if you read the
55:38 probably mostly coops soon typically
55:43 co-op privately release will say that
55:46 the shareholder is responsible for any
55:50 improvements betterments additions
55:53 alterations made by that shareholder or
55:56 any previous shareholder since the
55:59 beginning of the coop so if you’ve got a
56:01 unit that’s you know in a building of 60
56:04 years old I will bet you you know all
56:07 the money in my pocket then virtually
56:09 everything’s been upgraded the floors
56:11 the fixture to the cabinets bathroom
56:13 everything so all of that has to be
56:16 ensured by the shareholders 806 policy
56:19 to whatever bond money the shareholder
56:22 thinks is the appropriate amount of
56:23 money and then when you have a fire and
56:25 everything’s destroyed oh go through
56:27 with a big of little scraps and olives
56:29 pieces you know bronze costs against
56:32 Allah don’t know yet
56:40 if that if if it’s been altered in some
56:45 cases you won’t get anything you want
56:48 even get the frigate it all depends on
56:51 how fast and how the proprietary this is
56:54 written
56:59 get up in a condo you get beer walls to
57:04 get the driver it all depends on the
57:08 language of the beast or the by laws for
57:12 the offer and I’ve seen if I read out my
57:17 British documents might be 50 different
57:21 language they’re not called agree
57:26 completely ok one more reality
57:31 (laughs)
57:38 ok one more question
57:41 (question from audience)
57:55 no
57:47 lace where being resale oh give you all
57:52 the good stuff no basic they might do
58:01 all the recommendations and all those
58:02 things the insurance company asked does
58:04 it help to keep it your premium stone
58:07 and basically no it keeps you in the
58:11 game he keeps you in good stead with
58:13 your existing carrier properly helps to
58:15 mitigate insurance plan the loss which
58:17 in turn keeps you in the game for all
58:21 the other insurance companies it might
58:22 be proper don’t do them your partner
58:26 could drop you into a treatment program
58:39 giving up come up every down yesterday
58:47 will pop step it up on top one last
58:59 insurance companies over you do if you
59:05 show that you’re you’re going to do
59:07 progressive a progressive steps to
59:10 satisfy their recognition is very with
59:13 that if you just don’t respond any
59:17 problem please join me in thanking Jason, David, Jeff and John
59:20 (Applause)
59:22 Day
00:02 panel members for tonight’s meeting on
00:04 and insurance check up for boards of
00:08 coops and condos our keynote speaker is
00:11 Jace’s Kishan Oh Jason is a principle of
00:15 leven first associates which as you all
00:17 know is the insurance manager for the
00:20 call a condom council and the building
00:22 and realty Institute joining Jason are
00:26 excuse me David babester chairman of our
00:30 Advisory Council I’m sorry of managing
00:33 agents and our two vice chairs John
00:37 Bonita and check and Stillman thank you
00:40 albert jason will start us off introduce
00:44 the program and then our panel will join
00:47 Jason again many many thanks for your
00:49 participation I will now turn it over to Jason
00:52 just go look at this yeah
01:00 thank you good evening my name is Jace’s
01:03 gaetano I’m president of love adverse
01:06 associates were the insurance matters to
01:08 the building realities Institute and
01:11 this evening we’ve got an interesting
01:14 probs everybody loves insurance right so I mean this is
01:17 this is the highlight of the of the
01:20 agenda for the for the kind of man we
01:22 call provider house of yours is the
01:24 insurance program so thank you for for
01:26 attending I want to first of all thank
01:29 my fellow panel members David Amster
01:33 from prime locations Jeff Stillman from
01:36 Stillman management and John bonito from
01:38 Garth Chester and I also want to thank
01:40 God my colleagues from Levitt first who
01:44 are here my partner Ken first Pat Claire
01:47 David Frederick Darrell Frederick’s
01:49 Jennifer Apicella bonita teats in Robin
01:52 comb many of you work with these people
01:54 every day and I appreciate them being
01:56 here to support us so I want to start
02:00 out by answering the most important
02:02 question related to this program to see
02:05 me it’s already been asked several times
02:06 to me this evening which is what is this
02:11 (laughs)
02:13 it’s obvious isn’t it you know when you
02:16 when you get a charge sheet, a handout the
02:20 first rule of handouts is you should
02:22 know what it is without having to read
02:25 instructions so I failed miserably in
02:29 this regard and I must say I’m on a bad
02:32 street because the hand sanitizer that I
02:35 did before this people were mistaken for
02:38 mouthwash breath freshener that didn’t
02:42 go over well either so at any rate Vicki
02:45 so maybe I’ll get lucky the third time
02:47 right but what this is you can peel it
02:48 off get a ring all right listen to her
02:51 and you put it on your cell phone back
02:55 all right like that you can put a
02:58 business card in there or credit card
03:00 you don’t have to take your wallet out
03:02 and then it even like stands up like
03:04 that if you go for a little TV okay now
03:07 we got that out of the way all right I
03:12 wanted to have you know one of my
03:15 colleagues do that demonstration they
03:17 all refused nobody wanted to take
03:19 responsibility for the sand so I had
03:22 that coming to me everybody’s grabbing
03:24 them yeah now that they know is there
03:27 okay so what now that we got that out of
03:29 the way what’s the second most important
03:31 question that everybody wants to know
03:33 about insurance what I heard over there
03:39 what’s going on with premiums right and
03:43 it’s been a rough few years for condos
03:46 and co-ops with respect to insurance
03:49 premiums you know premiums if you’re
03:52 lost history has been and everybody
03:54 knows what look lost history isn’t for
03:56 those of you that dumb if you take the
03:58 losses if the insurance company is paid
04:00 out in claims legal expenses other fees
04:05 to do investigation work or reserve it
04:09 expects to pay on a claim for those
04:12 types
04:12 expenses those are the those are the
04:15 current claim costs divided by your
04:18 premium that you paid over a period of
04:20 time like five years that’s your loss
04:22 ratio so over the last few years even if
04:27 your loss ratio has been really
04:29 outstanding you know maybe under twenty
04:32 percent under ten percent even then your
04:35 premiums have still gone up maybe on
04:37 average five percent year six seven
04:40 percent a year you you know got lucky
04:43 you are live at less than five percent a
04:45 year over the last few years but it’s
04:48 been tough if your losses if your loss
04:50 ratio has been poor you know well above
04:53 thirty percent forty percent fifty
04:55 percent or you had a real bad loss like
04:57 multiple buildings if you have like a
04:58 garden style condo or co-op and you had
05:01 a big ice damming event where you know
05:04 six or eight buildings are affected in
05:06 multiple units we had a fire or
05:09 something like that or big slip and fall
05:11 liability plane you know where they
05:13 reserved a quarter of a million dollars
05:15 to sell the thing something like that
05:16 your premium may have gone up fifty
05:19 percent a hundred percent or more and
05:23 I’ve seen it I’ve had to you know
05:26 explain it and it’s not easy to explain
05:27 so the good news is in to you know get
05:30 all of the most important information
05:32 out front so you can put your mind at
05:34 ease and enjoy
05:35 dessert is it I think we are starting to
05:38 see in half see for the last several
05:40 months a departure from that trend I
05:44 don’t know and everybody knows that the
05:47 insurance industry like anything else is
05:49 a financial market so it goes up and
05:51 down not sure what’s going on with how
05:53 the stock markets can affect this but for
05:56 right now insurance premiums are pretty
05:58 stable said you can see on the chart
06:01 that I that I had put the handout that
06:04 you can expect to pay overall an
06:08 increase if you’re lost history is good
06:11 over the last several years five percent
06:14 or less on your insurance premiums five
06:17 percent or less typical on uninsurance
06:20 renewals over the last couple months and
06:22 no reason to expect to think that that
06:25 is going to change in the future you
06:27 know some of your insurance policies are
06:29 going to be going up less and others
06:31 more your directors and officers I’ll
06:33 mention is an issue there are very very
06:35 few carriers that right directors and
06:37 officers insurance and it’s obviously a
06:39 critical not optional coverage and if
06:42 you have any claim activity whatsoever
06:44 even if it didn’t happen last year your
06:46 premium is going to go up and it may go
06:48 up a lot your premium could easily go
06:51 off without any claims five to ten
06:53 percent and if you have claims pretty
06:56 good to go up twenty percent more a lot
06:58 more you might have to replace the
07:00 carrier and go to accurate it doesn’t
07:02 typically right kind of coop do you
07:04 know insurance and you can be faceless
07:06 so point being is this there’s a lot of
07:08 programs on the CCAC agenda dealing with
07:11 house rules and pets and how to deal
07:14 with bad neighbors and all those things
07:16 just be mindful that when you take a
07:19 position as a board on something that
07:22 could invite a lawsuit against the board
07:25 which is I’m not saying
07:27 you know you guys stand your ground
07:28 right you gotta make choices in life and
07:31 in business to drink just be mindful
07:33 that your dno insurance if there’s an
07:35 action started against the board is
07:36 going to be affected and affect your
07:38 premium potentially for several years to
07:40 come okay so that’s that that’s the
07:44 previous does anyone have questions on
07:46 premiums okay the next thing I thought
07:50 you might be interested in is since
07:52 what’s coming this weekend all the
07:54 skiers out there snow maybe all the
07:58 property managers are like patience
08:00 right it’s been a pretty pretty mild
08:03 winter incredibly mild winter great for
08:05 for for condos coops great for the
08:08 managing ages that have the character
08:09 the property great for insurance
08:12 companies that’s what the pursuit but
08:15 maybe this weekend that that might
08:17 change so you know keep in mind snow
08:21 removal contractors it’s critical
08:23 critical to to be named as an additional
08:27 insured on your insurance policies make
08:29 sure that that’s actually the case to
08:31 verify that to to look over the
08:34 indemnification agreement within the
08:37 contract and you should have a contract
08:39 with your snow removal company to make
08:41 sure in particular that it’s at what’s
08:43 called a reverse indemnification
08:45 agreement where you is a condo or co-op
08:47 we’re actually indentifying or holding
08:50 the snow removal contractor harmless for
08:52 accidents bodily injury property damage
08:55 that occurs from his work at your profit
08:58 that’s that’s actually happening now
08:59 you’ve got to be mindful of that some
09:02 people not reading those agreements sign
09:04 it and it should be the exact opposite
09:06 so you don’t want to put yourself in
09:08 that kind of liabilities series and have
09:10 your premiums affected if dis acclaimed
09:12 shut off your your faucets obviously you
09:16 have wood fireplaces chimneys can be a
09:18 big problem that you should have some
09:20 sort of a method for getting those clean
09:22 by a
09:23 insured qualified contractor portable
09:26 heaters every year we get a claim or two
09:29 on portable heaters starting a fire you
09:32 know there’s nothing you can do I
09:33 understand the boards and managing
09:35 agents can’t dictate that you’re not
09:37 allowed to use portable heaters and
09:39 there’s no way to police it anyway but
09:41 people hopefully have some value you
09:43 know on their own life and the life star
09:45 family the people that living around it
09:46 how long remind them that old heaters
09:48 are dangerous that they should go out
09:50 and buy a new portable heater that’s got
09:52 safety features etc and you know the
09:56 light they say if you might pay their
09:57 own this is about another big one
10:00 thermostats many unit owners
10:03 shareholders when they leave they go to
10:05 Florida or wherever for the winter they
10:07 go away for a week or two and if they’re
10:10 especially in a townhome tight community
10:12 or a community that has each unit has
10:15 their own thermostat you shut the
10:17 thermostat way down and of course we get
10:20 freezing cold weather in the next thing
10:22 you know there’s a pipe burst or pipe
10:24 freeze and there’s tremendous damage not
10:28 only to the unit but also to the common
10:30 area so again I notice in in in the mail
10:35 in your and your when you send your
10:38 billing statement and email posting if
10:41 you have common areas that people look
10:43 at noting all of these winter
10:46 preparation reminders now the winter
10:48 apparently is actually upon us is
10:49 probably can’t hurt it might help
10:52 tremendously and it might end up helping
10:54 you with your insurance premiums the
10:58 last thing I want to comment on in
10:59 winter things is is ice damming
11:01 everybody we’ve covered ice damming
11:03 before everybody knows after you get
11:04 snow on the roof and it melts and
11:06 freezes and backs up into the gutters
11:08 tremendous damage to units etc there’s
11:11 this horrible thing called a per unit I
11:12 stand
11:13 deductible did some carriers put out
11:15 policies especially after you have ice
11:17 damming claims don’t give them an excuse
11:19 to do that if you get an accumulation of
11:23 snow on your roofs think about ways to
11:27 get that snow off hire qualified ensure
11:29 intractable impatient of me if the snow
11:32 up possibly install heating elements to
11:34 melt the snow those ice damming planes
11:37 wreak havoc on your insurance premiums
11:40 for years to come if you have a major
11:42 claim the next thing I put on my list
11:44 with fuses if you’re an older building
11:47 that has not converted to circuit
11:49 breakers don’t wait any longer it’s a
11:54 tremendous expense it’s hard to do how
11:56 do you get into shareholders and health
11:58 you know force it into their unit and
12:00 force them to change i know its pain but
12:03 if you still have fuses you’re going to
12:06 have an increasingly difficult time of
12:09 not only getting competitively priced
12:11 insurance push insurance altogether it’s
12:14 that big of a deal okay insurance
12:17 carriers are assuming by now that you
12:19 will have transferred over to circuit
12:20 breakers and if you haven’t you’re going
12:22 to be in a whole different world of
12:23 insurance premiums if you’re not already
12:25 very soon so keep that in mind a couple
12:29 final things cyber liability what is it
12:33 everyone’s heard about data breaches
12:35 they’ve been in the news all over the
12:37 finest invest in in in in in wealthiest
12:40 companies in the world have been hit by
12:42 cyber data breaches so you should assume
12:44 for any reason that you’re somehow
12:46 immune to a data breach either of emails
12:52 floating back and forth between board
12:55 members of a co-op regarding the
12:56 finances and social security number and
12:59 aggressive of a potential coop purchaser
13:02 or anything along those lines bank
13:05 accounts and etc so cyber liability
13:07 is a new relatively new threat and there
13:10 is insurance that can be purchased to
13:12 mitigate that exposure it’s relatively
13:16 inexpensive a condo or co-op can buy a
13:19 policy
13:20 for under a thousand dollars and it’s
13:23 it’s something to think about and
13:25 finally Jeff and Albert Albert mentioned
13:29 labor law 240 the scaffold law it does
13:33 affect contractors it also affects your
13:36 buildings since as property owners you
13:39 are liable for any gravity related
13:43 injury to a contractor working at your
13:45 building even though you’re not
13:48 supervising them even though you’re not
13:49 providing the ladder even if they were
13:51 drunk etc so that’s a horrible law that
13:54 makes you absolutely liable there’s no
13:56 comparative negligence in New York like
13:58 in other states we’ve been fighting it
14:01 forever we’re going to be fighting it
14:03 again in February the Bri and I’ll BF
14:05 will be up in Albany trying to make a
14:07 case to the legislature the only change
14:09 this year is it Sheldon Silver the head
14:11 of the New York State Assembly is not
14:13 they’re not fond of shots you won’t be
14:16 able to block legislation but
14:18 legislation has to be brought obviously
14:19 to the floor so we’ll be trying to make
14:21 that happen hopefully we’ll be
14:22 successful if there’s any type of reform
14:24 or repeal whatsoever it could end up
14:27 benefiting all of us so any questions on
14:31 the topics that I hit on because the
14:33 next three speakers are much more
14:35 entertaining so much
14:38 you’re smoking yes to sign of
14:41 reliability is that more of a function
14:43 of the management company than the coop
14:45 so well it’s a good question it depends
14:48 it’s an exposure that can face is a
14:51 management management company for the
14:54 condo or co-op certain is probably based
14:57 on what I understand to be information
15:00 flows more of an exposure for co-op in
15:03 for condo with respect to in particular
15:06 emails with financial information social
15:09 security number being shared amongst
15:11 board members of a co-op the managing
15:15 agents have exposure as well and I know
15:19 several of them are looking at this
15:21 insurance as well so it is a you know
15:24 it’s sort of a new frontier and if in
15:27 everybody goes to managing agent side
15:30 and the pad or coops I have some
15:32 exposure anything else yes to think of
15:37 (question from audience)
15:49 there’s no there’s been no change in the
15:53 law that would recoup it that would
15:55 require that no that’s not me it’s
15:59 strongly that and you know the best
16:01 thing and I think David is going to
16:04 speak to this so I don’t want to steal
16:05 is all I’ll say is that you know from
16:07 from the insurance perspective because
16:09 it is a shareholder or union or if you
16:11 don’t have an H 0 6 policy and someone
16:14 slips and Falls and hurts themselves in
16:16 your unit there’s no protection but even
16:18 bigger than that nice to me this is what
16:20 really you know it’s t is I’ve been for
16:24 for somebody in this room a building that
16:26 was managed I’ve been at a building that
16:28 burned down you know right before the
16:30 holidays and a number of shareholders
16:34 were put out in essence into the street
16:36 if you have an H06 policy with loss of use
16:40 coverage your your alternate residents
16:44 your hotel room where your apartment
16:46 building over the next six months or a
16:48 year or whatever it is while the
16:49 buildings in while your units getting
16:51 rebuilt is covered by insurance if you
16:53 don’t have that you better hope you have
16:55 a relative it really likes you so you
16:59 know just you get sometimes you got to
17:01 scare people into doing the right thing
17:03 anything else okay so next on the agenda
17:09 is David apster from prime locations who
17:12 is the president of Ibakma the chairman
17:17 of Ibakma and he’s going to be speaking
17:19 on communication with boards residents
17:22 regarding insurance matters thank you oh
17:25 thank you I think it’s really important
17:31 for managing agents to educate boards
17:34 and you know a lot of times boards
17:36 really don’t understand insurance they
17:40 understand insurance by saying some
17:41 little gieco on TV on you know
17:44 they understand you know well thousand
17:47 insurance companies out there competing
17:49 for my business and you know quite
17:51 frankly that’s not the case we live in a
17:54 very limited insurance area there aren’t
17:58 that many insurance companies that
18:00 actually can supply and ensure your
18:02 buildings especially in this area so
18:05 when you go out and you know we did out
18:09 insurance every year with Jason’s
18:11 company and number of others you have to
18:15 understand it’s not that simple if you
18:19 have a insurance agent and imaginating
18:21 you’re very happy with and it done the
18:22 right thing by you every year it’s not
18:25 necessarily like you can go out and did
18:27 your insurance out to everybody else
18:29 because there’s probably five or six
18:31 different companies that would write a
18:33 policy in Westchester County for
18:35 buildings like yours coughs and condoms
18:37 and the problem is there’s probably a
18:40 thousand different insurance agents out
18:41 there who are all offering the same
18:44 thing but quite honestly these policies
18:47 are pretty limited to who you can go to
18:49 and once one agent bits with a company
18:53 the next station coming in is kind of
18:55 blocked out so you know I try to give my
18:58 boards information and teach them that
19:01 you know what it’s not like your incall
19:03 Fall state and Gieco and get a quote
19:05 to the next day just doesn’t happen that
19:08 way the other thing is you know you
19:10 should be familiar with the coverages
19:11 you need I think Jason went over those
19:13 things I mean standard coverages for any
19:15 co-op or condo is property coverage
19:18 general liability coverage umbrella
19:21 coverage directors and officers coverage
19:23 crime coverage pollution coverage the
19:28 flood coverage back up and then there’s
19:30 this little thing out on the outside
19:32 which is not necessarily include in your
19:33 policies to an adequate extent
19:35 earthquake coverage we live in New York
19:37 putting an earthquake coverage for I
19:39 remember sitting my office about two
19:41 years ago and my building was shaking
19:43 I’m saying you know going to him I think
19:46 we went to a meeting actually Jason a
19:48 few a month later or so I’m going to
19:50 large client
19:52 first they say why don’t we need
19:53 earthquake coverage I’m saying well I’m
19:56 not the one going to tell you and that’s
19:57 to take it but you really have to take
19:59 the advice of your insurance I don’t
20:02 have to have a lot of confidence and the
20:04 people you deal with to understand what
20:06 kind of coverages that you need the
20:09 other thing is the cheapest is not
20:10 necessarily the best a lot of times you
20:15 get bored to look at a thing say well we
20:18 can switch to this company but we can
20:20 switch to this company and that’s not
20:22 necessarily the case love dishes at five
20:25 thousand dollars less than we’re paying
20:26 on our $80,000 premium and okay you
20:31 advise them not to they go ahead and
20:33 they say well let’s go with that you
20:35 move to a different company and say you
20:36 know a month layer two months later oh
20:39 by the way you should sprinkle your
20:40 building or we have some insurance
20:43 recommendations that have to be dealt
20:44 with so you have to be very careful the
20:47 marketplace and where you go switching
20:50 companies for small savings sometimes
20:52 not what sometimes you stay with your
20:54 company that you had to have a history
20:56 with you you’re probably in a better
20:59 position one of the things to educate
21:03 boards as I always say it’s good idea to
21:05 invite the broker who is the expert
21:07 we’re managing agents we deal with
21:10 insurance all day but I’m not an
21:11 insurance broker I usually like to
21:13 invite the broker to a board meeting
21:16 usually right before renewal and let
21:18 them explain to the boards what their
21:20 coverages are where they may be lacking
21:22 what understand the policies that you
21:25 have what’s covered what’s not covered
21:29 you know what do you really need and you
21:31 know quite honestly your broker is the
21:33 one can best advise you based on your
21:36 history your your loss history and other
21:40 factors that are involved something that
21:43 comes up more and more nowadays with
21:45 with boards is the crime infidelity
21:48 conference that basically covers you
21:50 from fifth for money stolen by the
21:52 managing agents board members employees
21:55 etc
21:56 and bored sometimes under insure and
22:00 then there’s an issue now that’s coming
22:03 up more and more with Fannie Mae
22:04 guidelines and when people are buying
22:07 apartments and they’re looking for
22:08 insurance Fannie Mae comes in and they
22:11 have certain guidelines if they want to
22:12 see if they’re going to issue mortgages
22:14 and a lot of times we get calls from the
22:18 mortgage brokers representing a
22:19 purchaser and a building and they say
22:21 well you know what the insurance on the
22:24 liability coverage is not adequate for
22:27 our guidelines usually I think it’s a
22:30 three month three months of income is
22:33 the minimum requirement you may have
22:36 some more to say why do I need that much
22:37 coverage it’s really not that expensive
22:39 to increase it but you should certainly
22:41 come to the amount of money you have
22:42 your bank accounts obviously there’s
22:44 some buildings where they don’t have a
22:45 lot of money in bank accounts
22:46 fortunately this year we’re getting away
22:48 with a lot with you know fuel prices and
22:50 things being down but you really have
22:52 that the proper coverage is so that you
22:54 can make sure you share holders don’t
22:56 have problems getting mortgages if
22:57 they’re selling their apartments and
23:00 last but not least it’s you know
23:02 shareholder protection why your
23:05 shareholders need to have insurance on
23:07 their apartments you know the building’s
23:09 ensured the building burns down they’re
23:11 going to rebuild it right well I can
23:13 tell you about in two thousand it was
23:18 2003 we had a 106 unit building that
23:22 basically I got a call on a Sunday
23:24 morning I was actually having to New jersey
23:27 with my wife shopping at ikea
23:29 i remember this estately my manager
23:31 calls because i think we have a problem
23:32 is a fire one of the buildings not
23:35 unusual for managing you can get a call
23:36 like that other than i said okay i’ll be
23:39 going coming over there figured by the
23:42 time i got there you know what it’ll be
23:45 out you know we’ll have a little flame
23:46 you have an apartment into this damage
23:48 what’s going to happen but I get there
23:50 probably about you know a hour later 45
23:53 minutes later the entire building is
23:55 engulfed I it started believe it or not
23:59 in Department 18 right in the center
24:01 lobby was an old building built in 1926
24:04 went up through
24:06 hidden lofts and through they used
24:09 to have the dumb waiters that were
24:11 sealed in apartments went up to the roof
24:13 went over by the time it was done 13
24:17 hours later with about five or six power
24:21 lines pouring water into the building
24:23 the top floor had collapsed into the
24:25 fifth floor the entire building was a
24:27 total loss I can’t tell you any feelings
24:31 I had when probably at that point in
24:35 time i’d say probably seventy percent of
24:37 the people who owned in that building
24:40 did not have insurance under apartments
24:43 and for two or three hundred dollars a
24:46 year to ensure those apartments these
24:49 people are building took three years to
24:50 rebuild so they had to find alternative
24:53 housing obviously they didn’t pay for
24:55 your maintenance charges during the time
24:56 they were out but an enormous amount of
24:59 people just didn’t have insurance and I
25:01 bring that up to every board meeting
25:03 every annual meeting I go to I tell that
25:05 story where you know what this is
25:07 something that you you know you spent
25:09 two or three hundred dollars for
25:10 insurance you should have it most common
25:13 kind of those can’t mandate it because
25:15 your private area leases do not have
25:18 that requirement but we try to make sure
25:20 that you know people understand when
25:23 they’re purchasing it’s very important
25:25 that you get insurance you’re important
25:28 sometimes you think about and then
25:30 necessarily the necessary a require
25:34 insurance is placed with a new character
25:37 recommendations will follow an initial
25:40 inspection of nuts and Tara insurance
25:43 carriers the option to cancel it
25:45 insurance is renewed with the existing
25:47 carrier there will be an inspection
25:50 with possible
25:50 recommendations in this case there’s
25:53 generally more flexibility and room for
25:55 discussion with Jason sets with a
25:57 ruffler can be particularly helpful and
26:01 how these recommendations are being
26:02 addressed where the border management
26:04 company have established a good long
26:06 relationship with the company Jason say
26:09 you don’t you switch it around and your
26:11 claims and lawsuits are hopefully love
26:13 and that’s the beer and you have
26:16 addressed recommendation to the past and
26:19 maintain the building’s to the insurance
26:21 company’s standards of satisfaction the
26:25 recommendations could become too costly
26:27 to address insurance throughout your
26:29 management can intervene and assist in
26:32 finding other alternatives you always
26:35 think them address the risk benefit of
26:38 these recommendations
26:42 insurence companies are looking for
26:44 reasonable effort from words and
26:46 management’s provide a safe and secure
26:48 investment recommendations provide
26:51 actions to assist risk management which
26:54 is the key another scaling what is
26:57 mismanagement exposure I wanted to find
27:00 risk natural negress management is the
27:02 effort to deal with many uncertainties
27:04 that exist at a property by
27:08 understanding their nature and the
27:09 likelihood of occurrence motor control
27:12 reduce these risks to acceptable levels
27:16 these risks Charlie fall into four
27:18 categories safety security emergencies
27:21 and liabilities liability coaches the
27:25 magic risk law their avoidance you like
27:29 to eliminate it altogether retention or
27:33 something scheduled anything about
27:35 there’s control to reduce the risk and
27:37 transfer properties look the transfer
27:41 risk o to insurance companies insurance
27:43 companies look to reduce the risk by
27:45 making these recommendations premiums
27:48 are also affected by risks of the work
27:50 the five levels recommendations better
27:53 opportunity you have to lower your
27:55 premiums in a period of rising rates
28:00 Jason talked about before necessarily in
28:03 the tremendous rise amazing job in years
28:07 we’re pretty severe the markets will
28:10 tighten and here’s competition and
28:12 limits to your choices so also by
28:15 following these recommendations you can
28:17 avoid accidents and claims which would
28:19 be costly in quite time consuming to
28:22 result second area will talk about with
28:27 some examples of common insurance
28:29 recommendations so the father if you can
28:32 we’ll be building and because say
28:35 exposure and recommendations still have
28:38 some fire hazard exposure for example a
28:40 barbecue grill kept at a little distance
28:43 according with local building Calvin’s
28:45 fire hazards talk about this with Jacob
28:49 Kutner Jason covered or any circuit
28:52 breakers and remove it select super
28:54 babies and removing fuses water damage
28:57 for example get repair loose shingles of
29:00 fleshing a particular location and the
29:03 water damage exposures should repair
29:06 brake pointing we listen water exists a
29:09 particular locations flooding the parent
29:12 Seward catch basins replacing them
29:16 another property damage exposures trees
29:19 hitting buildings are close to them you
29:21 take those cut off the branches of trees
29:24 or rituals and you can get into examples
29:28 of general liability exposure and
29:30 recommendations tripping at all to
29:33 replace cracks or an evenness in the
29:36 sidewalks repair the tracks not only
29:39 injury repair loose handrails for
29:42 example to amount of brackets and air
29:44 stereo conditioner in this contract of
29:47 liability general liability third party
29:50 and drink mostly prop was his property
29:53 damage these certificates of insurance
29:56 at defcon years additional insured and
29:58 dedication in their eyes that most
30:03 people focus on a lot is life safety
30:05 recommendations exposure liability today
30:10 with emergency legs no protective suit
30:12 detectors and Cheer entrance is locked
30:15 each other panic bars on the roof if you
30:19 have a large that properly working alarm
30:23 maintenance a lot of places have gyms
30:27 equipments working properly this
30:29 exposure there those are just few of the
30:33 examples third category I want to talk
30:39 to about how to prioritize the budget or
30:41 insurance recommendations near think you
30:44 should try to establish a criteria start
30:48 with what exposure that was identified
30:50 lenders recommendations without the
30:52 greatest adverse impact on signing a
30:55 monetary impact a good place to start
30:58 that’s not always easy to do you
31:01 identify the risk since the likelihood
31:03 of its occurring a lot of other
31:05 potential consequences some risks are
31:08 prevalent in most associations such as
31:11 building issues and security and life
31:13 safety another risks can be unique to
31:16 your particular property basically
31:19 mentioned before cyber liability
31:21 cyberattacks somebody asked the question
31:25 earlier there are some properties that
31:27 have their own psychosis is that if
31:29 there now that there’s there are
31:31 equipment sometimes that puts interview
31:33 that companies sometimes I saw a very
31:35 critical
31:36 properties there you might have some
31:38 exposure another risk can be unique to
31:43 your property examples like
31:45 environmental potential environmental
31:48 potential for natural disasters so if
31:50 you live there stream or river you have
31:53 more exposure in place property
31:56 generally isn’t in there so you have to
31:58 look at what you need to you as well
32:01 should say proposals from contractors
32:04 examining here on operating capital
32:05 budgets and based on that criteria
32:08 priority criteria and I should include
32:12 that see what work can be done by the
32:13 building staff versus outside
32:15 contractors as well this one’s the city
32:18 we’re making the budget sometimes an
32:20 item i require replacement or major we
32:23 care you might have enough funds in the
32:26 budget in that case you might have
32:28 called the further maintenance can make
32:30 the temporary repair which are carried
32:32 robert so you have the funds surance
32:34 companies sometimes you accept that
32:36 apology also sometimes get to timing
32:38 issue at the time of the year you might
32:43 want you to make that repair so you have
32:45 to work with the other give your time
32:46 and they want to see a plan what’s or
32:48 something a lot of let’s see here is to
32:51 it when you’re doing your budget review
32:55 prior requirements set up a plan to
32:58 address those it was a good time the
33:00 plot was recommendation equal prior
33:02 years and look at what’s going on
33:04 pre-inspection when you’re doing your
33:06 budgets operators ross capital so you
33:09 have that money available we get decided
33:14 where those funds going to come from a
33:16 couple operating budget but we can come
33:18 to the capital improvement program you
33:20 have to look at your reserves if the
33:22 side do assessments those are all issues
33:26 if the month last time quickly wanted to
33:32 talk about was how to avoid recognitions
33:35 by having a South capital improvement
33:37 and annual maintenance repair
33:40 maintenance repair touching that little
33:45 earlier but God years basically be
33:47 proactive carefully potential losses
33:51 that company should be conducted routine
33:54 building-wide inspections what all the
33:57 angles i mean i only have checklists and
33:59 a follow-up protocol thorough enough to
34:03 have enough time to correct the issues
34:04 before the removals a lot of programs
34:08 out there for inspections technology
34:13 tablets with software the military
34:16 analysis there take pictures to my cell
34:20 phone and then try to establish a
34:24 preventive maintenance program which is
34:27 the inspections generally part of that
34:30 identify all the areas in the building
34:33 set up recorder excel sheets or their
34:36 programs with action list and make sure
34:39 these items were taken care of basically
34:44 these programs these maintenance
34:45 programs and fall to four categories
34:49 whenever call deferred maintenance
34:50 touched on before another is preventive
34:54 maintenance and just trying to get ahead
34:55 of her it was like well is there a
34:59 custodial maintenance and staffs very
35:01 important you and the staffs working there
35:03 everyday they should be trained suppose so
35:07 what these risks are the property there
35:10 they’re working at working around the
35:13 property the reason they can to put it
35:15 back to the managers or pretend I think
35:20 I’ve seen you do need that train to show
35:21 ahead of time it’s a look for that could
35:26 be big help in lowering risks insurance
35:30 so anyway that was the heiress I want to
35:33 talk about it would provide web with
35:36 some reasons why the recommendations are
35:38 important and should not be ignored so
35:41 some ways of handling recommendations
35:43 that we collected have Jews over there
35:59 and we don’t have gym but we have the
36:02 request from shareholder may modify an
36:05 existing Bible page one area where that
36:08 can be secured and they you see this can
36:11 have a place to go to jet does that
36:14 bring up extra liability issues for my
36:18 experience trench companies doing sure
36:22 James on properties as long as the
36:25 proper protections are
36:28 talk about a little more my experience
36:32 seeing properties house you’re not sign
36:36 waivers right the main thing is plan to
36:43 make sure that is properly saying my
36:50 service contract for the companies as
36:52 quality good daddy basically we just
37:00 said yes put a gym and workout facility
37:06 yes it increases your liability guest
37:08 insurance company normally has no
37:11 problem with it whatsoever and yes and
37:13 everything that you can do and form of
37:15 waivers maintenance plans for the
37:18 equipment etc to reduce your mitigate
37:19 your liability is as good a place wasn’t
37:23 a kid it’s just 47 you don’t have to do
37:30 no you don’t have it just mean listen to
37:42 start watching I think I happy I thought
37:45 you got up every way you could do it not
37:48 wrong alright so you know quite a
37:51 meeting would jump and jumping over a
37:52 lot of small details on recommendations
37:54 it’s unbelievable how detailed and
37:57 important recommendations are monitored
37:59 planning forth and how those relate to
38:02 insurance so appreciate the
38:06 to on recommendation next and last is
38:10 Dominator from guard chester was going
38:12 to discuss when you have a plane you
38:15 know if you give all else fails if you
38:18 did the recommendations or you didn’t do
38:19 the recommendations you communicated
38:21 with before does david was talking about
38:23 you know the make changes or your
38:26 Tolzien owners or shareholders you know
38:28 picture figure a fireplace clean dirt
38:31 you change the hoses on your washer and
38:35 dryer something results and you have a
38:37 claim and john’s going to talk about the
38:39 different types of claims that you can
38:41 add and the different responses is a
38:43 management engine and a board if you
38:46 might have depending on the type of plan
38:53 even if you’re going i am going to touch
38:57 on insurance claims this week that
39:02 sounds like we’re going to have our
39:03 first snow event I’m just very happy
39:06 it’s a scared and a little property
39:08 managers or not and it’s interesting
39:12 there’s the number one thing for me that
39:14 I am a note up and you’ll probably have
39:17 with your apps know you’re going to have
39:19 a slip-and-fall plan you’re going to
39:22 have somebody in slips and Falls and you
39:24 may have a situation where somebody just
39:26 took some goals and it’s kind of my hell
39:28 no problem with the insurance company on
39:32 those you never know they go home the
39:36 back starts hurting whatever the case
39:37 may be you get a plane later on
39:40 reporting a flame as soon as possible is
39:43 the most important thing the stat should
39:48 be made aware of that to somebody comes
39:50 in and claims
39:52 they have gone down but then I hurt make
39:59 sure the step is Austin tells the
40:01 managing agent and report the claim
40:05 damage their property and he damaged
40:09 that warmer to claim work first of all
40:12 let the managing agent through their job
40:14 the board should not get involved
40:16 sometimes boys will get involved if it’s
40:19 a situation with a resident whatever the
40:24 case report claimed the claimed results
40:30 does that Blue David mentions and it’s a
40:34 sad thing even to this day I cannot
40:37 understand why every renter and every
40:41 Cheryl does not have insurance but you
40:43 will be amazed how many not the
40:49 unfortunately if the client results in
40:53 loss of damage to personal property that
40:57 resident has a real problem the other
41:01 thing I think also David mentioned about
41:03 if you have the old tub overflow and my
41:08 accident it happens people get a Bunco
41:10 their child out in California talking
41:15 away and tough fills that overflows
41:17 causes damage to the building and causes
41:20 a lot of damage and personal property
41:21 below any damage to the personal
41:24 property is between the residents your
41:29 coops and condos to not lose your
41:32 personal property your master policy
41:34 will not cover that it’s always it’s a
41:39 sad sad thing so the more you can
41:41 encourage people to be properly insured
41:46 will be the last thing actually my my
41:52 reports going to be very fruitful as
41:54 they’ve covered the number of things
41:56 when you have a minimal flame a small
41:59 flame knowledge ended up the bullets the
42:02 deductible is five thousand dollars for
42:04 example and it ladies fifty eight
42:06 hundred dollars don’t put it in play
42:09 it’s a nuisance point more claims you
42:12 put in more difficult it can be on your
42:15 loss credits obviously if it’s
42:19 substantially more then you would submit
42:21 your claim avoiding the claims is Jason
42:26 men and mentioned thermostats people go
42:29 away townhouses and they lower the
42:32 thermostat too much and many of these
42:34 down houses are poorly insulated this
42:37 happens all the time and you have free
42:40 soaps it’s an expensive damage in mid
42:44 rise high rise buildings the roof drains
42:48 nobody goes our prom group reminder
42:51 super intense make sure the drains are
42:54 clearly many many leaks occur because of
42:57 what drains that are blocked and again
43:01 back to town houses cleaning gutters
43:03 it’s amazing to me that is the source of
43:07 more weeks especially in basements so
43:10 and will contribute to your right
43:14 standing problems so the important thing
43:17 is doing preventive type programs such
43:21 as that anybody has any questions I’m
43:24 happy
43:28 eh oh right type of insurance is
43:35 basically say worth of dangerousness
43:38 well the HR 6 policies appear your
43:41 personal homeowners policy and we’ll
43:44 cover you you’ll have a liability and
43:47 pepper to your personal items there’s
43:52 variations of it depending on how much
43:55 your personal items are coverage and
44:00 also damage to a neighbor yes if you’ve
44:06 caused a leak such as overflowing a tub
44:11 and their property is damaged below it
44:14 will help you insurance co rec in the
44:18 policy that a condo or co-op owner would
44:22 get is going to have property coverage
44:25 and you need to discuss this with your
44:27 broker cover the improvements and
44:29 veterans additions and alterations to
44:32 your unit as well as your contents and
44:36 what also covers we discuss loss of use
44:39 if you’re forced to leave your part due
44:42 to a cover cause of loss and then to
44:44 your point it covers liability if you
44:48 have liability to a third party which
44:51 could be a shareholder or you know
44:53 you for bodily injury or in the case
44:57 you’re describing property because
44:59 that’s the liability side the personal
45:01 life and one thing again that old
45:07 speakers mentioned the importance of
45:10 having a broker that’s familiar with
45:14 condominiums and especially colors that
45:18 understands and proprietary list and
45:19 what’s covering and what’s not again i
45:22 have many people over the years that
45:24 I’ve been in a national business who are
45:26 ensuring the property I’m destroy
45:28 property the master policy will ensure
45:32 the property you have preserve your
45:34 personal time your life oh that’s what’s
45:37 the most important so don’t over ensure
45:39 and when you speak to your broker yes
45:42 them if they’re firm a especially if you
45:44 live in a cold it’s a different opinion
45:46 it’s a it’s important that they
45:50 understand what is covered and what is
45:52 not I feel sometimes like we’re the
45:59 catch-22 we have an occupancy period of
46:04 the party early success exactly what the
46:06 hell our cover story doesn’t so if the
46:09 toilet goes from close Angelo plus
46:12 well that’s easy that was my fault right
46:14 there but if hide behind the toilet
46:16 leaves goddamn stairs and rooms every
46:21 unveiled stairs now according to my I
46:24 understand it because that’s time on
46:26 walls in instant power it’s not the
46:29 shareholders insurance that they need to
46:31 be ten pages get what you’re saying is
46:34 don’t submit a small claim so we end up
46:38 spending thousands of dollars a year the
46:40 coop paying for just exactly those
46:42 things where I’ve fallen behind the wall
46:45 leaked so we have thousands and
46:47 thousands of dollars of those kind of
46:48 claims that maybe they’re too small to
46:51 click our shirts come by the
46:53 shareholders so choose I marsh or
46:56 generally men Congress identity I think
46:58 if I should I heard what you said in
47:01 there you you may be paying for claims
47:03 where pipe behind the wall in the common
47:07 area building breaks it’s so important
47:10 ok play behind the wall in someone’s
47:12 apartment breaks and causes damage to a
47:15 to an apartment below including the
47:18 contents and the cabinetry of wall and
47:21 etc and if you’re paying the unit owner
47:26 shareholder for all their personal stuff
47:29 they got damaged their rugs and carpets
47:31 and everything and wall hangings and
47:34 repainting you may want to discuss that
47:37 with your insurance broker and your
47:39 attorney because it’s probably not your
47:43 responsibility if the shareholder or
47:47 your wants to sue the coop for liability
47:52 in negligence then possibly your
47:55 liability policy will pay for that but
47:58 you shouldn’t necessarily just start
47:59 paying up cash to the unit over
48:04 they don’t fit yeah thats that’s pretty
48:07 much it but to put your point also to
48:09 have a maintenance program to take a
48:12 hundred units and to go through and say
48:15 we know our history shows that you know
48:19 hi see my employers are breaking our
48:21 crazy it’s costing us thousands of
48:23 dollars is it reasonable to go to co-op
48:25 students sort of nations program to go
48:28 here after year to a vehicle departments
48:31 and replaced in typing in hand good
48:42 fun and I was started touching on that a
48:44 little bit when I talk the answer is
48:47 that’s your history probably a good idea
48:52 for here to start looking at it from
48:55 African operating perspective from the
48:57 capital budget reserve pilot perspect
49:01 strike leader have over some time
49:09 structure out setup started with
49:12 replacement product that’s happening
49:14 though it’s all that all the time but
49:20 love is very funny we have some years
49:23 now partly into another year is going to
49:27 matter what for the air is the years
49:30 feels roughest ride and discussions on
49:33 what that’s all about talked of any
49:36 clutter to that and seems to take a life
49:38 it’s all such respect but we’re really
49:42 under issue for that starting out slow I
49:50 would just put a little bit more
49:52 emphasis on that I mean he’s absolutely
49:54 right it what you said you probably
49:57 realize how important it was that you
49:59 said it your loss history your written
50:03 insurance company lost history is like
50:05 your driving record or your credit
50:07 report and if it shows if you had three
50:11 or four five flushometer breaks over the
50:14 last few years any insurance company
50:18 looking
50:18 insurance the last century to look at
50:20 that and say I am not touching this
50:21 building with a 10-foot Pole history
50:27 from you sure that’s why if you don’t
50:28 find it that’s great your problems and
50:31 you better start fixing them because at
50:34 one point you’re going to have a claim
50:36 that you can’t pay out of pocket you’d
50:37 have to go to the insurance company
50:38 they’re going to pay the claim and then
50:41 you’re going to not review because they
50:42 just pay 240 million dollars or whatever
50:44 and they lost their shirt and you’re
50:46 going to look for you insurance
50:47 companies are you looking for lost
50:48 history you’ll see that you’re only
50:50 going to see one claiming that case but
50:53 any type of multiple reporting of the
50:57 same line could be a big problem you’re
51:00 in a catch-22 right now like you said
51:01 you gotta get out we forget the
51:04 insurance issue you’re having closed
51:06 loops bother your life to the residence
51:09 we take your little comfortable so i
51:12 would probably focus more that would be
51:14 good yeah i’m normally we are we talking
51:18 about and right now i’m talking about
51:20 damage to the building not first
51:22 property so they understand the ceiling
51:25 pages customs another question the NIGC
51:29 touched on my question it’s my
51:32 understanding i presided the world
51:34 breaks and grips downstairs bed co-op
51:37 will be placed whoa deep unit owner had
51:42 10,000 all of the square foot wealthy
51:44 that’s their problem thats Sarah and
51:47 they have special paint on here please
51:49 Jeremy over you’re supposed to put the
51:52 crime and if they got $10,000 pink that
51:55 is destroyed that’s their problem I
51:57 think it’s also quite understand the
52:00 reporting
52:01 you know what it goes up to go 100 or 40
52:05 year lot of anything but definitely a
52:09 different kind of property claiming a
52:12 liability and white all of policy my
52:16 office is if somebody called are all I
52:19 opened the front door I got a hangnail
52:21 we’re going to notify the insurance
52:23 company that particular incident when
52:26 somebody home said well we have a link
52:27 or so I’m going to assess it as they
52:29 said is you know John Jeff said you know
52:32 you have a 5800 dollars 5000 deductible you don’t
52:36 necessarily want to build up a loss
52:39 history based on those places that will
52:42 make your insurance bill much higher
52:44 what does my building things you have to
52:46 be very very careful because i’ll give
52:49 you this it that happened with one of
52:50 our buildings and board members should
52:52 be very well aware it it’s not only
52:54 asthmatic you talking about to be aware
52:55 of a somebody slipped in cows butts
52:58 building camp has to make sure they’re
53:00 aware of it so we had an incident number
53:02 of years ago property where board member
53:05 was walking with a friend of the garage
53:07 Fred slipped and fell hurt her ankle
53:10 port number never said anything like
53:12 like a private thing probably six months
53:15 later we get a lawsuit because it video
53:17 and your sofa finding the time which
53:21 every time you buy
53:22 then consider crazy David but we didn’t
53:26 know anything about it turned into the
53:27 insurance companies netted over George
53:29 commie does her investigation turns out
53:31 all the the first was injured center
53:34 while I was walking with this act she’s
53:36 the president for housing there was no
53:40 the insurance company denied coverage
53:41 okay what I’ve made not claiming settle
53:44 for about ten thousand dollars or
53:46 something like that but understand if
53:48 board members have a fiduciary
53:49 responsibility building and if you hear
53:52 anything you should notify your manager
53:54 to imagine agent so if they do put the
53:56 proper notice into the insurance company
53:58 a lot of times of notes of nothing
53:59 wanted a nose but at least protect
54:01 yourself you know put it on record
54:03 undersized includes clowns good so one
54:07 of the brand commented 1 items there are
54:11 situations sometimes about a lot of
54:12 people this personal property versus
54:15 building property coverage there are
54:18 times where x examples Explorer these
54:22 employers the responsibility of the car
54:27 someone you have decides to change that
54:30 for its on some special special would
54:35 tie on special tile tomorrow of that is
54:39 ultimately a train that the floor that
54:42 basic structure would be the cost
54:45 take care of it but that additional
54:47 amount of money with an additional
54:49 texture I or enhancement everything time
54:52 would be the responsibility of the year
54:55 that this happened play dead just like a
55:00 fancy wallpaper anything
55:13 facing patient
55:32 yes in many cases I mean if you read the
55:38 probably mostly coops soon typically
55:43 co-op privately release will say that
55:46 the shareholder is responsible for any
55:50 improvements betterments additions
55:53 alterations made by that shareholder or
55:56 any previous shareholder since the
55:59 beginning of the coop so if you’ve got a
56:01 unit that’s you know in a building of 60
56:04 years old I will bet you you know all
56:07 the money in my pocket then virtually
56:09 everything’s been upgraded the floors
56:11 the fixture to the cabinets bathroom
56:13 everything so all of that has to be
56:16 ensured by the shareholders 806 policy
56:19 to whatever bond money the shareholder
56:22 thinks is the appropriate amount of
56:23 money and then when you have a fire and
56:25 everything’s destroyed oh go through
56:27 with a big of little scraps and olives
56:29 pieces you know bronze costs against
56:32 Allah don’t know yet
56:40 if that if if it’s been altered in some
56:45 cases you won’t get anything you want
56:48 even get the frigate it all depends on
56:51 how fast and how the proprietary this is
56:54 written
56:59 get up in a condo you get beer walls to
57:04 get the driver it all depends on the
57:08 language of the beast or the by laws for
57:12 the offer and I’ve seen if I read out my
57:17 British documents might be 50 different
57:21 language they’re not called agree
57:26 completely ok one more reality
57:31 (laughs)
57:38 ok one more question
57:41 (question from audience)
57:55 no
57:47 lace where being resale oh give you all
57:52 the good stuff no basic they might do
58:01 all the recommendations and all those
58:02 things the insurance company asked does
58:04 it help to keep it your premium stone
58:07 and basically no it keeps you in the
58:11 game he keeps you in good stead with
58:13 your existing carrier properly helps to
58:15 mitigate insurance plan the loss which
58:17 in turn keeps you in the game for all
58:21 the other insurance companies it might
58:22 be proper don’t do them your partner
58:26 could drop you into a treatment program
58:39 giving up come up every down yesterday
58:47 will pop step it up on top one last
58:59 insurance companies over you do if you
59:05 show that you’re you’re going to do
59:07 progressive a progressive steps to
59:10 satisfy their recognition is very with
59:13 that if you just don’t respond any
59:17 problem please join me in thanking Jason, David, Jeff and John
59:20 (Applause)
59:22 Day
1/21/2016: Insurance Checkup for Boards and Condos
Cooperative and Condo Advisory Council (CACC)
00:01 (A slide that has a little information)
00:04 hey it’s my pleasure to introduce Ken first
00:10 (claps)
00:12 thank you thank you again so Iam Ken
00:16 first my lovely assistant and business
00:19 partner Jason’s Schiciano will be manning
00:22 de Vanna White role of clicking on my
00:25 slides in FS we’ve been practicing all
00:30 week for this as much as jeff has said
00:34 all you know who we are there are a lot
00:37 of new faces here tonight but just for a
00:39 quick minute I just want to explain
00:40 Leavitt first is one of the largest
00:43 independent insurance brokers in
00:45 Westchester and our niche is the real
00:47 estate and construction industries and
00:50 the reason why our 50-person office is
00:53 the bottom are the advisors to the
00:55 builders Institute the condo coop
00:56 council and all the association’s here
00:58 tonight is because we’ve created
01:02 programs you need to these industries
01:05 where we grew together and get your
01:08 group discounts on insurance so those of
01:10 you that have not don’t know about our
01:12 services feel free to call possibly
01:15 offer some unique value added services
01:18 that no other insurance broker can
01:20 provide to help people that manage
01:22 properties that own buildings then run
01:25 construction companies and so forth
01:27 because we’re a niche player were able
01:30 to create and develop unique products
01:32 and services for these two industries so
01:34 feel free to talk to Jason or myself
01:37 after tonight’s presentation I also want
01:39 to take a minute to introduce two other
01:41 people in the audience one from our
01:43 office is packed Clare is the director
01:45 of our real estate
01:46 division that can you raise your arm
01:47 (claps)
01:48 and also I’d like to take a minute
01:53 where you know I’m going to build up to
01:55 a new insurance certificate that’s out
01:57 there called the Accord 855 and we’re
02:02 lucky enough tonight to have with us
02:04 Anthony Carlucci from Greenblatt well
02:07 whelming remoulade and Brady I thought
02:11 was it yeah well being brainy gremlin on
02:14 them for 20 years like they don’t accept
02:16 where he went right here so Anthony was
02:19 one of the creators of this certificate
02:21 on part of the committee that’s worked
02:23 for multiple years on this the end
02:26 product you know either those jokes when
02:28 you get too many people in the room and
02:30 what the end product looks like it’s not
02:31 a perfect end result but we’re going to
02:33 talk about it when we help towards the
02:35 end of the presentation and talk about
02:37 how you might you might not want to be
02:39 using this insurance certificate Jason
02:42 and I opinion in front of you many many
02:44 times and we’ve told you what the value
02:47 of this insurance certificate is you do
02:50 not have a sample in front of you we’re
02:52 not going to talk about the end outside
02:53 or in front of me towards until the end
02:55 so you don’t have to look at them this
02:57 is just a regular certificate we’ve told
03:01 you over and over again I mean nothing
03:04 you can’t rely on this piece of paper
03:07 all this piece of paper tells you is
03:10 that the contractor that you hired has
03:13 an insurance policy with certain limits
03:16 that supposedly add them on a certain
03:18 date that’s it we’ve been in front of
03:21 you multiple multiple tonics explaining
03:24 this and we’ve told you that the second
03:26 part of the equation is that you need to
03:28 have a contract to go with the
03:31 certificate and once those two pieces
03:33 come together then you are protected one
03:38 without the other serves you no good so
03:41 I’m going to review that again
03:43 get get you to that point why you need
03:45 those parts to come together to fit the
03:47 puzzle but then we’re going to take it
03:49 to the next stage which has evolved over
03:52 the last couple years which is what has
03:54 created the invention of this new
03:55 certificate which you might have a
03:58 contract you might have the insurance
04:00 certificate but you don’t know what type
04:03 of insurance that contractor is telling
04:05 you he has you have no idea whether or
04:08 not that policy is a real policy of fake
04:10 policy policy that excludes him going on
04:12 the roof that exclusive working on your
04:15 on your house excludes working on your
04:17 building excludes fupas you’re in the
04:19 Bronx you have no idea it just shows
04:21 that they have insurance so now a new
04:24 certificate has been created called
04:26 855 then is supplemental it’s an
04:28 additional form that you might or might
04:30 want your contractors to start to fill
04:33 out truthfully I don’t think anyone here
04:37 in this room will end up using that
04:38 certificate fun we’re going to short the
04:41 end of this I am going to show you a
04:42 spectrum of ways from doing almost
04:45 nothing to having this certificate and
04:48 then there are ways that you can ratchet
04:50 it back and try to figure out what’s
04:51 useful for your operation if you’re a
04:54 general contractor you’re going to want
04:56 to be pretty close to this because
04:58 you’re hiring contractors day in and day
04:59 out and this is going to dramatically
05:01 impact your insurance rates for the long
05:03 term if you’re a property manager you
05:05 might just want to help pull out a
05:07 couple factors from this and just be
05:10 focused on checking on your roofers or
05:12 your painters or the guys on the
05:14 exterior of the building and you might
05:16 adapt some some iteration of this to
05:19 what you feel you need to protect at the
05:22 end of the day your insurance if you’re
05:24 dealing with a professional insurance
05:25 broker and has not new insurance policy
05:28 your policies are going to protect you
05:31 when you’re not protected from is that
05:34 if a claim hits and you’ve hired a sub
05:37 or a contractor
05:38 with bad insurance it’s going to drive
05:40 up your insurance rates because he
05:42 insurance this claim that your painter
05:44 that fell off the scaffold or the ladder
05:46 is now going to impact you for five
05:48 years so you’re at the end of this
05:50 presentation will have to determine how
05:52 important that is to you you know how
05:54 important it is to control your rates
05:56 can you control your board you know you
05:59 might not be able to control the board
06:00 of your building the boat and they just
06:03 want to hire the cheapest contractor
06:04 each time so we put Lee set by the end
06:07 of tonight you’ll know what’s at risk
06:10 Jason so we start at the beginning I’m
06:13 going to go backwards just to remind you
06:15 of how we got here and it all starts
06:17 with workers compensation the whole
06:19 concept behind workers comp is that a
06:21 guy gets injured he gets paid his
06:25 medical bills get paid most of his loss
06:28 compensation gets paid end of story but
06:32 a hundred years ago before workers comp
06:34 Oh what happened is the guy would fall
06:35 in a factory and he would have to sue
06:37 the owner of the factory to collect
06:40 because he broke his leg and then the
06:42 owner the mean upon owner the factory
06:44 would sue him and say no you were
06:45 negligent you should’ve been on that one
06:47 for something and so you’d have them
06:49 suing each other lawyers would be
06:51 involved it turned into a big expensive
06:54 ordeal that would drag out for a long
06:55 time so a hundred years ago they created
06:58 workers compensation they said no
07:00 lawyers no attorneys no lawsuits the guy
07:04 gets paid no questions asked we might
07:07 not all agree when it when employing
07:09 it’s injured you might want to sue you
07:11 might want to fight it the court lean
07:13 towards easy to poor in you know get
07:16 your employees but trust me we’re all
07:18 saving a lot of money by taking the
07:20 attorneys out of the system I just
07:22 having
07:22 an injured employee collect for his
07:24 medical bills and move on get lost page
07:27 the wages that hopefully come back to
07:29 work except in New York there used to be
07:36 a small loophole that has now grown into
07:39 a huge loophole in New York and you’ve
07:42 heard the terms labor law 240 and 241 scaffold law
07:47 safe place to work on all these things
07:51 are connected they’re all different
07:52 names for a law that’s been on the books
07:54 for many many years but lawyers have now
07:57 figured a way to exploit that to be able
08:00 to sue when someone gets injured the
08:02 footnote is this does not apply to
08:05 construction on single-family or
08:07 two-family homes there are some ways to
08:10 penetrate it but for the most part these
08:13 what we’re going to talk about does not
08:15 involve if you’re just you know dealing
08:17 on single or two-family homes it doesn’t
08:19 impact you know co-ops condos apartment
08:21 buildings and so for single-family homes
08:23 them so in New York there’s this law
08:28 that says the building owner or the
08:32 general contractor whoever’s hiring this
08:34 contractor is required to provide a safe
08:36 place to work when something evolved
08:39 involves Heights now the term Heights
08:43 ruin this law was first created was the
08:45 whole thing was about people falling off
08:47 scaffolds on the side of the building
08:48 and it was up it was those evil building
08:51 owners and we’re not providing a safe
08:52 place for these contractors to work and
08:54 so that’s where this open this whole
08:56 came from but as this has been exploited
08:59 over the years heights now means your
09:02 electrician that gets up on the chair to
09:04 change a light bulb if he falls off
09:06 that’s a hike related injury the painter
09:08 that’s on the ladder inside the
09:10 apartment it falls off that’s a height
09:12 related
09:12 injury the excavator that falls into the
09:15 ditch is a height related injury it’s
09:18 been pushed to such an extreme that you
09:21 could have a contractor who’s sick
09:23 that’s standing on the floor and on
09:24 hammer Falls also ins ladder lands on
09:27 his foot height related he has a broken
09:30 foot that’s a height related claim but was
09:35 the worst part about this law is that
09:38 when it was created to protect these
09:40 contractors working on the outside these
09:42 buildings they said it’s a hundred
09:44 percent the responsibility of the
09:46 business of the building owner it’s
09:49 absolute liability on that general
09:51 contractor that hires the company hires
09:53 the cell to work for him there’s no
09:56 defense okay so you can hire a painter
10:00 who goes out and has a six-pack at lunch
10:03 comes back grabs the broken letter
10:07 that’s sitting in the dumpster that says
10:08 do not use gets on that drunk falls off
10:12 you’re responsible so this has been a
10:16 field day for attorneys trial attorneys
10:19 in New York and it is you know slowly
10:21 slowly has snowballed over the last 10
10:25 years as more more people have figured
10:27 out this great way to collect when you
10:29 get injured at work i’ll tell you one
10:32 example we have one contractor also no
10:36 lawsuit who showed up on his desk for one
10:38 the guys that works for him that doesn’t
10:40 speak English so we get through this
10:43 whole thing and it turns and says why
10:45 are you suing and the guy said I’m gonna
10:48 sue you I don’t even know what this is
10:49 about turns out you have ambulance
10:52 chasers now that go through the
10:54 hospitals and he remember signing up
10:57 form because someone came to his room
10:58 said oh you got injured on the job this
11:00 is for workers compensation they signed
11:02 a form that basically retained an
11:04 attorney for him so his boss said you
11:06 can’t sue got stop this because we can
11:09 you know we’re going to go out of
11:09 business and so those injured employee
11:12 you know called up his attorney and said
11:14 you know I never wanted to sue please
11:16 cancel this when the attorney said we
11:18 kidding I’m gonna get you a quarter
11:19 million dollars for nothing the lawsuit
11:23 pursued okay the system has gotten out
11:26 of control so how does this work so in
11:31 New York guy breaks his leg falls off
11:35 the ladder breaks his leg in New York
11:37 he’s painting he collects workers comp
11:40 the normal way like every other state in
11:42 the country but now he sues the building
11:46 owner he sues the GC okay he can’t
11:50 sue his boss this poor guy that got
11:52 injured cuz there’s workers comp low so
11:55 the only way that he’s able to collect
11:56 is to sue the building owner or the GC
12:04 so we’ve been telling you for the last
12:07 five years that the way to protect
12:09 yourself is to push this risk back down
12:12 to the employer you control the subs you
12:16 control the contractors that come up to
12:17 your property so you it’s your job to
12:20 demand that they sell that this contract
12:23 that comes on your property is going to
12:24 hold it it’s going to take
12:26 responsibility for this injury and
12:28 you’re not going to get hit with the
12:30 claim so we’ve been teaching for years
12:32 how to transfer this risk we told you as
12:38 I said before you get a certificate and
12:40 then you have a contract contract would
12:43 be one paragraph long or it could be
12:46 five pages long but it up said contained
12:48 two key ingredients one that you require
12:52 this contractor that you hire to list
12:54 you as additional each word on his
12:56 policies and to that he’s going to hold
12:59 you harmless he’s going to identify you
13:01 so and if he screws up if his God gets
13:04 injured if he causes a problem on the
13:05 job he’s saying his insurance is going
13:08 to take care of this and he needs both
13:10 these things in a contract that he signs
13:13 before he starts working not after the
13:17 accident before he goes on the job site
13:20 and again one more time having a
13:24 certificate that shows that you’re
13:25 additionally insured means nothing if
13:29 you don’t have this other part you need
13:32 both parts of the puzzle to protect
13:35 yourself one without the other you got
13:38 nothing so what is happening a lawsuits
13:45 as i said in new york are now in the six
13:47 and seven-figure level of it you don’t
13:50 have to be a powerful legion it just
13:52 open L can break your arm you you fall
13:54 off a soft tissue injury it’s in the
13:57 hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
13:58 dollars so this has led that of all the
14:03 contractors insurance rates have now
14:05 skyrocketed guys are working out on
14:08 roofs on the exterior building have
14:10 rates have gone up four five six times
14:12 and anyone to tie them and you’ve heard
14:14 the story over the last couple of years
14:16 guys that aren’t on Heights have also
14:18 seen their rates go up with two to three
14:20 times all the result of this so then
14:24 what happens there’s always a game and
14:27 the smaller contractors have figured out
14:30 a way to get around this and they buy
14:32 cheap insurance they figured out they
14:36 can’t afford all these rate increases
14:37 because the GCS they all have to pay for
14:40 this and then property managers say I’m
14:42 not going to pay for this and so you got
14:44 the smaller guys out there that are
14:46 getting what’s called cheap insurance so
14:48 what does that mean here you are you get
14:52 sued you try to transfer the risk down
14:55 and then you’re blocked okay you can’t
15:00 push the insurance and the fault and
15:02 this claim down to the sub any longer
15:04 because he bought cheap insurance what
15:07 do I mean by that they buying policies
15:10 that excluded claims it says what that
15:14 will cover certain things but we’re not
15:16 going to cover you if one of your guys
15:17 gets injured on the job meaning they
15:20 don’t want to be brought into a labor
15:21 law claim it could exclude if they not
15:24 have your cell tires or so and that sub
15:27 gets injured there could be an exclusion
15:29 on the policy for that they’re going to
15:31 be exclusion their exclusion zone
15:33 policies that would say we’re going to
15:34 come you except if you go up on Heights
15:36 they except if you go over to stories
15:39 except if you go on the exterior of the
15:42 building they don’t want to cover you
15:43 for that and that’s how they get cheap
15:45 insurance there’s policies out there
15:48 that are excluding any claims that
15:51 involve working on a new building
15:52 working the five boroughs working on a
15:55 residential building contractors are
15:58 finding whatever we there is to save
16:00 money on insurance and they’re getting
16:01 policy that happens have these
16:03 exclusions or as blatantly as it says it
16:08 says we’re not going to cover any
16:10 contracts you sign so if you’ve signed a
16:12 whole long list of the GC if you signed
16:14 a whole harmless to them to the property
16:16 manager who are not covering you again
16:20 all of you that have good insurance
16:22 you’re protected okay you’re just going
16:26 to be unsuccessful in pushing the clay
16:27 down you might get hit some policies for
16:31 channel countries
16:32 listen if you hire a contractor with
16:34 cheap insurance you’re gonna have to
16:36 pick up the first 25 thousand or fifty
16:38 thousand dollars of the claim but you’re
16:40 still going to be protected but it will
16:43 impact you in the long run here’s a
16:47 partial list of cheap insurance
16:49 companies we give this to all our
16:52 contractors without looking to hire
16:54 yourselves and anyone that needs a copy
16:57 of the feel free to email jason or ally
16:58 who you get you with it it’s not I did
17:01 not hand this out today but this is a
17:03 partial list of banned insurance company
17:06 said some of them you’ll recognize you
17:08 come first you’ll see a lot of
17:09 carpenters with you’ll see Essex you’ll
17:13 see century surety you’ll see a link and
17:15 casualty those are common cheap
17:19 insurance companies in in this area and
17:23 you’re going to have to start deciding
17:25 whether or not when you’re looking at
17:27 two bids whether or not they have the
17:29 right type of insurance you’re going to
17:33 decide how much time and effort you want
17:36 to invest to protect your insurance
17:39 company from getting hit with these
17:41 claims you’re not going to get hit with
17:43 it your insurance company is going to
17:44 get hit with it and when your insurance
17:46 company gets hit with it it shows up on
17:48 your claims history and you know shop
17:51 around your insurance we have to show
17:53 five years of history and that claim
17:56 will show for five years and if you’re a
17:59 general contractor you have one of these
18:00 claims it shows that you hired a cheap
18:02 sub I’ll tell you what the insurance
18:04 companies thing they think this guy runs
18:07 a shoddy job they think this guy is just
18:09 hiring and cheapest subs they’re not
18:12 looking at the paperwork and we can’t
18:14 save as much as Jason and I want to
18:16 shake it and say no it’s just a random
18:17 thing look here all the great
18:19 certificates that he gets and all the
18:20 contracts and he reviews this is we have
18:23 no credibility because now the insurance
18:24 companies had to pay out of $500,000
18:25 claim and your insurance rates
18:28 will have gone up for many years to come
18:31 so what do I do now is talk to you about
18:34 the spectrum of protection that you
18:37 could do and you’re going to add the end
18:39 of tonight you’re going to decide what’s
18:41 good you know what’s reasonable for your
18:43 operation so the lowest level is what
18:47 people used to do you just collected a
18:50 certificate of insurance a workers comp
18:52 and liability certificate boom and today
18:54 obviously hopefully no one in this room
18:56 is doing that many of you now have
19:02 ratcheted up and you’re getting a
19:03 subcontractor agreement from every
19:05 contractor but before they start work
19:08 and that’s to remove but you can rent it
19:12 up one more level first of all to make
19:16 sure that they have workers comp if
19:18 they’re if you’re working in New york
19:20 you could go online to see if their
19:22 workers comp policy is active than in
19:24 the oh it’s not slowing on and let it
19:26 lapse you can’t rely on insurance
19:28 companies sending your cancellation
19:29 notice but there’s a database on workers
19:32 comp and you could email us and we’ll
19:33 tell you what that is and you could
19:35 before you pay him before you hire them
19:37 the smaller guys at you’re a little
19:38 questionable bound you can check it once
19:40 a month whatever you again it’s up to
19:43 you and then on the liability side you
19:48 you know comes on that checklist that we
19:50 just showed you of 30 different
19:52 insurance companies okay make sure they
19:55 hear you just and this is what many of
19:57 our contraries we’re doing for years
19:59 and they just checked to see is that
20:01 contractor that cell with any one of
20:03 these insurance companies and that they
20:05 don’t hire many of our contractors send
20:10 us the certificates of the subs that
20:12 they hire and they let us review and
20:14 that’s another way of you that you can
20:17 protect
20:17 protect yourself but you can ratchet it
20:20 oh and one more now you could ask for
20:25 documentation to find out whether or not
20:28 the insurance they have is cheap
20:30 insurance for now because we just we now
20:34 just got hit with a general contractor
20:35 in Westchester that diligently would go
20:38 down that list of 30 companies and he
20:40 made sure he never hired one of those
20:41 well turns out he just hired itself this
20:44 best full from western New York who had
20:47 a company we never heard of so it wasn’t
20:49 on the checklist he never sent us the
20:51 insurance certificate of course that’s
20:52 the stuff that had an injury it turns
20:55 out of course that small company and
20:57 insurance cover that none of us had
20:58 heard of a didn’t make our list was
21:01 cheap insurance so he’s getting hit with
21:03 it so that’s one of the reasons why
21:05 things have ratcheted up we’re now
21:08 people more sophisticated general
21:11 contractors in the city even gc’s out
21:14 here starting to say we’re going to add
21:17 one more piece of documentation that
21:19 we’re going to require our contractors
21:21 to provide us before they start work
21:23 this document has to be signed by that
21:27 contractors insurance broker so what
21:32 we’re going to go over next he is this
21:34 document that’s now called you know the
21:36 certificate being 55 and you do not have
21:39 to look at the one that’s because I’m
21:41 going to have it up here and we’re going
21:43 to go through that and I’m just going to
21:45 go three flee and I’m going to it up one
21:48 more Bob’s that’s Jason there’s even
21:51 another extreme that some of the biggest
21:52 gc’s to then I don’t think anyone here
21:55 but
21:56 the gc’s in the city have hoped teams of
21:59 people that are now analyzing this and
22:02 they require comedy the policy of every
22:04 contractor that comes on their job just
22:07 want to show you the whole spectrum and
22:09 extreme did you go to protect yourselves
22:11 from hiring subs that might have been
22:14 insurance so then the second i’m going
22:17 to go over the certificate 855 there for
22:21 handouts in front of you don’t bother
22:23 looking at them now what is the 855 one
22:28 is an 11-page document that came out at
22:31 the same time of the year 55 to help you
22:33 understand the 13 questions on the 855
22:39 we then gave you a copy a highlighted
22:42 version of the age 55 with what we say
22:44 if you’re going to use that these are
22:47 the answers that you’re going to want to
22:49 look for on that policy and then the
22:52 fourth document is a letter that we
22:54 created that if you’re kind of hours and
22:56 you want us to send your word document
22:58 of it that you can just use it it’s a
23:00 simplified letter that you sent out to
23:02 yourselves and have him there their
23:04 insurance broker sign it as some of the
23:07 similar questions and focuses on where
23:09 we see the biggest exposures so I’m
23:12 going to briefly now go through the 855
23:15 there are 13 questions the first one to
23:20 assess if the insurance company that
23:22 you’re dealing with is it admitted or
23:25 not admitted I’m not going to explain
23:28 this to I’m not going to go through
23:29 definitions and waste your time on it
23:31 because you’re not going to really it’s
23:33 not a really a relevant factor for you
23:35 unless your large general contractor and
23:39 then we’re more than happy to spend as
23:40 much time as
23:41 unexplained Ian you could be asking
23:44 whether or not what type of do they are
23:46 they using the standard insurance
23:48 isoforms or do they have own concocted
23:52 custom-made forms but none see is
23:57 important question this you might come
23:59 out of this meeting and say you know
24:00 what I’m going to send to my other
24:02 contractors than I meijer this form and
24:05 just tell to answer questions see thin f
24:07 & L or whatever and that’s all you want
24:10 you want them to do figure out what’s
24:12 relevant to you so C is the question
24:15 that requires his insurance broker to
24:18 say are there any major exclusions on
24:20 this policy does it exclude where he
24:23 works that you can’t go the five
24:24 boroughs you can’t go in to commit you
24:26 know Connecticut or maybe type of
24:28 construction you can’t go on new
24:30 buildings you can’t go on residential
24:31 buildings is there a restriction on
24:33 there about how high he’s allowed to
24:35 work is their classification limitation
24:38 their policies out there you Hiram
24:40 painter and his posse might say he’s
24:43 covered for painting and nothing else
24:45 and then also you have your major Ellis
24:47 while you’re here you just build finish
24:49 out that shed out there and get up and
24:51 do he might not have any coverage for
24:53 that maybe there’s a designated work
24:58 that he’s only allowed to do certain
25:01 things or he’s not allowed to do certain
25:03 things so this quite this is one
25:05 question on there could fill in a lot of
25:08 the aspects of it that you might be
25:09 concerned about there are different
25:12 forms of additional short out there if
25:15 you’re sophisticated you seen you want
25:17 to know which ones really to dig into
25:19 and ask for we’re happy to spend time
25:22 with that but as long as one of yours
25:23 your subs have additional insured like
25:26 an additional short you’ll be fine okay
25:31 then and then the wording starts again
25:34 well the first question is you know how
25:36 is his policy
25:37 will his policy pick up primary meaning
25:40 his policy will pay first and then yours
25:43 that’s the way you want it but most of
25:46 the people this room are not going to
25:47 try to fight for that many the policies
25:49 already have that in there but I don’t
25:51 think it’s a high priority for for the
25:53 average contractor or building owner and
25:57 will you get advance notice you know the
25:59 policies canceled everyone’s going to
26:01 say yes but you can’t count on that
26:04 you’re going to want to know that they
26:06 have a normal blanket contractual
26:08 liability and you’re going to want to
26:10 know that there were no changes on GH
26:13 and I on their policy unfortunately when
26:17 you head I don’t know how many people
26:18 were on the committee to make this but
26:20 they know phrasing on this is like a
26:23 triple negative and so we get calls
26:25 constantly from people that are trying
26:27 to fill this out of what does this
26:29 exactly be but basically you want to
26:32 know and they have additional insured
26:35 and nothing was changed and the Contra
26:38 you know the original policies used to
26:42 say if you’re siding contractor covered
26:44 we want to make sure that hasn’t been
26:45 changed their policies cheap insurance
26:47 that says you can’t sign a contract and
26:52 this is the one that says is there an
26:54 explosion of you now added an exclusion
26:56 there about someone getting injured on
26:58 the job site so G H and I are important
27:02 questions that you would want answered
27:04 Jason and then your job involves any
27:11 site work has been the foundations and
27:14 so forth you want to make sure the
27:15 excavator and people working there don’t
27:18 have any
27:19 that type of work you want to know
27:22 there’s a crazy exclusion out there for
27:26 insured verse ensures you don’t want
27:29 that exclusion on there it’s important
27:31 as weird as it sounds it’s some of the
27:33 way the phrase it could be it might
27:35 exclude that listing you as additional
27:37 insured as stupid as it sounds because
27:39 they’ll say oh no that name has been put
27:41 on your policy so we’re not going to
27:42 protect that name so you don’t want okay
27:46 you want to be sure no changes were made
27:49 and then you hear a visit KLR important
27:53 because l it says similar stuff for the
27:56 subs of the Sun to make sure they don’t
27:58 you know that the stuff that you hire
28:01 doesn’t have exclusions on this policy
28:04 that excludes him hollering cells or
28:07 that is something happens the subs that
28:08 he hires there’s no protection from him
28:11 pushing it down and then you don’t you
28:14 don’t have to worry about them so so is
28:26 this jason on tuesday let’s say thursday
28:28 tuesday up in Albany fighting this law
28:32 hundreds and hundreds of people in turns
28:35 feel in the construction field every
28:37 association was represented there we’ve
28:39 been fighting for years to try to fight
28:42 the scaffold law what he went chasing is
28:44 holding in his hands is directors
28:46 illinois used to had a similar law when
28:49 they come rid of the law allowing you
28:53 know the law had said its absolute
28:54 liability and it’s the fault of the GC
28:57 and the property owner then illinois
28:59 said no you know what okay it should be
29:00 fair we’ll figure out a commercial
29:02 member is but what happened to the
29:05 insurance rates anyone that’s in the
29:08 construction industry knows how much
29:10 their insurance rates have gone up in
29:12 the last couple years this is the impact
29:14 that if we can
29:15 something changed in all the day this
29:17 would happen and jason has another
29:19 picture devil forgot your smile you’re
29:24 not in the smile you this was a study
29:26 done with the Tappan Zee Bridge on how
29:28 much more is costing on the New York
29:31 Cyprus in New Jersey selling all week on
29:34 a labor law they’re not using different
29:36 materials on the New Jersey side they’re
29:38 not using different paint or different
29:41 barges but if you get injured on the New
29:43 York side you have laid along on your to
29:47 help you bayit chris Christie we had
29:51 Sheldon Silver so we had home once
29:53 (laughs)
29:54 Sheldon Silver he had been known you
29:56 know the big thing that has come out
29:58 about him is that he was being paid
30:00 millions and millions of dollars by
30:01 trial where you know partnerships in the
30:05 city all the ones you see advertising
30:06 the TV were funding him to be his
30:08 advocate to keep this law in effect you
30:12 know when Albert you know we talked
30:13 about with our lobbyists here
30:16 unfortunately we don’t know with the
30:18 person that has stepped in to sheldon
30:20 silver shoes will be much different they
30:24 can’t get worse we’re hoping it’s
30:26 too soon now to tell what’s around the
30:28 corner so Jason are there any things
30:33 that you want to add to what I said
30:36 originally open up for questions first
30:38 then it died
30:45 (Jason from the audience)
30:54 here and it’s very much gone through if
31:07 you’re doing requested by and consider
31:10 article question responding to do so
31:15 right thing
31:17 business request assistant for related
31:21 document and analyze everything
31:24 or you want to take the risk and can
31:31 hear your building owner or your
31:34 contractor you have insurance your
31:37 insurance is going to respond the ideal
31:40 situation is to push that to somebody
31:43 else any of you wanted ahead of them
31:51 this processing no I think such done a
31:53 (Anthony from the audience)
31:54 lot of I think they’re one of the things
31:58 yes we will have that primary coverage
32:00 through their carriers you just want to
32:03 make sure that your only carriers don’t
32:06 have requirements in your policies for
32:08 what you need to get from North
32:10 subcontractors string in order for them
32:14 to give them for recovery to pointed out
32:16 sometimes there’s a trade-off with
32:19 deductibles and si ours and things like
32:22 that that they may require of you if you
32:24 don’t have good insurance from
32:25 yourselves with something that
32:30 (Jason from audience)
32:32 tips are you only have carbon under
32:36 policy in your subcontractor that proper
32:39 coverage it’s important for everybody in
32:42 building or condo or co-op those pipes
32:49 and wires are not
33:00 (question from audience)
33:01 yes what you’re hiring
33:03 contractor being a contractor a lot of
33:07 times when we work with gc’s or property
33:10 managers we give a certificate saying on
33:14 additional insured to all locations is
33:17 that something that’s still a viable
33:18 option for as a board member as well
33:22 something on both sides of that seat an
33:26 offense it’s that still a viable
33:28 solution putting all all locations or
33:32 should the insurance policies before
33:34 each location as we have approached them
33:35 (Ken)
33:36 all occasions is sufficient sufficient
33:38 you could get a subcontractor agreement
33:42 you know it says at Volvo omelets and
33:45 lizards additional sure for all your
33:47 buildings or your bondage go as long as
33:50 you pull that is keep one insurance
33:52 certificate grovyle your protective know
33:55 some people so she sees will brush that
33:58 up and each other they happen
34:01 GC and says you see I want to list all
34:04 these many people as additional insured
34:05 want you to give me a certificate well
34:08 then as you see uses that same language
34:09 for every sub that they are on that job
34:12 as long as you’re going to something the
34:13 file want to contract one certificate
34:16 you’re not even your good as soon as the
34:40 GC hiring I might know anything anything
34:55 (questions from audience and answers from Ken, and its repeating until the end)
35:00 to but as far as we know it’s not
35:04 supposed to it’ll be be picked up on a
35:06 single one or two family home unless the
35:09 homeowner is giving direction yeah then
35:12 you bringing the homeowner but it’s just
35:14 you’re only a house
35:15 I
35:43 okay i gotta finish so what he’s saying
35:47 is that because that we do this as a
35:52 church burgers problem is mrs. Smith
35:54 always asking us these questions and why
35:57 they protected they have to worry about
35:59 hiring contractors and we sit down with
36:02 a leg log unless you’re directly in a
36:04 contract review I don’t worry about it
36:06 but the point is as a GC if you’re
36:08 working on a self a delay or prevent we
36:11 haul you to have that exposure so you
36:16 know look at the positive application is
36:17 here’s a roofer work on submit services
36:20 miss house there’s no exposure okay
36:23 there’s no labor law third party here GC
36:27 working on a single family or Japan we
36:29 know my yourself now you’ve given held
36:33 that diagram the opportunity to kick it
36:36 that’s because you have another later
36:58 this is not all that motion most
37:05 importantly probably the primary result
37:07 of that is it will come for another
37:09 dinner here so that when you tell you
37:11 what you should be doing is ekseption
37:13 women free dinner if the laws that are
37:16 changed who knows what’s going to happen
37:19 I mean do we think that they’re going to
37:20 just get rid of this law say there’s no
37:23 as them we think I’ll come with some
37:25 compromise that there’s you know there
37:27 could be shared responsibility well
37:29 their share responsibility you want to
37:32 push it down still so how were you gonna
37:37 ban appear on your contractors or you
37:39 protect yourself we’re what it takes
37:41 years for what happened is as much as
37:44 they’re too cheap insurance out there
37:46 there’s also much more sophistication by
37:50 gc’s and property ours there that are
37:53 now starting to screen out more and more
37:55 and they won’t let you know on the
37:58 bigger building fled guy on the roof
38:00 that doesn’t have the right type of
38:02 roofie coverage and so it’s right now we
38:05 chore many many rumors five years ago
38:07 hey bbz on John Street was able to get
38:10 ideas cheap mature I’ll have the room
38:13 person the fiber think
38:15 those roots you know the Bentley owners
38:17 in the city all that a will get without
38:18 you have a good quality insurance though
38:20 it’s getting out there more and more
38:22 it’s just the reality hello as you get
38:25 smaller and smaller if you’re a little
38:27 building and you have a board and you’re
38:30 looking at youtube to roofers and one
38:33 there’s a fifty-thousand-dollar
38:34 difference in their prize it’s hard to
38:37 explain it too much more members so we
38:41 have one of you all the buildings you’re
38:43 lucky draw pocketbook and we sure we
38:46 strongly recommend that this becomes
38:47 part of your big process don’t wait for
38:51 the day that you didn’t pay your part of
38:53 the more and you’re presenting different
38:55 numbers it should be part of your steps
38:57 when you’re sending out something out
38:58 the mid and you say send it with us this
39:01 form or the pointer for week already
39:03 which is one of the sample certificate
39:06 so you’re screening out things before
39:08 you get to that one
39:34 a little to use the word line negligence
39:47 you know some of your smaller subsets
39:50 here signing these documents so long as
39:53 you have to fight over this only is if
39:56 you’re negligent you’re having the
39:58 plumber sign this document he’s not
40:00 taking on the responsibility electrician
40:02 of the roofer and everything else if um
40:04 Liz if you want college child you have a
40:06 son this but it’s just do to your
40:08 negligence that you’re taking
40:09 responsibility for um sir robert stein
40:14 maybe we need 55 help if i were to write
40:19 an rfp for doing road work doing a
40:22 painting job something like that would I
40:24 put in to the RFP requirement that the
40:26 insurance certificates they provide to
40:28 us are the 855 and also limit two more
40:31 who signs them and if they’re inaccurate
40:35 who bears responsibility okay so this is
40:38 again this is supplemental to the normal
40:40 certificate differences will be an
40:42 additional certificate to require and it
40:45 requires that contractors insurance
40:48 broker to sign on it as I’ll do the
40:52 courts and whether or not the insurance
40:54 rubber was yep if they got it and then
40:59 also they won’t lie on it I know I did
41:01 was say because it feels like my but you
41:04 know it’s so new but it’s fraud so then
41:07 you have to go through the area church
41:09 worker has nervous
41:11 but the truth is it’s mostly the smaller
41:15 insurance workers are giving these
41:16 crappy insurance policies they’re all
41:18 based in Berlin and it’s true and we see
41:22 all the certificates in the lessons
41:23 these guys in Brooklyn that people get
41:25 the certificate in a lot of business by
41:28 the time use sudo so it’s just one more
41:31 step but it’s not now think widely
41:33 available are you guys looking at this
41:37 stuff in the RSS RRS no we are not we
41:41 needed this of the RS this is not even
41:43 being used by most general contractors
41:45 and so this is months that we had anyone
41:48 who’s this group in just last few months
41:51 and and most insurance workers don’t
41:54 even know how to fill it out that’s so
41:56 that’s why we’re here to educate you
41:59 just about the issue you the puter how
42:04 to implement it if you know usually
42:06 buildings here wishes for most of them
42:08 smaller cells Dodgers won’t go ahead and
42:11 fill that one of you might take six
42:13 questions at a great girl duck and and
42:15 say we’ve is notarized by your insurance
42:17 program you want to be done it and focus
42:19 on the things that are concerning to you
42:23 good question related your participation
42:28 somewhere that can be accessed our
42:31 knowledge he’s shot how far sweetie tell
42:36 me this presentation I just a
42:39 premonition couple slides now the future
42:42 so kind of sets one of the hand their
42:52 solution what to do how to proceed so
42:55 you’re really slide explain touch
43:00 everyone emotion you know where we live
43:02 just contact us if you want the whole
43:05 presentation you just want to age of it
43:06 if you want to Stephanie just told you
43:09 have you given to like where do I stand
43:20 up it is all the time whenever you use
43:24 it sometime and the food is you should
43:28 talk to your insurance broker and your
43:30 attorney and figure out where this is
43:46 he’s very understand any other bushes
43:53 good love CD by once again another great
43:56 (applause)
44:01 job by any person Jason see shadow live
44:04 adverse associates thank you both for an
44:06 excellent presentation
00:04 hey it’s my pleasure to introduce Ken first
00:10 (claps)
00:12 thank you thank you again so Iam Ken
00:16 first my lovely assistant and business
00:19 partner Jason’s Schiciano will be manning
00:22 de Vanna White role of clicking on my
00:25 slides in FS we’ve been practicing all
00:30 week for this as much as jeff has said
00:34 all you know who we are there are a lot
00:37 of new faces here tonight but just for a
00:39 quick minute I just want to explain
00:40 Leavitt first is one of the largest
00:43 independent insurance brokers in
00:45 Westchester and our niche is the real
00:47 estate and construction industries and
00:50 the reason why our 50-person office is
00:53 the bottom are the advisors to the
00:55 builders Institute the condo coop
00:56 council and all the association’s here
00:58 tonight is because we’ve created
01:02 programs you need to these industries
01:05 where we grew together and get your
01:08 group discounts on insurance so those of
01:10 you that have not don’t know about our
01:12 services feel free to call possibly
01:15 offer some unique value added services
01:18 that no other insurance broker can
01:20 provide to help people that manage
01:22 properties that own buildings then run
01:25 construction companies and so forth
01:27 because we’re a niche player were able
01:30 to create and develop unique products
01:32 and services for these two industries so
01:34 feel free to talk to Jason or myself
01:37 after tonight’s presentation I also want
01:39 to take a minute to introduce two other
01:41 people in the audience one from our
01:43 office is packed Clare is the director
01:45 of our real estate
01:46 division that can you raise your arm
01:47 (claps)
01:48 and also I’d like to take a minute
01:53 where you know I’m going to build up to
01:55 a new insurance certificate that’s out
01:57 there called the Accord 855 and we’re
02:02 lucky enough tonight to have with us
02:04 Anthony Carlucci from Greenblatt well
02:07 whelming remoulade and Brady I thought
02:11 was it yeah well being brainy gremlin on
02:14 them for 20 years like they don’t accept
02:16 where he went right here so Anthony was
02:19 one of the creators of this certificate
02:21 on part of the committee that’s worked
02:23 for multiple years on this the end
02:26 product you know either those jokes when
02:28 you get too many people in the room and
02:30 what the end product looks like it’s not
02:31 a perfect end result but we’re going to
02:33 talk about it when we help towards the
02:35 end of the presentation and talk about
02:37 how you might you might not want to be
02:39 using this insurance certificate Jason
02:42 and I opinion in front of you many many
02:44 times and we’ve told you what the value
02:47 of this insurance certificate is you do
02:50 not have a sample in front of you we’re
02:52 not going to talk about the end outside
02:53 or in front of me towards until the end
02:55 so you don’t have to look at them this
02:57 is just a regular certificate we’ve told
03:01 you over and over again I mean nothing
03:04 you can’t rely on this piece of paper
03:07 all this piece of paper tells you is
03:10 that the contractor that you hired has
03:13 an insurance policy with certain limits
03:16 that supposedly add them on a certain
03:18 date that’s it we’ve been in front of
03:21 you multiple multiple tonics explaining
03:24 this and we’ve told you that the second
03:26 part of the equation is that you need to
03:28 have a contract to go with the
03:31 certificate and once those two pieces
03:33 come together then you are protected one
03:38 without the other serves you no good so
03:41 I’m going to review that again
03:43 get get you to that point why you need
03:45 those parts to come together to fit the
03:47 puzzle but then we’re going to take it
03:49 to the next stage which has evolved over
03:52 the last couple years which is what has
03:54 created the invention of this new
03:55 certificate which you might have a
03:58 contract you might have the insurance
04:00 certificate but you don’t know what type
04:03 of insurance that contractor is telling
04:05 you he has you have no idea whether or
04:08 not that policy is a real policy of fake
04:10 policy policy that excludes him going on
04:12 the roof that exclusive working on your
04:15 on your house excludes working on your
04:17 building excludes fupas you’re in the
04:19 Bronx you have no idea it just shows
04:21 that they have insurance so now a new
04:24 certificate has been created called
04:26 855 then is supplemental it’s an
04:28 additional form that you might or might
04:30 want your contractors to start to fill
04:33 out truthfully I don’t think anyone here
04:37 in this room will end up using that
04:38 certificate fun we’re going to short the
04:41 end of this I am going to show you a
04:42 spectrum of ways from doing almost
04:45 nothing to having this certificate and
04:48 then there are ways that you can ratchet
04:50 it back and try to figure out what’s
04:51 useful for your operation if you’re a
04:54 general contractor you’re going to want
04:56 to be pretty close to this because
04:58 you’re hiring contractors day in and day
04:59 out and this is going to dramatically
05:01 impact your insurance rates for the long
05:03 term if you’re a property manager you
05:05 might just want to help pull out a
05:07 couple factors from this and just be
05:10 focused on checking on your roofers or
05:12 your painters or the guys on the
05:14 exterior of the building and you might
05:16 adapt some some iteration of this to
05:19 what you feel you need to protect at the
05:22 end of the day your insurance if you’re
05:24 dealing with a professional insurance
05:25 broker and has not new insurance policy
05:28 your policies are going to protect you
05:31 when you’re not protected from is that
05:34 if a claim hits and you’ve hired a sub
05:37 or a contractor
05:38 with bad insurance it’s going to drive
05:40 up your insurance rates because he
05:42 insurance this claim that your painter
05:44 that fell off the scaffold or the ladder
05:46 is now going to impact you for five
05:48 years so you’re at the end of this
05:50 presentation will have to determine how
05:52 important that is to you you know how
05:54 important it is to control your rates
05:56 can you control your board you know you
05:59 might not be able to control the board
06:00 of your building the boat and they just
06:03 want to hire the cheapest contractor
06:04 each time so we put Lee set by the end
06:07 of tonight you’ll know what’s at risk
06:10 Jason so we start at the beginning I’m
06:13 going to go backwards just to remind you
06:15 of how we got here and it all starts
06:17 with workers compensation the whole
06:19 concept behind workers comp is that a
06:21 guy gets injured he gets paid his
06:25 medical bills get paid most of his loss
06:28 compensation gets paid end of story but
06:32 a hundred years ago before workers comp
06:34 Oh what happened is the guy would fall
06:35 in a factory and he would have to sue
06:37 the owner of the factory to collect
06:40 because he broke his leg and then the
06:42 owner the mean upon owner the factory
06:44 would sue him and say no you were
06:45 negligent you should’ve been on that one
06:47 for something and so you’d have them
06:49 suing each other lawyers would be
06:51 involved it turned into a big expensive
06:54 ordeal that would drag out for a long
06:55 time so a hundred years ago they created
06:58 workers compensation they said no
07:00 lawyers no attorneys no lawsuits the guy
07:04 gets paid no questions asked we might
07:07 not all agree when it when employing
07:09 it’s injured you might want to sue you
07:11 might want to fight it the court lean
07:13 towards easy to poor in you know get
07:16 your employees but trust me we’re all
07:18 saving a lot of money by taking the
07:20 attorneys out of the system I just
07:22 having
07:22 an injured employee collect for his
07:24 medical bills and move on get lost page
07:27 the wages that hopefully come back to
07:29 work except in New York there used to be
07:36 a small loophole that has now grown into
07:39 a huge loophole in New York and you’ve
07:42 heard the terms labor law 240 and 241 scaffold law
07:47 safe place to work on all these things
07:51 are connected they’re all different
07:52 names for a law that’s been on the books
07:54 for many many years but lawyers have now
07:57 figured a way to exploit that to be able
08:00 to sue when someone gets injured the
08:02 footnote is this does not apply to
08:05 construction on single-family or
08:07 two-family homes there are some ways to
08:10 penetrate it but for the most part these
08:13 what we’re going to talk about does not
08:15 involve if you’re just you know dealing
08:17 on single or two-family homes it doesn’t
08:19 impact you know co-ops condos apartment
08:21 buildings and so for single-family homes
08:23 them so in New York there’s this law
08:28 that says the building owner or the
08:32 general contractor whoever’s hiring this
08:34 contractor is required to provide a safe
08:36 place to work when something evolved
08:39 involves Heights now the term Heights
08:43 ruin this law was first created was the
08:45 whole thing was about people falling off
08:47 scaffolds on the side of the building
08:48 and it was up it was those evil building
08:51 owners and we’re not providing a safe
08:52 place for these contractors to work and
08:54 so that’s where this open this whole
08:56 came from but as this has been exploited
08:59 over the years heights now means your
09:02 electrician that gets up on the chair to
09:04 change a light bulb if he falls off
09:06 that’s a hike related injury the painter
09:08 that’s on the ladder inside the
09:10 apartment it falls off that’s a height
09:12 related
09:12 injury the excavator that falls into the
09:15 ditch is a height related injury it’s
09:18 been pushed to such an extreme that you
09:21 could have a contractor who’s sick
09:23 that’s standing on the floor and on
09:24 hammer Falls also ins ladder lands on
09:27 his foot height related he has a broken
09:30 foot that’s a height related claim but was
09:35 the worst part about this law is that
09:38 when it was created to protect these
09:40 contractors working on the outside these
09:42 buildings they said it’s a hundred
09:44 percent the responsibility of the
09:46 business of the building owner it’s
09:49 absolute liability on that general
09:51 contractor that hires the company hires
09:53 the cell to work for him there’s no
09:56 defense okay so you can hire a painter
10:00 who goes out and has a six-pack at lunch
10:03 comes back grabs the broken letter
10:07 that’s sitting in the dumpster that says
10:08 do not use gets on that drunk falls off
10:12 you’re responsible so this has been a
10:16 field day for attorneys trial attorneys
10:19 in New York and it is you know slowly
10:21 slowly has snowballed over the last 10
10:25 years as more more people have figured
10:27 out this great way to collect when you
10:29 get injured at work i’ll tell you one
10:32 example we have one contractor also no
10:36 lawsuit who showed up on his desk for one
10:38 the guys that works for him that doesn’t
10:40 speak English so we get through this
10:43 whole thing and it turns and says why
10:45 are you suing and the guy said I’m gonna
10:48 sue you I don’t even know what this is
10:49 about turns out you have ambulance
10:52 chasers now that go through the
10:54 hospitals and he remember signing up
10:57 form because someone came to his room
10:58 said oh you got injured on the job this
11:00 is for workers compensation they signed
11:02 a form that basically retained an
11:04 attorney for him so his boss said you
11:06 can’t sue got stop this because we can
11:09 you know we’re going to go out of
11:09 business and so those injured employee
11:12 you know called up his attorney and said
11:14 you know I never wanted to sue please
11:16 cancel this when the attorney said we
11:18 kidding I’m gonna get you a quarter
11:19 million dollars for nothing the lawsuit
11:23 pursued okay the system has gotten out
11:26 of control so how does this work so in
11:31 New York guy breaks his leg falls off
11:35 the ladder breaks his leg in New York
11:37 he’s painting he collects workers comp
11:40 the normal way like every other state in
11:42 the country but now he sues the building
11:46 owner he sues the GC okay he can’t
11:50 sue his boss this poor guy that got
11:52 injured cuz there’s workers comp low so
11:55 the only way that he’s able to collect
11:56 is to sue the building owner or the GC
12:04 so we’ve been telling you for the last
12:07 five years that the way to protect
12:09 yourself is to push this risk back down
12:12 to the employer you control the subs you
12:16 control the contractors that come up to
12:17 your property so you it’s your job to
12:20 demand that they sell that this contract
12:23 that comes on your property is going to
12:24 hold it it’s going to take
12:26 responsibility for this injury and
12:28 you’re not going to get hit with the
12:30 claim so we’ve been teaching for years
12:32 how to transfer this risk we told you as
12:38 I said before you get a certificate and
12:40 then you have a contract contract would
12:43 be one paragraph long or it could be
12:46 five pages long but it up said contained
12:48 two key ingredients one that you require
12:52 this contractor that you hire to list
12:54 you as additional each word on his
12:56 policies and to that he’s going to hold
12:59 you harmless he’s going to identify you
13:01 so and if he screws up if his God gets
13:04 injured if he causes a problem on the
13:05 job he’s saying his insurance is going
13:08 to take care of this and he needs both
13:10 these things in a contract that he signs
13:13 before he starts working not after the
13:17 accident before he goes on the job site
13:20 and again one more time having a
13:24 certificate that shows that you’re
13:25 additionally insured means nothing if
13:29 you don’t have this other part you need
13:32 both parts of the puzzle to protect
13:35 yourself one without the other you got
13:38 nothing so what is happening a lawsuits
13:45 as i said in new york are now in the six
13:47 and seven-figure level of it you don’t
13:50 have to be a powerful legion it just
13:52 open L can break your arm you you fall
13:54 off a soft tissue injury it’s in the
13:57 hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
13:58 dollars so this has led that of all the
14:03 contractors insurance rates have now
14:05 skyrocketed guys are working out on
14:08 roofs on the exterior building have
14:10 rates have gone up four five six times
14:12 and anyone to tie them and you’ve heard
14:14 the story over the last couple of years
14:16 guys that aren’t on Heights have also
14:18 seen their rates go up with two to three
14:20 times all the result of this so then
14:24 what happens there’s always a game and
14:27 the smaller contractors have figured out
14:30 a way to get around this and they buy
14:32 cheap insurance they figured out they
14:36 can’t afford all these rate increases
14:37 because the GCS they all have to pay for
14:40 this and then property managers say I’m
14:42 not going to pay for this and so you got
14:44 the smaller guys out there that are
14:46 getting what’s called cheap insurance so
14:48 what does that mean here you are you get
14:52 sued you try to transfer the risk down
14:55 and then you’re blocked okay you can’t
15:00 push the insurance and the fault and
15:02 this claim down to the sub any longer
15:04 because he bought cheap insurance what
15:07 do I mean by that they buying policies
15:10 that excluded claims it says what that
15:14 will cover certain things but we’re not
15:16 going to cover you if one of your guys
15:17 gets injured on the job meaning they
15:20 don’t want to be brought into a labor
15:21 law claim it could exclude if they not
15:24 have your cell tires or so and that sub
15:27 gets injured there could be an exclusion
15:29 on the policy for that they’re going to
15:31 be exclusion their exclusion zone
15:33 policies that would say we’re going to
15:34 come you except if you go up on Heights
15:36 they except if you go over to stories
15:39 except if you go on the exterior of the
15:42 building they don’t want to cover you
15:43 for that and that’s how they get cheap
15:45 insurance there’s policies out there
15:48 that are excluding any claims that
15:51 involve working on a new building
15:52 working the five boroughs working on a
15:55 residential building contractors are
15:58 finding whatever we there is to save
16:00 money on insurance and they’re getting
16:01 policy that happens have these
16:03 exclusions or as blatantly as it says it
16:08 says we’re not going to cover any
16:10 contracts you sign so if you’ve signed a
16:12 whole long list of the GC if you signed
16:14 a whole harmless to them to the property
16:16 manager who are not covering you again
16:20 all of you that have good insurance
16:22 you’re protected okay you’re just going
16:26 to be unsuccessful in pushing the clay
16:27 down you might get hit some policies for
16:31 channel countries
16:32 listen if you hire a contractor with
16:34 cheap insurance you’re gonna have to
16:36 pick up the first 25 thousand or fifty
16:38 thousand dollars of the claim but you’re
16:40 still going to be protected but it will
16:43 impact you in the long run here’s a
16:47 partial list of cheap insurance
16:49 companies we give this to all our
16:52 contractors without looking to hire
16:54 yourselves and anyone that needs a copy
16:57 of the feel free to email jason or ally
16:58 who you get you with it it’s not I did
17:01 not hand this out today but this is a
17:03 partial list of banned insurance company
17:06 said some of them you’ll recognize you
17:08 come first you’ll see a lot of
17:09 carpenters with you’ll see Essex you’ll
17:13 see century surety you’ll see a link and
17:15 casualty those are common cheap
17:19 insurance companies in in this area and
17:23 you’re going to have to start deciding
17:25 whether or not when you’re looking at
17:27 two bids whether or not they have the
17:29 right type of insurance you’re going to
17:33 decide how much time and effort you want
17:36 to invest to protect your insurance
17:39 company from getting hit with these
17:41 claims you’re not going to get hit with
17:43 it your insurance company is going to
17:44 get hit with it and when your insurance
17:46 company gets hit with it it shows up on
17:48 your claims history and you know shop
17:51 around your insurance we have to show
17:53 five years of history and that claim
17:56 will show for five years and if you’re a
17:59 general contractor you have one of these
18:00 claims it shows that you hired a cheap
18:02 sub I’ll tell you what the insurance
18:04 companies thing they think this guy runs
18:07 a shoddy job they think this guy is just
18:09 hiring and cheapest subs they’re not
18:12 looking at the paperwork and we can’t
18:14 save as much as Jason and I want to
18:16 shake it and say no it’s just a random
18:17 thing look here all the great
18:19 certificates that he gets and all the
18:20 contracts and he reviews this is we have
18:23 no credibility because now the insurance
18:24 companies had to pay out of $500,000
18:25 claim and your insurance rates
18:28 will have gone up for many years to come
18:31 so what do I do now is talk to you about
18:34 the spectrum of protection that you
18:37 could do and you’re going to add the end
18:39 of tonight you’re going to decide what’s
18:41 good you know what’s reasonable for your
18:43 operation so the lowest level is what
18:47 people used to do you just collected a
18:50 certificate of insurance a workers comp
18:52 and liability certificate boom and today
18:54 obviously hopefully no one in this room
18:56 is doing that many of you now have
19:02 ratcheted up and you’re getting a
19:03 subcontractor agreement from every
19:05 contractor but before they start work
19:08 and that’s to remove but you can rent it
19:12 up one more level first of all to make
19:16 sure that they have workers comp if
19:18 they’re if you’re working in New york
19:20 you could go online to see if their
19:22 workers comp policy is active than in
19:24 the oh it’s not slowing on and let it
19:26 lapse you can’t rely on insurance
19:28 companies sending your cancellation
19:29 notice but there’s a database on workers
19:32 comp and you could email us and we’ll
19:33 tell you what that is and you could
19:35 before you pay him before you hire them
19:37 the smaller guys at you’re a little
19:38 questionable bound you can check it once
19:40 a month whatever you again it’s up to
19:43 you and then on the liability side you
19:48 you know comes on that checklist that we
19:50 just showed you of 30 different
19:52 insurance companies okay make sure they
19:55 hear you just and this is what many of
19:57 our contraries we’re doing for years
19:59 and they just checked to see is that
20:01 contractor that cell with any one of
20:03 these insurance companies and that they
20:05 don’t hire many of our contractors send
20:10 us the certificates of the subs that
20:12 they hire and they let us review and
20:14 that’s another way of you that you can
20:17 protect
20:17 protect yourself but you can ratchet it
20:20 oh and one more now you could ask for
20:25 documentation to find out whether or not
20:28 the insurance they have is cheap
20:30 insurance for now because we just we now
20:34 just got hit with a general contractor
20:35 in Westchester that diligently would go
20:38 down that list of 30 companies and he
20:40 made sure he never hired one of those
20:41 well turns out he just hired itself this
20:44 best full from western New York who had
20:47 a company we never heard of so it wasn’t
20:49 on the checklist he never sent us the
20:51 insurance certificate of course that’s
20:52 the stuff that had an injury it turns
20:55 out of course that small company and
20:57 insurance cover that none of us had
20:58 heard of a didn’t make our list was
21:01 cheap insurance so he’s getting hit with
21:03 it so that’s one of the reasons why
21:05 things have ratcheted up we’re now
21:08 people more sophisticated general
21:11 contractors in the city even gc’s out
21:14 here starting to say we’re going to add
21:17 one more piece of documentation that
21:19 we’re going to require our contractors
21:21 to provide us before they start work
21:23 this document has to be signed by that
21:27 contractors insurance broker so what
21:32 we’re going to go over next he is this
21:34 document that’s now called you know the
21:36 certificate being 55 and you do not have
21:39 to look at the one that’s because I’m
21:41 going to have it up here and we’re going
21:43 to go through that and I’m just going to
21:45 go three flee and I’m going to it up one
21:48 more Bob’s that’s Jason there’s even
21:51 another extreme that some of the biggest
21:52 gc’s to then I don’t think anyone here
21:55 but
21:56 the gc’s in the city have hoped teams of
21:59 people that are now analyzing this and
22:02 they require comedy the policy of every
22:04 contractor that comes on their job just
22:07 want to show you the whole spectrum and
22:09 extreme did you go to protect yourselves
22:11 from hiring subs that might have been
22:14 insurance so then the second i’m going
22:17 to go over the certificate 855 there for
22:21 handouts in front of you don’t bother
22:23 looking at them now what is the 855 one
22:28 is an 11-page document that came out at
22:31 the same time of the year 55 to help you
22:33 understand the 13 questions on the 855
22:39 we then gave you a copy a highlighted
22:42 version of the age 55 with what we say
22:44 if you’re going to use that these are
22:47 the answers that you’re going to want to
22:49 look for on that policy and then the
22:52 fourth document is a letter that we
22:54 created that if you’re kind of hours and
22:56 you want us to send your word document
22:58 of it that you can just use it it’s a
23:00 simplified letter that you sent out to
23:02 yourselves and have him there their
23:04 insurance broker sign it as some of the
23:07 similar questions and focuses on where
23:09 we see the biggest exposures so I’m
23:12 going to briefly now go through the 855
23:15 there are 13 questions the first one to
23:20 assess if the insurance company that
23:22 you’re dealing with is it admitted or
23:25 not admitted I’m not going to explain
23:28 this to I’m not going to go through
23:29 definitions and waste your time on it
23:31 because you’re not going to really it’s
23:33 not a really a relevant factor for you
23:35 unless your large general contractor and
23:39 then we’re more than happy to spend as
23:40 much time as
23:41 unexplained Ian you could be asking
23:44 whether or not what type of do they are
23:46 they using the standard insurance
23:48 isoforms or do they have own concocted
23:52 custom-made forms but none see is
23:57 important question this you might come
23:59 out of this meeting and say you know
24:00 what I’m going to send to my other
24:02 contractors than I meijer this form and
24:05 just tell to answer questions see thin f
24:07 & L or whatever and that’s all you want
24:10 you want them to do figure out what’s
24:12 relevant to you so C is the question
24:15 that requires his insurance broker to
24:18 say are there any major exclusions on
24:20 this policy does it exclude where he
24:23 works that you can’t go the five
24:24 boroughs you can’t go in to commit you
24:26 know Connecticut or maybe type of
24:28 construction you can’t go on new
24:30 buildings you can’t go on residential
24:31 buildings is there a restriction on
24:33 there about how high he’s allowed to
24:35 work is their classification limitation
24:38 their policies out there you Hiram
24:40 painter and his posse might say he’s
24:43 covered for painting and nothing else
24:45 and then also you have your major Ellis
24:47 while you’re here you just build finish
24:49 out that shed out there and get up and
24:51 do he might not have any coverage for
24:53 that maybe there’s a designated work
24:58 that he’s only allowed to do certain
25:01 things or he’s not allowed to do certain
25:03 things so this quite this is one
25:05 question on there could fill in a lot of
25:08 the aspects of it that you might be
25:09 concerned about there are different
25:12 forms of additional short out there if
25:15 you’re sophisticated you seen you want
25:17 to know which ones really to dig into
25:19 and ask for we’re happy to spend time
25:22 with that but as long as one of yours
25:23 your subs have additional insured like
25:26 an additional short you’ll be fine okay
25:31 then and then the wording starts again
25:34 well the first question is you know how
25:36 is his policy
25:37 will his policy pick up primary meaning
25:40 his policy will pay first and then yours
25:43 that’s the way you want it but most of
25:46 the people this room are not going to
25:47 try to fight for that many the policies
25:49 already have that in there but I don’t
25:51 think it’s a high priority for for the
25:53 average contractor or building owner and
25:57 will you get advance notice you know the
25:59 policies canceled everyone’s going to
26:01 say yes but you can’t count on that
26:04 you’re going to want to know that they
26:06 have a normal blanket contractual
26:08 liability and you’re going to want to
26:10 know that there were no changes on GH
26:13 and I on their policy unfortunately when
26:17 you head I don’t know how many people
26:18 were on the committee to make this but
26:20 they know phrasing on this is like a
26:23 triple negative and so we get calls
26:25 constantly from people that are trying
26:27 to fill this out of what does this
26:29 exactly be but basically you want to
26:32 know and they have additional insured
26:35 and nothing was changed and the Contra
26:38 you know the original policies used to
26:42 say if you’re siding contractor covered
26:44 we want to make sure that hasn’t been
26:45 changed their policies cheap insurance
26:47 that says you can’t sign a contract and
26:52 this is the one that says is there an
26:54 explosion of you now added an exclusion
26:56 there about someone getting injured on
26:58 the job site so G H and I are important
27:02 questions that you would want answered
27:04 Jason and then your job involves any
27:11 site work has been the foundations and
27:14 so forth you want to make sure the
27:15 excavator and people working there don’t
27:18 have any
27:19 that type of work you want to know
27:22 there’s a crazy exclusion out there for
27:26 insured verse ensures you don’t want
27:29 that exclusion on there it’s important
27:31 as weird as it sounds it’s some of the
27:33 way the phrase it could be it might
27:35 exclude that listing you as additional
27:37 insured as stupid as it sounds because
27:39 they’ll say oh no that name has been put
27:41 on your policy so we’re not going to
27:42 protect that name so you don’t want okay
27:46 you want to be sure no changes were made
27:49 and then you hear a visit KLR important
27:53 because l it says similar stuff for the
27:56 subs of the Sun to make sure they don’t
27:58 you know that the stuff that you hire
28:01 doesn’t have exclusions on this policy
28:04 that excludes him hollering cells or
28:07 that is something happens the subs that
28:08 he hires there’s no protection from him
28:11 pushing it down and then you don’t you
28:14 don’t have to worry about them so so is
28:26 this jason on tuesday let’s say thursday
28:28 tuesday up in Albany fighting this law
28:32 hundreds and hundreds of people in turns
28:35 feel in the construction field every
28:37 association was represented there we’ve
28:39 been fighting for years to try to fight
28:42 the scaffold law what he went chasing is
28:44 holding in his hands is directors
28:46 illinois used to had a similar law when
28:49 they come rid of the law allowing you
28:53 know the law had said its absolute
28:54 liability and it’s the fault of the GC
28:57 and the property owner then illinois
28:59 said no you know what okay it should be
29:00 fair we’ll figure out a commercial
29:02 member is but what happened to the
29:05 insurance rates anyone that’s in the
29:08 construction industry knows how much
29:10 their insurance rates have gone up in
29:12 the last couple years this is the impact
29:14 that if we can
29:15 something changed in all the day this
29:17 would happen and jason has another
29:19 picture devil forgot your smile you’re
29:24 not in the smile you this was a study
29:26 done with the Tappan Zee Bridge on how
29:28 much more is costing on the New York
29:31 Cyprus in New Jersey selling all week on
29:34 a labor law they’re not using different
29:36 materials on the New Jersey side they’re
29:38 not using different paint or different
29:41 barges but if you get injured on the New
29:43 York side you have laid along on your to
29:47 help you bayit chris Christie we had
29:51 Sheldon Silver so we had home once
29:53 (laughs)
29:54 Sheldon Silver he had been known you
29:56 know the big thing that has come out
29:58 about him is that he was being paid
30:00 millions and millions of dollars by
30:01 trial where you know partnerships in the
30:05 city all the ones you see advertising
30:06 the TV were funding him to be his
30:08 advocate to keep this law in effect you
30:12 know when Albert you know we talked
30:13 about with our lobbyists here
30:16 unfortunately we don’t know with the
30:18 person that has stepped in to sheldon
30:20 silver shoes will be much different they
30:24 can’t get worse we’re hoping it’s
30:26 too soon now to tell what’s around the
30:28 corner so Jason are there any things
30:33 that you want to add to what I said
30:36 originally open up for questions first
30:38 then it died
30:45 (Jason from the audience)
30:54 here and it’s very much gone through if
31:07 you’re doing requested by and consider
31:10 article question responding to do so
31:15 right thing
31:17 business request assistant for related
31:21 document and analyze everything
31:24 or you want to take the risk and can
31:31 hear your building owner or your
31:34 contractor you have insurance your
31:37 insurance is going to respond the ideal
31:40 situation is to push that to somebody
31:43 else any of you wanted ahead of them
31:51 this processing no I think such done a
31:53 (Anthony from the audience)
31:54 lot of I think they’re one of the things
31:58 yes we will have that primary coverage
32:00 through their carriers you just want to
32:03 make sure that your only carriers don’t
32:06 have requirements in your policies for
32:08 what you need to get from North
32:10 subcontractors string in order for them
32:14 to give them for recovery to pointed out
32:16 sometimes there’s a trade-off with
32:19 deductibles and si ours and things like
32:22 that that they may require of you if you
32:24 don’t have good insurance from
32:25 yourselves with something that
32:30 (Jason from audience)
32:32 tips are you only have carbon under
32:36 policy in your subcontractor that proper
32:39 coverage it’s important for everybody in
32:42 building or condo or co-op those pipes
32:49 and wires are not
33:00 (question from audience)
33:01 yes what you’re hiring
33:03 contractor being a contractor a lot of
33:07 times when we work with gc’s or property
33:10 managers we give a certificate saying on
33:14 additional insured to all locations is
33:17 that something that’s still a viable
33:18 option for as a board member as well
33:22 something on both sides of that seat an
33:26 offense it’s that still a viable
33:28 solution putting all all locations or
33:32 should the insurance policies before
33:34 each location as we have approached them
33:35 (Ken)
33:36 all occasions is sufficient sufficient
33:38 you could get a subcontractor agreement
33:42 you know it says at Volvo omelets and
33:45 lizards additional sure for all your
33:47 buildings or your bondage go as long as
33:50 you pull that is keep one insurance
33:52 certificate grovyle your protective know
33:55 some people so she sees will brush that
33:58 up and each other they happen
34:01 GC and says you see I want to list all
34:04 these many people as additional insured
34:05 want you to give me a certificate well
34:08 then as you see uses that same language
34:09 for every sub that they are on that job
34:12 as long as you’re going to something the
34:13 file want to contract one certificate
34:16 you’re not even your good as soon as the
34:40 GC hiring I might know anything anything
34:55 (questions from audience and answers from Ken, and its repeating until the end)
35:00 to but as far as we know it’s not
35:04 supposed to it’ll be be picked up on a
35:06 single one or two family home unless the
35:09 homeowner is giving direction yeah then
35:12 you bringing the homeowner but it’s just
35:14 you’re only a house
35:15 I
35:43 okay i gotta finish so what he’s saying
35:47 is that because that we do this as a
35:52 church burgers problem is mrs. Smith
35:54 always asking us these questions and why
35:57 they protected they have to worry about
35:59 hiring contractors and we sit down with
36:02 a leg log unless you’re directly in a
36:04 contract review I don’t worry about it
36:06 but the point is as a GC if you’re
36:08 working on a self a delay or prevent we
36:11 haul you to have that exposure so you
36:16 know look at the positive application is
36:17 here’s a roofer work on submit services
36:20 miss house there’s no exposure okay
36:23 there’s no labor law third party here GC
36:27 working on a single family or Japan we
36:29 know my yourself now you’ve given held
36:33 that diagram the opportunity to kick it
36:36 that’s because you have another later
36:58 this is not all that motion most
37:05 importantly probably the primary result
37:07 of that is it will come for another
37:09 dinner here so that when you tell you
37:11 what you should be doing is ekseption
37:13 women free dinner if the laws that are
37:16 changed who knows what’s going to happen
37:19 I mean do we think that they’re going to
37:20 just get rid of this law say there’s no
37:23 as them we think I’ll come with some
37:25 compromise that there’s you know there
37:27 could be shared responsibility well
37:29 their share responsibility you want to
37:32 push it down still so how were you gonna
37:37 ban appear on your contractors or you
37:39 protect yourself we’re what it takes
37:41 years for what happened is as much as
37:44 they’re too cheap insurance out there
37:46 there’s also much more sophistication by
37:50 gc’s and property ours there that are
37:53 now starting to screen out more and more
37:55 and they won’t let you know on the
37:58 bigger building fled guy on the roof
38:00 that doesn’t have the right type of
38:02 roofie coverage and so it’s right now we
38:05 chore many many rumors five years ago
38:07 hey bbz on John Street was able to get
38:10 ideas cheap mature I’ll have the room
38:13 person the fiber think
38:15 those roots you know the Bentley owners
38:17 in the city all that a will get without
38:18 you have a good quality insurance though
38:20 it’s getting out there more and more
38:22 it’s just the reality hello as you get
38:25 smaller and smaller if you’re a little
38:27 building and you have a board and you’re
38:30 looking at youtube to roofers and one
38:33 there’s a fifty-thousand-dollar
38:34 difference in their prize it’s hard to
38:37 explain it too much more members so we
38:41 have one of you all the buildings you’re
38:43 lucky draw pocketbook and we sure we
38:46 strongly recommend that this becomes
38:47 part of your big process don’t wait for
38:51 the day that you didn’t pay your part of
38:53 the more and you’re presenting different
38:55 numbers it should be part of your steps
38:57 when you’re sending out something out
38:58 the mid and you say send it with us this
39:01 form or the pointer for week already
39:03 which is one of the sample certificate
39:06 so you’re screening out things before
39:08 you get to that one
39:34 a little to use the word line negligence
39:47 you know some of your smaller subsets
39:50 here signing these documents so long as
39:53 you have to fight over this only is if
39:56 you’re negligent you’re having the
39:58 plumber sign this document he’s not
40:00 taking on the responsibility electrician
40:02 of the roofer and everything else if um
40:04 Liz if you want college child you have a
40:06 son this but it’s just do to your
40:08 negligence that you’re taking
40:09 responsibility for um sir robert stein
40:14 maybe we need 55 help if i were to write
40:19 an rfp for doing road work doing a
40:22 painting job something like that would I
40:24 put in to the RFP requirement that the
40:26 insurance certificates they provide to
40:28 us are the 855 and also limit two more
40:31 who signs them and if they’re inaccurate
40:35 who bears responsibility okay so this is
40:38 again this is supplemental to the normal
40:40 certificate differences will be an
40:42 additional certificate to require and it
40:45 requires that contractors insurance
40:48 broker to sign on it as I’ll do the
40:52 courts and whether or not the insurance
40:54 rubber was yep if they got it and then
40:59 also they won’t lie on it I know I did
41:01 was say because it feels like my but you
41:04 know it’s so new but it’s fraud so then
41:07 you have to go through the area church
41:09 worker has nervous
41:11 but the truth is it’s mostly the smaller
41:15 insurance workers are giving these
41:16 crappy insurance policies they’re all
41:18 based in Berlin and it’s true and we see
41:22 all the certificates in the lessons
41:23 these guys in Brooklyn that people get
41:25 the certificate in a lot of business by
41:28 the time use sudo so it’s just one more
41:31 step but it’s not now think widely
41:33 available are you guys looking at this
41:37 stuff in the RSS RRS no we are not we
41:41 needed this of the RS this is not even
41:43 being used by most general contractors
41:45 and so this is months that we had anyone
41:48 who’s this group in just last few months
41:51 and and most insurance workers don’t
41:54 even know how to fill it out that’s so
41:56 that’s why we’re here to educate you
41:59 just about the issue you the puter how
42:04 to implement it if you know usually
42:06 buildings here wishes for most of them
42:08 smaller cells Dodgers won’t go ahead and
42:11 fill that one of you might take six
42:13 questions at a great girl duck and and
42:15 say we’ve is notarized by your insurance
42:17 program you want to be done it and focus
42:19 on the things that are concerning to you
42:23 good question related your participation
42:28 somewhere that can be accessed our
42:31 knowledge he’s shot how far sweetie tell
42:36 me this presentation I just a
42:39 premonition couple slides now the future
42:42 so kind of sets one of the hand their
42:52 solution what to do how to proceed so
42:55 you’re really slide explain touch
43:00 everyone emotion you know where we live
43:02 just contact us if you want the whole
43:05 presentation you just want to age of it
43:06 if you want to Stephanie just told you
43:09 have you given to like where do I stand
43:20 up it is all the time whenever you use
43:24 it sometime and the food is you should
43:28 talk to your insurance broker and your
43:30 attorney and figure out where this is
43:46 he’s very understand any other bushes
43:53 good love CD by once again another great
43:56 (applause)
44:01 job by any person Jason see shadow live
44:04 adverse associates thank you both for an
44:06 excellent presentation
2/15/2015: Understanding the new construction certificate
Cooperative and Condo Advisory Council (CACC)
00:00 (A man standing at the podium)
00:00 we can now move on to the handle portion
00:03 of tonight’s meeting our two topics are
00:07 legal representation for your buildings
00:10 contracts what boards need to know as
00:13 well as aging buildings the steps that
00:16 boards should take at this point I will
00:19 introduce Daniel finger an attorney with
00:22 finger and finger a professional
00:24 corporation of White Plains finger and
00:26 finger serves as chief counsel to the
00:29 Bri and the CCAC you all know Daniel he
00:33 has spoken at several of our meetings
00:35 and seminars in the past and he also
00:37 contributes to impact newspaper are
00:40 violent publication Daniel is actually a
00:44 you will address the first issue legal
00:46 representation for your buildings
00:48 contracts what boards and East what
00:51 bores need to know dan is all yours
00:55 (applause)
00:59 good evening everyone this is actually a
01:02 difficult topic for me because people
01:04 study this kind of thing for years in
01:06 law school so it’s it’s tough to
01:08 summarize contracts in five-minute
01:11 speech but I’m just going to go through
01:13 some of the things that I think about
01:14 when I’m drafting a contract for the
01:17 cooperative’s and condominiums that I
01:18 represent highlight some of the issues
01:21 that we go through and then at the end
01:24 if there’s any questions I can address
01:26 that or afterwards and
01:33 the in any event the contract that your
01:40 end or your contractor might give you is
01:43 not really a contract they usually hand
01:45 you a proposal they try to have you sign
01:46 off on it that’s not a contract that
01:49 that’s a proposal signing off on it will
01:52 you know can bind you but you have to be
01:55 very careful because that does not have
01:58 the protections that a normal contract
02:02 would have we for most of our clients
02:05 the cooperation condominiums that we
02:07 represent we draft all their contract
02:10 whenever they’re doing anything from
02:12 construction landscaping snowplow you
02:16 know even property management cleaning
02:18 you know whatever it is any time that
02:20 you’re in a relationship with a vendor
02:23 or third or another party we draft a
02:26 contract the reason in a one-sentence
02:30 nutshell for that is that you want all
02:33 the parties to the contract to have an
02:35 understanding of the purpose of the
02:37 relationship and the parameters of the
02:39 relationship why you know what it is
02:41 that that you as a co-op or condominium
02:45 board expect of the contractor and what
02:47 the contractor expects that that their
02:49 responsibilities are going to be you
02:51 want to have an understanding of that
02:52 and you want to have them raw realized
02:54 in writing so that way there’s any
02:56 confusion you have something to go back
02:58 to and to fall back on and you all know
03:00 what your rights again signing a
03:04 proposal from a vendor is not really
03:06 enough to address that or to give you
03:08 those kinds of protections a lot of
03:13 times when we’re drafting a contract we
03:15 don’t just sit down and just come up
03:17 with some in general we go through the
03:19 specifications for the project the bid
03:22 if there you know and if it’s a going to
03:25 mostly refer to construction issues but
03:30 when you’re dealing with a larger
03:31 project we will often work with the
03:35 engineer or the architect will have when
03:38 they’re when they’re first creating the
03:40 specifications and before it even goes
03:41 out to bid and what we’d like to do in
03:44 those larger projects is we’d like to
03:45 give them a template of the contract for
03:49 a couple reasons before they send the
03:51 bids out so that way number one they can
03:54 look at the contract and they can tell
03:56 us if there’s any issues that raining
03:59 any terms that we’ve put or any issues
04:00 that we’ve raised that either are not
04:03 typical to that particular type of
04:04 project or you know need to be modified
04:07 so it could be a payment terms he’s a
04:10 frequent one sometimes we like to do
04:13 usually we like to do progress payments
04:15 but their situation where that just
04:16 doesn’t apply I had a situation recently
04:19 where the building there was a building
04:21 that was doing a large electrical
04:22 upgrade they were replacing all the fuse
04:24 boxes in the building with circuit
04:26 breaker boxes and the way that the
04:28 payment was going to be structured was
04:30 that the contractor there was a couple
04:32 things he’s gonna have to do in each
04:33 apartment and he would get X dollars a
04:36 certain amount of dollars for each box
04:37 that he replaced and then for some of
04:41 the other stuff and then they did the
04:42 outlets and whatever and everything was
04:44 based on each item that he did he wasn’t
04:47 being he wasn’t charging how early he
04:49 wasn’t getting a flat fee for the whole
04:51 project because the apartments of
04:52 everything so based on the scope that
04:55 was how it was so that was something
04:56 that we found out and talking to the
04:57 engineer they gave us the schedule or
05:00 what they anticipated it would be they
05:01 didn’t know what the exact dollars would
05:02 be but they gave us a general idea and
05:05 then you know we had that prepared so
05:07 when the contractor came they filled in
05:09 their bid the bid pack of bid
05:11 specifications and the contract then was
05:13 able to reflect that there there we had
05:17 you know we have a standard contract
05:19 we’ve draft that we’ve crafted but we’ve
05:23 you know we have we vary it depending on
05:26 the size of the project the nature of
05:28 the project in nature of the type of
05:30 work that’s being performed weather
05:31 would say if it’s landscaping contract
05:34 or management contract it’s you know
05:36 certain things and it’s a different form
05:38 that we use that a construction contract
05:43 the as far as the actual contracts go
05:47 that one backtracking segments the other
05:50 reason why we like to work with the
05:52 engineering the architect in those
05:53 situations as they send out the contract
05:55 with the big mackeage and then the
05:58 contractor knows exactly what he’s
06:00 bidding not just the specifications but
06:03 also the contract runs the payment terms
06:04 the the time frame that is expected to
06:08 complete what the guarantee is that the
06:09 board expects to get on the project and
06:12 various other things so there’s no
06:16 confusion when they when their bid is
06:18 accepted there’s no confusion that they
06:20 were expected to have the project
06:22 completed in you know three months four
06:24 months whatever it is we thought it was
06:25 going to be progress payments or that it
06:27 was going to be you know whatever the
06:28 term is that there’s it limits the
06:30 confusion and there’s frequently still
06:32 some negotiating that goes on but at
06:35 least that you know that helps make that
06:38 process go more efficiently we try not
06:42 to get involved too much in a very
06:46 specific description of the work we
06:48 leave that to the bid specifications the
06:51 specs and the plans of the architect or
06:53 engineer withdraw and we usually
06:56 attached that or if it’s smaller than we
06:58 usually tax the proposal to the contract
07:00 because that usually has those type of
07:02 things if it was at you know if it was
07:04 the circuit breaker type thing that I
07:05 was talking about you know the architect
07:07 would specify exactly which type of
07:09 circuit breaker he wanted to go in each
07:10 apartment what type of outlets you know
07:14 whatever it is the architect or engineer
07:16 usually specify that and we will refer
07:20 back to those specifications if it’s a
07:23 smaller situation where there is no
07:25 architect or engineer then we go back to
07:27 the
07:28 contractors proposal we look at that and
07:30 we use that and will often just refer to
07:32 that proposal in terms of the actual
07:35 work that he’s doing and the board will
07:37 always look over the contract we have we
07:40 send it to them in the managing agent
07:41 first they can look it over let us know
07:44 if there’s anything that that they see
07:45 in there that was not what they expected
07:47 or was not what they you know what they
07:49 thought they were getting they look it
07:51 over in advance there’s any questions we
07:53 deal with it that way everybody is on
07:55 the same page we like the contracted
07:59 what one of the other things that the
08:02 contract has that we like the contractor
08:04 to be aware of is we want to make sure
08:06 he was familiar with all the local
08:07 requirements he knows you know not only
08:11 permitting and other municipal
08:13 requirements but by the board
08:15 departments how you know cleanup of the
08:17 site that he’s got to be fully familiar
08:21 with the plans if all’s the contract
08:24 also usually sets forth any method for
08:29 resolving any discrepancies sometimes
08:31 the contractors see something when he’s
08:33 already doing the word that he doesn’t
08:35 think can be done as the architect had
08:38 specified architect or engineer creates
08:40 set of plans but there you know things
08:42 happen and then in the process of the
08:44 word he might feel that he can’t do it
08:45 the way they’ve specified so we have a
08:48 procedure in the contract that lets him
08:51 know who we supposed to call what’s
08:53 supposed to govern so we all know that
08:54 in whatever situation how things are
08:57 supposed to progress I already do the
09:00 payment terms usually we have we like to
09:03 have progress payments but again that
09:05 doesn’t know it’s not always the case we
09:08 like the architect we also usually
09:10 specify in a number of place in the
09:11 contract we like the architect and
09:13 engineer to stay involved in the project
09:15 their job does not usually
09:17 and the minute that the bid is awarded
09:20 their job is ongoing they need to
09:23 approve the work if a payments being
09:25 issued especially in bigger projects
09:28 where you have an architecture engineer
09:30 they should be involved in sure that
09:33 what the contractors saying he did that
09:36 not only did he actually do it but that
09:37 he did it in accordance with what the
09:39 architect or engineer specifications
09:41 were that he did it with the quality
09:42 that they expected and as their plans
09:45 set forth the contract as I mentioned it
09:52 sets forth the the warranty and
09:54 guarantee term how many years or what
09:56 the provisions of that are the you know
09:59 the board needs to know these things if
10:01 you’re getting a roof you know it could
10:02 be a ten or twenty year warranty other
10:05 things could be short but at least the
10:07 board has to be aware of it because
10:08 those are things they’re paying for they
10:09 need to be aware of what they’re getting
10:11 at the outset there’s any confusion you
10:14 can clear it up then we also have hold
10:17 harmless than occasional visions and
10:20 insurance requirements and I won’t touch
10:21 on that too much I’ll let Jason go into
10:24 that sent us step on his toes but you
10:27 know those are very important things you
10:30 need to make sure that the contractor
10:32 understands that he’s responsible for
10:34 his men and for not only his men but any
10:36 sub contractors that are on the site
10:38 anybody that’s on the property during
10:40 the course of the project he’s
10:43 responsible for them and he’s
10:44 responsible for anything not only the
10:46 happens to them but anybody else that
10:48 happens to be coming through you know
10:51 while the work is happening I mean this
10:53 is just where people live so people are
10:54 you know walking by outside they might
10:56 be walking through inside he has to make
10:58 sure that the site is secure enough and
11:01 safe enough that nobody’s going to get
11:03 hurt whether its own people or whether
11:05 it’s other you know just passers-by or
11:08 residents of the building that happened
11:10 to be there he has to be familiar with
11:14 the local farming process because it’s
11:16 usually the contract or sometimes the
11:18 architect or engineer helps with this
11:19 but it’s usually
11:20 tractor with dense departments even if
11:22 it’s at the owner’s expense they’re the
11:23 ones that actually go out and do it and
11:25 the boards aren’t going to be you know
11:27 local city hall or whatever to get the
11:30 building permits the the contract almost
11:34 always specifies the rules about
11:37 subcontractor some deals boards don’t
11:40 care if there’s a subcontractor and they
11:42 expected some deals they’re hiring a
11:44 particular contractor and they want that
11:45 contract to do the work and they don’t
11:47 want any subcontractors so we like to we
11:50 like to try to make sure the contractor
11:52 understands that if he’s going to get a
11:53 subcontractor yes to get the board’s
11:55 approval first and he’s responsible for
11:57 all those subcontractors and he’s
11:59 responsible for paying them and he’s
12:00 responsible for making sure that when
12:02 the work is done that they release
12:05 whatever lien they have that they get
12:06 paid that they don’t you know to make
12:08 sure if anything happens that they’re
12:10 not going to come back to the coop or
12:12 condo and say I wasn’t paid the other
12:15 thing that we always have in our
12:16 contract that we insist on as best we
12:19 can as a termination provision that
12:20 doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay
12:22 for work that’s been done but there are
12:24 times that the contract doesn’t always
12:26 go according to plan it could be because
12:27 you don’t like the quality of the work
12:29 the contractors doing it could be
12:31 because you don’t like the time frame
12:32 he’s taking too long that there could be
12:35 a variety of reasons why during the
12:36 course of a project you become unhappy
12:38 with a contractor and you feel it
12:41 necessary to terminate the project and
12:42 we like as best we can to make sure that
12:45 the board has the right to terminate the
12:47 contract even if it without having to
12:49 give a reason you know that’s one of
12:51 those things that sometimes you have to
12:52 negotiate and and give on a little bit
12:55 but as best we can that’s something that
12:57 you know we try to insist on the other
13:01 thing is content as I said contractors
13:03 in writing and similarly we expect and
13:06 it’s in the contract
13:07 any changes have to be in writing so if
13:09 you’re doing a project and you know
13:11 mentioned before things happen sometimes
13:13 you need to make a change for whatever
13:15 the reason is that still has to be in
13:18 writing whether it’s a whether it’s
13:20 amendment to the contract or a change
13:22 order something like that has to be in
13:24 writing if it’s a project where you’re
13:25 doing change orders that’s another
13:27 situation where the architect or
13:29 engineer would have to be involved
13:30 because they have to make sure that the
13:32 change that the contractor is requesting
13:35 will work you know in accordance with
13:37 their plans that it will still be okay
13:39 that it all still goes together so there
13:42 that’s your board relying on for help
13:45 with that so they they need to be
13:46 involved in that so you really need you
13:49 know contractor requests a change order
13:51 at the board and the board has to review
13:54 and make sure they’re okay with it
13:55 making sure they’re okay with how much
13:56 the change order is going to cost the
13:58 architect engineer has to review it for
14:01 that reason a lot of my boards will have
14:04 me double check it and make sure that
14:05 everything looks okay from a legal
14:07 standpoint so we do that as well again
14:12 the contract from a legal standpoint is
14:15 really a lot about expectations about
14:17 knowing from the board side what you’re
14:20 getting into how much you’re going to
14:21 pay having the security of knowing you
14:24 know what project it is that’s being
14:26 done the time frame it’s going to happen
14:29 know that it’s going to be done in and
14:31 in terms of time frame wheel we will a
14:34 lot of times the way I get the time
14:35 frame if it’s not from the engineer or
14:37 the architect is I ask the contractor
14:39 themselves how long they think the
14:40 project should take and if they tell me
14:42 two months I’ll usually put in the
14:44 contract two and a half or three months
14:45 and I give them a cushion so that way
14:48 you know whatever time frame they tell
14:50 me is the longest that they expect it’s
14:52 going to take I usually give them a
14:53 little longer in the contract unless
14:54 there’s some particular reason why the
14:56 board says it has to be done by a
14:58 certain date I usually will give them a
15:00 cushion so that way at the end if
15:02 they’re delaying even further and they
15:05 get to that outside date and the project
15:07 isn’t done then we can go there when you
15:09 say you know look I gave you longer than
15:11 you want it you know and they
15:14 they can’t complain if the board doesn’t
15:15 want to pay that more if they want to
15:17 have some kind of penalty for it that so
15:19 they’re aware of that but it’s again
15:21 it’s all about the expectations and
15:23 about everybody knowing exactly what’s
15:25 expected of them what their role is so
15:29 that at the end of the day the project
15:31 gets done in timely fashion and it gets
15:33 completed as the board wanted within the
15:36 expense that the board was anticipated
15:38 okay thank you
15:41 (applause)
15:48 thank you very much
15:48 when the board of directors of the coop
15:51 condo council was good together this
15:54 rope man they know it in this dress that
15:58 we definitely needed an account from
16:01 both the coop and condo perspective well
16:04 we have V account in Westchester County
16:06 (laughs)
16:07 when it comes to Cohen condos mini
16:09 eisenberg maybe has spoken to several
16:13 money to the Hutts well known in her
16:16 field please welcome Vinnie now I only
16:19 (applause)
16:23 now I only hope I can live up to that introduction
16:25 so from a legal perspective the contract
16:30 is really that spoke rights obligation
16:33 and protection and from an accounting
16:35 perspective it really is about money
16:38 money money which I know is something
16:41 that as boards of directors world fair
16:43 they’re concerned about when I started
16:46 to think about contracts of course
16:48 construction contracts were you know
16:50 more than one of the four fronts of
16:52 I was thinking about but boards enter
16:54 into many many contracts then I think
16:57 need to have the same type of
16:59 consideration as construction contracts
17:01 and I’ll talk a little bit about
17:03 construction contracts but i just want
17:06 to mention some of the other contracts
17:08 that i believe that council really
17:10 should be involved in one is management
17:13 contracts let’s say you’re going to
17:15 change managing agents a lot of managing
17:18 agents have boilerplate contracts but
17:21 for the unsophisticated board what you
17:25 need to realize is that there are a lot
17:27 of variables in those contracts as well
17:29 are you paying a fixed fee are you
17:32 paying fixed fees plus monthly operating
17:34 expenses is there a charge for
17:37 attendance and board meetings is there
17:40 in charge for attendance and union
17:41 meetings so a lot of the attorneys have
17:45 actually developed contracts that go
17:47 beyond the boilerplate that some of the
17:49 management companies have and I believe
17:52 that those contracts should be reviewed
17:54 by council as well before I invited to
17:56 those the other thing would be your
17:58 laundry agreement there are a lot of
18:01 variables and laundry contracts when you
18:03 change laundry companies for example how
18:05 many machines are going to be in
18:07 installed how much is it going to cost
18:09 per cycle what is the vendor going to do
18:14 in terms of rehabilitating the laundry
18:16 room so again these are contracts I
18:19 think that you’ll be entered into with
18:21 consideration and thought and also
18:24 reviewed by council what about a cell
18:27 tower contract in case I know a lot of
18:29 buildings here in Westchester especially
18:31 ones that are up on a higher hill there
18:34 they’ve put cell towers
18:36 the top of their properties what is the
18:39 term of the contract what in renewal
18:41 obligations who’s responsible for
18:44 repairs to the roof in case there’s
18:46 damage so again I think it’s another
18:49 important contract that council should
18:51 be looking at mortgage refinance and
18:54 documents another contract is a contract
18:58 to you know borrow some money perhaps
19:02 have a credit line attached to it and
19:04 you know attorney should obviously be
19:06 intricately involved in the negotiation
19:09 of mortgage refinancing NYSERDA
19:13 contracts many of you may have been done
19:16 been doing in oil to gas conversion you
19:19 may have been getting energy credits
19:21 through NYSERDA or some of the federal
19:23 programs again I think these are things
19:25 that council should be looking at and
19:28 reviewing so that you understand the
19:30 terms what the benchmarking procedures
19:32 are what thresholds you need to be able
19:35 to meet in order to be able to get the
19:38 credits that have been promised to you
19:41 construction management very often what
19:43 happens is when you take on a
19:45 construction project you’re also
19:47 bringing the construction manager on
19:49 site so for example if you’re doing a
19:51 window project and you have 400 units in
19:54 your building and someone needs to be
19:56 doing all the scheduling of the
19:57 replacements and the appointments and
20:00 you know managing the project again so
20:04 really just to bring to mind that there
20:06 are many many contracts that boards
20:08 enter into beyond just construction
20:12 contracts I think Dan brought up a lot
20:15 of very important points about the
20:17 construction contract from an accounting
20:20 perspective on both the CPA and a muscle
20:22 CFE I’m a certified forensic in fraud
20:25 examiner and we rely very very heavily
20:29 on the contracts one of the procedures
20:32 that we do in all of our audit
20:34 engagements is we reconcile
20:37 the payments made by the corporation or
20:40 condominium association to the contracts
20:43 and very often we find that there have
20:46 been over payments there have been
20:48 change orders where certain pieces this
20:51 change orders are actually duplicated in
20:53 second change orders so you know you
20:57 could be spending quite a bit of money
20:59 between you know these energy
21:02 conversions on down in New York City we
21:04 have all the local or 11 projects where
21:07 they doing these your facade projects I
21:09 know up here as well I think it’s very
21:11 important that the financial terms are
21:14 very well understood at the beginning
21:17 one of the important things is retainage
21:20 clauses whereby you get a hold back on
21:23 the project usually it’s about ten
21:26 percent so that you make sure that you
21:29 know the contract has some skin in the
21:31 game and that all the monies are not
21:33 paid out until that punch list is
21:35 finished and again these are all things
21:38 that have an attorney review the
21:41 contract from the very beginning you’ll
21:43 make sure that those provisions are
21:46 taken care of the in terms of
21:51 construction contracts to most of the
21:54 time contractors use what are called AIA
21:56 documents which is the American
21:58 Institute of Architects and there are
22:01 numerous forms of AI 88 contracts most
22:05 of them that you probably will enter
22:06 into or would have called stipulated
22:08 some contracts where x is a flat fee
22:11 plus allowances for certain things like
22:14 working or the
22:16 or of you know feet running feet of a
22:19 certain project and then obviously it
22:22 breaks down the scope of that project
22:24 one of the litigation that we were
22:27 involved in was with a building that
22:29 actually signed an AI a document that
22:32 was a cost plus P contract and basically
22:35 they’re caught their obligation was the
22:38 costs that subcontracted out plus a
22:42 percentage of those subcontracts to the
22:45 general contractor and when we found
22:48 through the course of the project was
22:50 that the fees that were being presented
22:54 by the general contractor as being paid
22:57 to subcontractor or in fact fictitious
23:01 they were fraudulent and the building
23:04 was over being significantly based upon
23:08 the fees that were actually being paid
23:10 to the subcontractors so again you know
23:14 I think it’s very important that an
23:15 attorney be part of that project so you
23:18 understand exactly what type of
23:20 contracts are entering into and what the
23:24 dollars are going to be in terms of
23:27 those you know those contracts should I
23:32 speak about aging buildings now or okay
23:34 okay so the other half of the program
23:38 that I know is going to be what board
23:40 should be aware of in aging facilities
23:43 and while a lot of condos were at one
23:48 point new construction almost all of the
23:52 cooperative housing corporations in New
23:54 York or conversions from rental
23:57 buildings and some of them can be quite
24:00 in an old probably very few of them
24:05 would be you know newer than like maybe
24:06 early 70s and probably most or even
24:09 older than that and what they carry with
24:11 them is
24:12 not just the things you can see but the
24:14 things you can’t see as well so while
24:17 you can see if Assad and you can see the
24:21 things that are visible what you’re not
24:23 able to see is the pipework the
24:27 foundation the steel beams inside the
24:30 terraces we’ve seen quite a number of
24:33 these projects done over the number of
24:36 years that I’ve been doing this which is
24:38 I don’t want to tell you how long but
24:40 you know the things that come up that
24:43 you can’t see with the naked eye so one
24:47 of the things from an accounting
24:49 perspective that we advise boards to do
24:51 is number one whenever you’re
24:54 contemplating a mortgage refinancing you
24:57 should be thinking about what your
24:59 capital projects are going to look like
25:00 during the terms of that mortgage so
25:04 that you can have sufficient equity at
25:06 the time of the refinance in order to be
25:09 able to meet any capital projects that
25:12 you’re planning on during the term of
25:14 that mortgage for those of you who are
25:17 not aware commercial organ sirs
25:19 commercial mortgages are not like if
25:21 they are the end loans on your units
25:24 because you can’t just refinance them
25:27 and well they carry very large
25:29 prepayment penalties so if you have a
25:32 two-million-dollar mortgage engineer
25:34 you’re an ear for of that mortgage and
25:36 all of a sudden you find out that you
25:39 need to do risers in the building and or
25:42 you need to do a massive electrical
25:44 project you can’t just easily refinance
25:48 that mortgage to take out the equity you
25:50 might need in order to be able to do
25:52 that project so when you go to refinance
25:55 you want to think long term that what
25:57 you may need to do in the project in
26:00 building until the time you refinance
26:02 again the other thing would be that most
26:05 banks will allow her credit line at the
26:08 same time that you are refinancing so
26:13 while you may just be paying the feed to
26:15 maintain that line it would be important
26:18 to have a line attached to the mortgage
26:20 so that it’s your rainy day fund in case
26:23 these projects do come up you were not
26:27 aware of them at the time of the
26:28 refinancing but you have the borrowing
26:31 capability to be able to do these large
26:33 infrastructure projects the other things
26:37 that are important is you should always
26:39 keep them you know there are different
26:40 philosophies do we borrow or do we
26:43 assess do we have the people who live
26:45 here now pay for projects that are going
26:48 to benefit future generations or do we
26:51 borrow the money so that those who are
26:53 going to benefit from these project for
26:55 years to come or pain the cost of these
26:58 projects and a lot of it is very
27:00 philosophical in terms of the boards but
27:03 it’s certainly something that needs to
27:05 be thought about and considered and you
27:08 know work with your professionals work
27:10 with your attorneys work with your
27:11 accountants we’re very often brought in
27:14 to work on assessment programs to help
27:17 pay for some of the projects a
27:20 combination of assessments and financing
27:24 how to buildings you know structure
27:27 their budgets to be able to pay for the
27:29 financing or to build up reserve funds
27:32 so that they can start saving the money
27:35 they need to do those capital projects
27:37 so I think the tape away from what
27:41 boards need to do in aging facilities is
27:43 really be aware of the various options
27:46 available to them and the need to plan
27:49 ahead for projects that mean
27:52 beyond the horizon at this moment but to
27:55 make sure that you give consideration to
27:56 those projects when you start looking at
27:58 your capital needs your refinancing some
28:02 things like that thank you very much
28:05 (applause)
28:08 maybe maybe so much great job thanks
28:11 very much when the board again was
28:16 planning this program we decided that we
28:19 needed the perspective of construction
28:22 professionals I’m happy to report that
28:25 tonight we have some very very top notch
28:29 construction professionals our first
28:32 speaker in that scenario will be dr.
28:34 Richard cerulli Richard is a
28:37 construction consultant he is a
28:40 professor of business and economics he
28:43 is the former chair of the facilities
28:46 and construction management program and
28:48 Iona College and nourish shell and he
28:51 also is a frequent contributor to impact
28:54 newspaper online publication please
28:57 welcome dr. Richard cerulli back volta
29:00 (applause)
29:04 Jeff what I want to address tonight is
29:06 the economics of Asian buildings and we
29:09 all know economics is a dismal science
29:12 and by the time I get through with this
29:14 lecture I’m going to convince you it is
29:16 truly a dismal science if it doesn’t put
29:19 you to sleep in the next five minutes
29:20 when we saw talking of economics of an
29:23 aging building there’s two terms that
29:25 should come to mind as an owner one is
29:29 the opportunity costs and the other is
29:32 the production possibility curve the
29:35 opportunity cost in layman’s term is the
29:38 next best alternate and a textbook
29:41 example would be is when you graduate
29:43 high school do you go to college take on
29:46 the debt and give up for years of income
29:48 or do you go to college pick up the debt
29:52 and earn your money over a period of
29:54 time so you’re earning increase your
29:56 earnings so if you were to go to if the
29:59 choice was to go to college the
30:00 opportunity lost was for
30:02 of income and this is a decision that a
30:05 lot of businesses sometimes fail to see
30:08 and in all my years in the industry a
30:11 lot of owners never look at opportunity
30:14 cost so if we take a look at of an Asian
30:17 building there’s a couple of ways you
30:19 could approach it one is the building is
30:21 aging and it needs some type of
30:23 maintenance and preventive maintenance
30:24 so your first option would be to bring
30:28 in a professional and architect and
30:29 someone who does diagnostic testing
30:31 maybe on a semi-annual basis and say
30:35 let’s see what the state of our building
30:36 is and you may spend a very small amount
30:38 of maybe ten fifteen thousand dollars
30:41 depending on the extent of it or you can
30:44 make the option of not doing it it’s not
30:47 broken you know don’t fix it and you
30:50 could wait and defer that and the
30:53 opportunity cost is going to be 10 years
30:55 later you don’t have a minor problem
31:00 with the building you have a failure or
31:02 facade start the failures are getting
31:05 leaking in the system the roofs are
31:06 leaking and then you have to put in a
31:09 tremendous amount of money to fix
31:10 something which could have been of what
31:12 it over time so the opportunity cost
31:14 would be basically do we take a small
31:16 amount of money say $10,000 do some
31:19 diagnostic testing bringing a
31:22 professional architect or engineer and
31:24 actually do some type of capital
31:27 improvement assessment they’re
31:28 relatively very inexpensive and will
31:30 tell you well in advance what needs to
31:32 be done and many times it’s deferred to
31:36 the point of failure and that brings us
31:38 up to the next topic which they call
31:40 production possibility curve in layman’s
31:43 terms it’s basically guns or butter and
31:45 at that particular point in time when
31:47 the building starts to fail and you have
31:50 to start putting money into facades
31:52 roofing or things like that are very
31:54 expensive you’re putting money into a
31:57 facade of every dollar you put into that
31:59 you’re taking money out of revenue and
32:01 you take in money out of architectural
32:04 upgrades which make the building
32:06 architectural aesthetically more
32:08 pleasing so since the money that we’re
32:10 dealing with a spy night you know for
32:12 every dollar you spend for butter it’s
32:15 one
32:15 staller for guns and that’s what really
32:18 happens when we start managing a lot of
32:20 these buildings and I think when we look
32:23 at this we have to look at this very
32:24 carefully and at the old days of just
32:27 calling a rule for in one day and just
32:28 do some quick patching are over because
32:31 technology today roofing systems are
32:34 very complex the chemicals are very
32:36 complex and there’s a number of
32:38 buildings where I went on and somebody
32:40 said well over the last four years all
32:42 we did is we put this we call the rule
32:44 for you put this car on and everything
32:46 was fine but a lot of these different
32:48 cars are very sophisticated materials
32:50 are not compatible and the actual repair
32:54 tar actually accelerated the
32:56 deterioration of the roof so by putting
32:58 you know spending five thousand dollars
33:01 in all the patent spend $300,000 a few
33:04 years later and that’s the opportunity
33:06 cost and that gets back down into the
33:09 production possibility curve there’s a
33:12 finite amount of money how are we going
33:14 to spend it and it also gets into
33:16 accounting which are long-term value
33:18 system present values of money and
33:19 things like that so when we start
33:22 looking at age buildings it’s very
33:24 important to do that for those who do
33:26 work in the city there is local all ten
33:29 eleven which you have to have your
33:31 facades inspected every five years on a
33:33 five-year cycle by an architect or
33:36 engineer the reason why that law came
33:38 about was because in 1980 at Columbia
33:41 University a medical student was walking
33:43 on a sudden point clicking a walk on a
33:45 Sunday morning and a piece of masonry
33:47 hit her on the head and killed her
33:50 needless to say there is an attorney
33:52 here you’ve got your hands full on that
33:54 is pure negligence the city was so
33:57 outraged by this that the building
34:00 owners were not really being good
34:02 stewards of their property they put a
34:04 local law 10-11 program it means every
34:07 five years you have to have an architect
34:09 or engineer come in and save the
34:11 building safe or unsafe and if you fail
34:13 to do it and a brick fit somebody it’s
34:16 not a criminal action at this point is a
34:18 criminal offense and the opportunity
34:20 cost is very high you know maybe 10,000
34:24 for an architect inspection or 10 years
34:26 in prison
34:27 I mean that’s that’s some you know on a
34:30 very extreme case so we look at this we
34:33 I think we have to look at in a very
34:34 practical way in terms of saving money
34:37 so and we look at dealing with the older
34:41 buildings it’s basically cost avoidance
34:43 and trying to do good preventive
34:45 maintenance so in the future you don’t
34:47 have to get stuck paying some tremendous
34:49 expenses that you know you can’t afford
34:51 and since construction costs are very
34:53 expensive you know we like to push it to
34:55 the right next year next year next year
34:57 but when the economy not so much now but
35:00 when the economy starts booming
35:02 construction prices accelerate much
35:04 higher than the CPI because at that
35:07 point those prices could accelerate the
35:09 pending just on supplying to managing
35:12 both sides twenty percent so if you can
35:14 support if you can afford it this year
35:16 are you going to afford it three here’s
35:18 some battle you no matter fifteen
35:20 percent escalation rate so what’s that
35:25 Oh Consumer Price Index I’m sorry I
35:27 talked about the autonomous we’re very
35:29 bored kid so with that we had an
35:34 architect was supposed to be here
35:36 tonight but something came up but yo
35:38 architects you can’t depend on them
35:40 anyway so its support of course any
35:43 architects here summer code so our
35:47 silicon sorta but but anyway what you
35:50 should have a design professional
35:52 architect or engineer who’s well-versed
35:54 in you know building envelopes and agent
35:58 buildings they know what to look for
35:59 they will know how to correct it and now
36:03 if you have to and if the building is
36:05 unsafe you’d much rather catch that the
36:07 very beginning phases before it becomes
36:09 a major problem especially if you’re a
36:11 co-op or a condo and you have to start
36:14 replacing walls over multiple units your
36:17 chance of lawsuit by the tenants are
36:19 even greater so your opportunity cost is
36:21 actually much higher so with that I want
36:24 to turn it over to the next person of us
36:26 a great experience in terms of absolute
36:28 doing diagnostics so I didn’t quite put
36:30 you to sleep yet so I think I’ll exit
36:32 before I do being as an economist okay
36:34 thank you
36:26 (applause)
36:40 baby there’s a job as you can imagine
36:44 someone is well versed as Richard and
36:48 his area comes across outstanding
36:51 professionals daily and monthly basis we
36:54 have one this evening his name is Audrey
36:56 ah no deeper level he is a senior
36:59 consultant with a firm named Metro spec
37:03 building Diagnostics which is based in
37:05 the Bronx Adriano told us this evening
37:09 that he will most definitely be joining
37:11 the bri so even though he’s for rookie
37:14 we are very happy to have him here and
37:17 on this opinion on this topic right now
37:19 it’s all good thank you everyone I’m not
37:20 (applause)
37:27 going to bore you what economics is I
37:28 don’t know the first thing about
37:29 economics Grow Rich thank you for why
37:32 would he go thank you when half the room
37:33 to sleep to make sure everyone’s still
37:35 awake we saw off you still have the
37:37 puffy still out there ok good all right
37:40 so uh oops so essentially i provide
37:46 building diagnostic services so many of
37:48 the facilities you know commercial
37:51 commercial facilities residential
37:53 facilities all over throughout Manhattan
37:55 Bronx Westchester and one of the most
37:59 neglected items that I’ve seen
38:03 throughout every building that I’ve been
38:04 to the well let’s say ninety percent of
38:07 the buildings that I’ve been to is the
38:09 two dirty words that everyone hates to
38:11 use does anybody know what it is
38:15 preventative maintenance nobody likes to
38:19 do preventative maintenance one of the
38:23 in addition to that the most neglected
38:25 part of preventive maintenance is the
38:27 building facade a lot of people don’t
38:30 understand that a facility is a living
38:32 breathing thing and facade get to think
38:34 of it as this skin so the first thing
38:37 that’s going to go is the skin
38:41 a lot of the programs that we have about
38:44 you know when the building first opened
38:46 up when it was new construction never
38:49 has never been updated so it is by quick
38:52 show of hands from the last time you’ve
38:53 seen a preventive maintenance done who’s
38:56 that who has updated it since then I
38:59 don’t think so it happens it happens
39:02 more often than you think happens more
39:04 than you think one of the most highly
39:06 impact items of the facility aside from
39:11 the facade is the HVAC system fire life
39:17 safety which should actually go before
39:19 the HVAC system the allergic will
39:22 distribution which then follows by be
39:24 building envelope by your quick show of
39:28 hands how many people have an active
39:31 preventive maintenance program set up
39:32 with their facilities right now meaning
39:35 it’s proactive you have your building
39:38 engineers or maintenance guys actively
39:40 going and checking no building equipment
39:43 running tests I see a lot of
39:46 head-shaking of sounding and nervous do
39:48 we have a lawyer in there we did okay to
39:53 the most common going back to the
39:56 building facade to the most important
40:00 aspects of the building facade is
40:02 something called a vapor barrier and a
40:04 thermal barrier does anybody know what a
40:07 thermal or a vapor barrier is okay a
40:12 vapor barrier essentially is the
40:15 resistance of moisture coming into the
40:19 structure it doesn’t take much to break
40:21 that that barrier once you do that
40:24 that’s when you start getting old you
40:26 start getting pests start writing a tree
40:29 foundation and you start causing all
40:31 types of damage on the interior
40:33 of the building the thermal barrier is
40:37 is more financially financially geared
40:41 because you’re you’re you’re allowing
40:44 unwanted excuse me that unwanted climate
40:51 from the outside entering the building
40:53 therefore causing you to you know run
40:56 your acs longer run your cooling towers
40:58 over for those who have cooling towers
41:00 we all know how much cooling towers
41:02 close to run so you know those are two
41:05 of the most neglected parts of the of
41:08 the facade a brief study that i’ve done
41:14 on a couple of the facilities is that on
41:17 average an average 15-story building
41:20 will cost with a compromise thermal and
41:25 or vapor barrier will cost you
41:28 approximately twelve thousand dollars a
41:30 year in waste so you’re looking at about
41:34 a thousand you’re looking at about a
41:36 thousand dollars a month shut the window
41:38 how many people have extra money to
41:40 throw out in their budget I don’t one of
41:47 the most current technologies that that
41:51 are out right now that could actually
41:52 aid you in preventing these type of
41:55 deficiencies is is infrared has anyone
41:58 ever had an infrared inspection done you
42:01 have okay you have as well it’s
42:04 excellent there’s not that is probably
42:07 the most underutilized piece of
42:08 technology that’s out right now for
42:12 those who don’t know what infrared is
42:13 it’s essentially measuring heat
42:17 signatures off of different materials
42:20 used in your building so in other words
42:23 if you have a leak somewhere hidden in
42:25 your facade you perform an infrared
42:27 inspection you will be able to see the
42:30 water where it’s originating from where
42:33 it’s winding up and what
42:35 think that that is probably the most
42:40 effective and most cost-effective
42:42 solution to figuring out what
42:45 deficiencies you have rather quickly
42:48 there it’s inexpensive and it will
42:51 identify where your issues are almost
42:54 immediately the average cost of net for
42:59 our inspections is is peanuts compared
43:01 to what the repairs are if you don’t
43:02 catch what you’re looking for an average
43:05 in for inspection depending on the size
43:07 your building is anywhere between 1200
43:11 to 1500 so yes oh absolutely but 220
43:21 word really is what it says oh
43:23 absolutely absolutely nine easy thing
43:26 work back in the 90s you know I haven’t
43:28 had gotten this before back in the
43:29 nineties people refer as anyone seen
43:30 Jurassic Park where they got the guy
43:32 with the dinosaurs comment and their
43:34 lien Fred you can see it like that was a
43:36 much earlier version of that but now you
43:40 can see you know that the accuracy of
43:44 what you’re measuring is down 2.1
43:47 degrees so you can do either qualitative
43:50 inspection or a quantitative inspection
43:53 depending on what you’re looking for so
43:56 yes since the 90s it has become a lot
43:59 more accurate and a lot more widely used
44:01 as a matter of fact it does anyone here
44:03 looking to looking to turn the facility
44:07 to an elite certified building lead
44:09 actually is mandating that infrared
44:13 inspections have to be performed in
44:16 order to receive I’m not mistaken I
44:18 believe hits the lows which is LEED
44:20 certified so if your elite certified
44:22 you’re doing work to your roof or your
44:25 your qualifying for those credits you
44:28 have to do an infrared inspection in
44:30 order to prove that or is doing the work
44:32 has done it
44:33 ordinance to the efficiency standards
44:39 inference also versatile for a lot of
44:41 other things you know mainly it’s it’s
44:43 the facade but also capturing electrical
44:46 hot spots mechanical mechanical issues
44:49 no HVAC equipment fans belts motors and
44:52 so on you know roof damage that’s a big
44:55 one very easy to see roof damage when
44:59 conducting these type of inspections so
45:01 if anyone who has had of any type of
45:05 roofing defense it’s probably a good
45:06 idea to get it done you know it’s quick
45:09 and painless and you’ll be able to even
45:12 go back to your contractor who may have
45:14 recently done the work and go back and
45:17 you know to make sure that whatever he
45:19 has done you know was done the right way
45:21 and you know real know how much a roof
45:23 boss so you know to make sure they do it
45:25 the right way sometimes you take a look
45:27 at it and you may not know you know oh
45:29 let me look okay you know he may just
45:31 painted it and walk the way you don’t
45:33 really know until you know here comes
45:34 the winter in the summer and you have
45:36 you have a waterfall in someone’s living
45:38 room so or a Jacuzzi depending on how to
45:41 use it so at the beginning of this year
45:47 proactively try to seek to incorporate
45:49 this into your facilities pans I found
45:54 it throughout various projects that
45:56 become invaluable especially in aging
45:59 buildings aging buildings they seem to
46:02 benefit the most from it you know a lot
46:04 of people between changing management
46:06 companies different contractors coming
46:08 in the DMV evolving use of of different
46:12 types of materials you don’t really know
46:14 what has happened before you you know
46:17 before you have gotten it before you’ve
46:19 had control of the building so you know
46:22 it is it is definitely a good piece of
46:23 technology to look into that’s all I
46:26 have for today I’m appreciate preciate
46:28 everybody having me here and enjoy your
46:30 night thank you
46:32 (applause)
46:35 and even beyond JCC shawano as I
46:39 mentioned earlier is co-president to let
46:42 our first associates insurance manager
46:45 for our associations Jason will kam wah
46:48 wah program this even by touching on
46:50 both topics from the insurance
46:52 perspective it’s all yours Jason is
46:56 anybody upset with the architect in Sean
46:58 I actually asked Jeff if I could go last
47:00 (laughs)
47:03 as I’m talking about those subjects
47:06 today two things all right I have a
47:09 handout it’s on your tables does anybody
47:12 know the font that I used for the small
47:16 text and the charts 9mon 11 anyone else
47:22 it’s Times New Roman 10 so I have good
47:28 news and bad news the bad news is you
47:32 probably can’t read this because it’s
47:34 too small and I had a lot of information
47:37 to give you the good news is i’m not
47:38 going to read it all for yourself he’ll
47:41 be out of here quicker than you thought
47:42 all right insurance effects obviously
47:46 legal contracts and aging buildings in a
47:51 plethora of way so I put some bullet
47:54 points down you can read them i’m going
47:56 to try to be really brief the first one
47:58 is with respect to legal contracts
48:01 obviously there’s an insurance section
48:04 in every or most legal contracts you
48:07 want to make sure that based on the
48:09 purpose of the contract the job that the
48:12 contract is outlining etc there are
48:14 certain types of insurance that should
48:16 go along with the requirements in the
48:19 job that’s being outlined in the
48:21 contract there there are a number of
48:22 different types of policies you’ve
48:24 probably seen them in contracts before
48:26 that you’re going to require of a
48:28 contract or whether it be a service
48:29 contractor or a construction contractor
48:32 general liability insurance auto
48:35 umbrella workers comp pollution and
48:38 separate set drive I’ve listed the
48:40 policy types and the reasons why you may
48:43 want to have them in examples
48:45 claims that can happen as a result of a
48:48 certain type of contractors worked that
48:50 that particular policy might respond to
48:53 so you know always good to check the the
48:56 insurance clause to make sure that the
48:57 insurance is appropriate to the to the
48:59 work being done there’s usually and
49:02 should be a hold harmless section
49:04 holding the building harmless as well as
49:06 the property manager and the board
49:09 importantly reverse-fold harmlessness
49:13 have started to cut crop up in a lot of
49:15 contracts and and even agreements
49:19 purchase orders you’ll see this with
49:21 snow plowing companies that’s come up in
49:23 the last couple of years where the
49:25 insurance company that’s ensuring the
49:27 snow pawn contractor is telling snow
49:29 upon a contractor you’re not allowed to
49:31 indemnify the building that you’re
49:33 calling for and we want you to get their
49:36 indemnification so that the building the
49:39 condo the coop is actually holding
49:41 harmless and indemnify the snow plowing
49:43 contractor the worst possible thing that
49:46 you can do is sign something with a
49:48 reverse indemnification so be on the
49:50 lookout for those additional insured on
49:52 a primary non-contributory basis with
49:54 waivers subrogation you can ask your
49:56 broker what that is but it’s good to
49:58 have you may want to get the insurance
50:00 policy declaration pages if you’re doing
50:03 a really big expensive project with a
50:05 lot of exposure like people on roofs are
50:07 hanging off the side of a building to
50:09 make sure that the insurance policy
50:10 doesn’t have the exclusions that we’re
50:12 going to talk about it that februari
50:14 meeting which you should come too if
50:15 you’re curious you know what I’m plug
50:17 mark and also notice if the insurance
50:20 policy is going to be cancelled or
50:22 changed or non renewed is a additional
50:25 insured you can have the right to get
50:26 that notice in advance of the
50:29 cancellation or change so that’s kind of
50:32 the insurance related issues with
50:34 respect to legal top legal contracts and
50:36 then on aging buildings from an
50:39 insurance perspective most of you that
50:41 are on boards or managing agents or or
50:45 even lenders are familiar that insurance
50:46 companies come out and inspect buildings
50:48 and then the issue what they call
50:50 recommendations which is kind of a
50:51 misnomer because if you don’t do the
50:54 rocket
50:54 ended things that the insurance company
50:56 wants you to do what happens we’ve
50:59 talked about this before your insurance
51:00 can get canceled or it can get non
51:02 renewed and if you don’t do those things
51:05 and if you’ve got an older building
51:06 sometimes those things can be a lot
51:07 there can be they want the the roof
51:09 repaired or replaced they want sidewalks
51:12 patch driveways patch brick pointing if
51:16 you ignore those things and your
51:19 insurance is non renewed you’re probably
51:21 going to end up paying a lot more money
51:23 for your insurance for the money that
51:24 you save by not doing the projects and
51:27 you may get less coverage with not as
51:29 high-quality accompany so think twice
51:31 before not doing the insurance company’s
51:34 recommendations it’s usually money well
51:37 spent and it’s also money well spent
51:39 because those insurance company
51:40 recommendations for them in particular
51:43 for older buildings are normally things
51:45 that can actually cost you a lot of
51:47 exposure whether it be liability
51:49 exposure or property damage exposure
51:52 such as if you’ve got fuses we talked
51:54 about a contract involving the
51:56 replacement of fuses with circuit
51:57 breakers ileana earlier in the night the
51:59 reason why insurance companies don’t
52:01 like fuses is because they can pause
52:02 fire fighters can burn down your
52:04 building which is an insurance event
52:05 costing millions of dollars that can
52:07 drive your premiums up and it’s also a
52:09 risk to the people that live there and
52:11 hurt people or killed people so I’ve
52:13 listed a whole bunch of examples of
52:15 aging building conditions that can
52:17 result in insurance recommendations and
52:19 if they’re not addressed in result
52:21 insurance claims and that pretty much
52:23 sums it up if you have questions happy
52:25 to speak to you afterwards have a good
52:27 evening thank you
52:28 (applause)
52:31 fury or questions and answers does
52:34 anyone have any questions for our panel
52:37 members seasoned and ready contract you
52:43 have a standard social teenager applause
52:46 no hero property sanitarium don’t know
52:50 dirty kind of property I said hands on
52:54 your way of those two particular I get
52:58 done with those two particular examples
53:00 are no Jack I know we have and give some
53:04 general yet particularly concerned about
53:07 no alcohol on the property because
53:09 somebody gets hurt if they drink beer
53:11 for lunch it gets to be a major problem
53:14 right the question was do we have our
53:18 standard contract any social behavior
53:20 clause we had something I honestly I
53:23 couldn’t tell you without looking at it
53:24 right now you know if it mentions that
53:27 your particular examples of fear or
53:29 whatever but i would say that those
53:32 things are probably covering and i think
53:34 our provision is a little more general
53:35 but it’s kind of a common sense thing
53:40 anyone else a not very on my way that
53:44 Lewis Katz they are there mr. Serling
53:50 this is what I probably one of the
53:53 biggest arguments we had an award is for
53:56 big projects on it was an engineer when
53:58 not some people say it goes too much
54:01 money let’s just throw it out on a
54:04 little penny saver unless you who comes
54:07 in and of course the problem isn’t if
54:09 you just leave it up
54:10 the contractor you’re going to get three
54:11 different bids for three different
54:13 totally types of work so what is the
54:15 percentage I mean four big jobs I you
54:19 know replacing the front steps and
54:21 replacing a roof that you should use an
54:24 engineer is that always a given that you
54:26 should alicious engineer outside outside
54:33 so what the question was a gentleman is
54:37 really how often do you need to use an
54:39 engineer if it will I Inc construction
54:42 Trevor Project see you as an engineer
54:45 well you would have to find an engineer
54:50 or an architect that’s very immersed
54:52 well well versed and cost estimating but
54:55 that’s very important there you know
54:56 every architect by profession has their
54:59 sub specialties so you need someone
55:02 that’s very well versed with
55:04 construction costs and also when they do
55:06 get a project one of the bigger problems
55:09 that as a problem I confront to all the
55:12 time as if a client calls maybe we put
55:14 something out to bid and the bids come
55:16 back and you get a cluster of bids
55:18 around a certain point then you have the
55:20 outlier to hide then you have the low
55:23 bidder what I general would recommend to
55:26 apply knows take those clustered bids
55:28 get to mean median made really don’t
55:32 even entertain the outliers because if
55:34 you have say for argument’s Satan you
55:37 know ten bidders on a job and seven over
55:40 in that cluster that’s the real cost of
55:42 the project and I’ve heard clients you
55:45 know tell me I’ll take the chance of the
55:47 lower bid notes the three hundred
55:49 thousand dollars less 200,000 by i’ll
55:51 gamble for two hundred thousand dollars
55:54 and they never wouldn’t it the bed
55:56 because by the time the job is over they
55:59 usually don’t pick up the scope of work
56:01 and you probably pay more than the
56:02 highest bidder with change lawyers a
56:05 little is the criteria for living
56:07 should use an engineering when you don’t
56:09 need to use one well I think it depends
56:13 on your comfort you’re all covered in
56:16 terms of the scope of the project I mean
56:18 if you’re doing a very complex project a
56:21 very big infrastructure project I’ll
56:24 even go back father if it’s a sizable
56:27 project I would always recommend the
56:30 architect had to scope of work that
56:32 means i think i think i’m answering the
56:34 question of this better now ah if you’re
56:36 going to have a project that sizable you
56:38 don’t really want the contractor
56:42 designing the project if you can’t
56:45 because it’s a conflict of interest
56:47 because a contractor will rightfully so
56:50 contractor is out to make as much money
56:52 as they can and even if they give the
56:54 best service they they’re out that’s
56:56 what it’s all about and so their
56:58 interest is for their own interests
57:01 obviously it’s a business where an
57:03 architect or engineer is really paid to
57:05 be the owner’s representative so if
57:08 you’re doing a project and I think it’s
57:10 I don’t think there’s quite a dollar
57:12 amount but I would probably say that
57:14 it’s the best way to proceed is to have
57:18 an architect or engineer if we should
57:19 have a scope of work well I mean if the
57:22 cynical problem i run into that granted
57:24 that’s very recently was also no no okay
57:27 and was that they put out a contract for
57:31 windows replacement windows and you know
57:34 one bit came at two hundred thousand
57:35 what came in at 60,000 and it was a
57:40 commercial project and they and the
57:42 person at the sixty thousand dollar
57:44 window was a residential built-in
57:46 someone who’d estatehouses not
57:48 commercial buildings they didn’t know if
57:50 it was an aluminum clad building with
57:51 the r-value was that you value was so he
57:55 compared to two he won’t even compare
57:56 apples to apples if they put the sixty
57:59 thousand dollar contract into windows
58:02 would have failed because they would
58:03 have lost in energy and everything else
58:05 so it’s it’s it’s always err on the side
58:08 of hiring an architect or engineer okay
58:11 I just wanted to add more
58:14 that I think one thing to keep in mind
58:16 he said whenever you’re bidding at
58:17 abroad whenever you’re doing a project
58:18 we need to send out bids whether its
58:21 construction or any kind of contract
58:23 type situation where you’re sending out
58:24 bids it’s as you just alluded to you
58:26 need to make sure you’re comparing
58:28 apples to apples so when you get four
58:30 bits three bids whatever it is you need
58:32 to know that you’re comparing the same
58:34 thing if it’s a simpler thing that you
58:36 can come up with the specs and you can
58:38 say that you know here’s what the specs
58:41 are and you want them to bid on that
58:42 fine if it’s something that’s more
58:44 complicated and you know and so you need
58:47 an architect or an engineer to help you
58:49 come up with that set of specs so that
58:51 the contractors can all bid on it and
58:53 then you might need their services to
58:54 help you that evaluate the bids to make
58:56 sure about that then you need an
58:58 architect or engineer I mean in some
59:00 ways if you’re asking the question then
59:02 then you might have your answer you know
59:04 if it’s if you yourselves as a board
59:06 can’t come up with the specifications
59:08 and it’s not really either your job or
59:11 necessarily your training to be able to
59:13 do that although some boards obviously
59:15 have people that are first it can assist
59:17 in that but you know other than that if
59:19 it’s not you know that it’s not a
59:20 nacelle your job so that’s why you have
59:22 professionals like engineers and
59:23 architects that you hire to help you
59:25 create those specs you know obviously
59:27 there’s some situations or it’s simpler
59:29 you know if you’re not dealing with
59:30 construction you might be dealing with
59:32 laundry contract or managing agent
59:34 contract then you don’t obviously you
59:35 don’t need necessarily another
59:37 professional but you know and a basic
59:39 thing you know some kind of basic
59:41 contract you know if it’s painting you
59:42 might be able to come up with your you
59:44 know with your specifications but
59:46 something more complicated if you as a
59:48 board don’t feel comfortable in creating
59:49 the specifications so you know what
59:51 you’re going to be getting then that’s
59:53 when that’s when you need I think I
59:56 would just go one step further in terms
60:00 of not just creating the specifications
60:02 but putting together what’s called an
60:04 RFP which is a request for proposal
60:07 where the same request is going out to
60:10 all the potential bidders so then
60:12 they’re all bidding on exactly the same
60:14 project and then
60:17 the bids are basically tailored so that
60:20 you can compare apples to apples but in
60:22 addition to just the bidding process
60:24 what we find in terms of using
60:27 architects and engineers is that they’re
60:30 also your eyes and ears on the ground so
60:32 that when a requisition is made for
60:35 payment from a contractor most
60:39 architectural requisition zaia
60:42 requisitions require the sign off of
60:45 either an architect or an engineer
60:47 before payment would be made and
60:50 basically they’re certifying that the
60:52 work was done in accordance with the
60:55 specifications and that the dollars that
60:58 have been requisitioned that the word
61:00 was actually performed so I think it’s
61:04 not just in the specification process
61:07 but it’s also in the ongoing supervisory
61:11 process to make sure that the work is
61:13 being performed in accordance with the
61:15 specifications and with the lead and the
61:19 parameters that were laid out Lewis kept
61:22 that question yes the difference between
61:27 an aia me who told me badly written up
61:30 contracts which you prefer your type of
61:33 a contractor that’s handwritten versus
61:35 an AI a contract or which way do you go
61:39 as a co-op I mean I don’t sit back and
61:42 write it I have it out of template on my
61:44 side
61:45 I personally I don’t like the AAA
61:49 contract there’s a lot of things in it i
61:51 don’t like there’s some things in it
61:52 that I do like our contract are
61:54 different templates that we have
61:56 actually we do incorporate a number of
61:59 the provisions from the AIA we’ve taken
62:02 a number of those provisions but we’ve
62:04 also changed them and added them and you
62:07 added things and and you know we’ve
62:10 crafted it in our own way so I it’s I
62:13 can’t say that that’s a blanket I don’t
62:15 like the IAA part of the reason why we
62:17 drafted our own contract is because
62:19 logistically it’s a lot easier there
62:21 otherwise there would be so many changes
62:23 to the IAA it’s not in word form it’s
62:25 not an easy template to use we would be
62:27 making so many changes every time this
62:29 way we’ve done it all in advance we have
62:31 in the floor that we want with all the
62:33 changes that that you know we wanted and
62:35 it’s an easier I think it’s personally
62:38 think its knees here lay out the ia one
62:39 is a lot of short sentences and I don’t
62:42 think is there so the easiest thing to
62:44 look at myself but I mean so I prefer ma
62:47 I prefer mine for that you know for
62:49 those reasons which is not to say that
62:51 there isn’t anything in the yeah that’s
62:53 good there’s a lot of good things and
62:54 I’ve used a lot of them we have time for
62:58 two more as we are near nine okay hang
63:02 on son I’ll be right there I’ll have a
63:07 workout I am walking member bcurtin eyes
63:15 from
63:16 analysts up there the recommendation of
63:24 your future what is it too sharp from an
64:01 accounting standpoint there’s a
64:03 difference between having an
64:06 understanding of what projects are going
64:08 to come on over the next number of years
64:10 in other words knowing that your roof
64:12 has a 20-year warranty in your near 15
64:15 or that you’re looking to do and you
64:18 know an oil to gas conversion or that
64:20 you’re in the fourth year and you have a
64:23 local or eleven project coming up versus
64:26 actually have an engineer doing a what
64:30 we color and placement study once you do
64:33 a replacement study and I’ll let Dan
64:35 speak to the legality of that but for
64:38 those of you who have audited financial
64:41 statements for your properties which I’m
64:43 sure most of you do there is a
64:47 recommendation by the American Institute
64:49 of Certified Public Accountants EIC PA
64:52 that they recommend that coops and
64:56 condos include in their financial
64:58 statements a thorough study or you’re
65:01 supposed to take all of the component
65:03 parts of a building you’re supposed to
65:05 basically scope out their estimated
65:07 useful life their cost of a plate
65:10 and how the entity is going to fund for
65:14 those eventual replacements both the
65:18 legal community and the accountant
65:20 community is very dead set against
65:22 putting those engineering studies in
65:24 financial statements because I think
65:27 that so do the attorneys in New York
65:31 metropolitan area that it leaves the
65:33 corporation of the condominium
65:34 association wide open in that if you did
65:38 anticipate something in someone bought
65:40 on that understanding that you would
65:44 open yourself up to lawsuit we also
65:46 don’t believe from accounting standpoint
65:48 that an engineer of study has any place
65:52 in accounting document so almost all
65:57 buildings i would say Robin ninety-nine
65:59 point nine percent you’ll see language
66:01 on the front page of the audited
66:03 financial statement stating that they
66:05 did not do the syrah study and that
66:09 coops have the ability to borrow or
66:12 assess or defer capital projects as
66:15 required and similar in condominiums so
66:20 the dib there is a big difference
66:22 between having a formalized engineering
66:26 costs replacement study and being aware
66:29 of what your major infrastructure
66:31 projects are and when in fact they may
66:34 need to be done in an approximate value
66:36 of those replacements and just about the
66:43 only thing that I would add is that as
66:45 you said when you do the replacement
66:47 study or the capital study you have to
66:50 start budgeting for it you have to have
66:52 to add it into your budget and you have
66:54 to plan for it and then if it’s
66:56 necessary you have to
66:58 not to do that that work but you know
67:02 that that’s the problem and it’s a
67:04 difference between being aware that
67:06 these things are out there and knowing
67:07 that your roof has a certain warranty
67:09 and then you know as was just mentioned
67:11 at doing a formal engineering study
67:13 where then you have to put it in your
67:15 financials you have to have a fact into
67:17 your budget if it’s factored into your
67:18 budget you have to then start basically
67:20 putting aside the money I mean if you’re
67:22 saying in your budget that that you’re
67:24 budgeting twenty thousand dollars a year
67:26 for for future replacements you have to
67:29 actually be budgeting that and putting
67:30 that somewhere Robbins timer alarm
67:35 energy Asians counselor Warren’s big
67:37 we’re couple points hopefully only the
67:41 microphone i really appreciate them and
67:42 they said it’s a dance set s someone
67:47 who’s managing properties and dealing
67:50 with both their firms and other firms
67:52 other legal firms other kind of person
67:54 account what we found it’s tremendously
67:57 effective because when you patent or an
68:00 ancient building stock that is to do
68:04 some kind of long-term papal state keep
68:07 it a draft form but let the residents
68:11 know because what’s going to happen is
68:12 that lo and behold you’re gonna have to
68:15 replace room in the next two or three
68:17 years you don’t start planning for now
68:19 from financial standpoint and also from
68:21 a public relations standpoint you’re
68:24 going to surprise the heck out of you
68:26 have your your shareholders or your your
68:29 honors so it’s really important to do
68:31 something
68:32 one hundred percent be no water in the
68:34 financials because one things that we
68:37 haven’t mentioned because they’re
68:39 plotting is that your different levels
68:41 of engineering studies here’s a good one
68:43 the Senators bad ones it once you’re
68:45 going to say you need two hundred
68:47 thousand dollars to improve your
68:48 building and the good ones going to say
68:50 ten billion dollars because they’re
68:51 going to be very careful and if you have
68:54 similar buildings you would have a lot
68:57 of trouble explaining that to potential
68:59 purchasers over time thank you Robert
69:04 this concludes our program many many
69:07 thanks to Daniel Jason mehndi wizard
69:11 adriano and all of you for attending
69:14 (applause)
69:18 should be tomorrow condo council and
69:21 again the BR I’s general vanishing bees
69:24 is thursday at six thirty was advancing
69:27 at way
00:00 we can now move on to the handle portion
00:03 of tonight’s meeting our two topics are
00:07 legal representation for your buildings
00:10 contracts what boards need to know as
00:13 well as aging buildings the steps that
00:16 boards should take at this point I will
00:19 introduce Daniel finger an attorney with
00:22 finger and finger a professional
00:24 corporation of White Plains finger and
00:26 finger serves as chief counsel to the
00:29 Bri and the CCAC you all know Daniel he
00:33 has spoken at several of our meetings
00:35 and seminars in the past and he also
00:37 contributes to impact newspaper are
00:40 violent publication Daniel is actually a
00:44 you will address the first issue legal
00:46 representation for your buildings
00:48 contracts what boards and East what
00:51 bores need to know dan is all yours
00:55 (applause)
00:59 good evening everyone this is actually a
01:02 difficult topic for me because people
01:04 study this kind of thing for years in
01:06 law school so it’s it’s tough to
01:08 summarize contracts in five-minute
01:11 speech but I’m just going to go through
01:13 some of the things that I think about
01:14 when I’m drafting a contract for the
01:17 cooperative’s and condominiums that I
01:18 represent highlight some of the issues
01:21 that we go through and then at the end
01:24 if there’s any questions I can address
01:26 that or afterwards and
01:33 the in any event the contract that your
01:40 end or your contractor might give you is
01:43 not really a contract they usually hand
01:45 you a proposal they try to have you sign
01:46 off on it that’s not a contract that
01:49 that’s a proposal signing off on it will
01:52 you know can bind you but you have to be
01:55 very careful because that does not have
01:58 the protections that a normal contract
02:02 would have we for most of our clients
02:05 the cooperation condominiums that we
02:07 represent we draft all their contract
02:10 whenever they’re doing anything from
02:12 construction landscaping snowplow you
02:16 know even property management cleaning
02:18 you know whatever it is any time that
02:20 you’re in a relationship with a vendor
02:23 or third or another party we draft a
02:26 contract the reason in a one-sentence
02:30 nutshell for that is that you want all
02:33 the parties to the contract to have an
02:35 understanding of the purpose of the
02:37 relationship and the parameters of the
02:39 relationship why you know what it is
02:41 that that you as a co-op or condominium
02:45 board expect of the contractor and what
02:47 the contractor expects that that their
02:49 responsibilities are going to be you
02:51 want to have an understanding of that
02:52 and you want to have them raw realized
02:54 in writing so that way there’s any
02:56 confusion you have something to go back
02:58 to and to fall back on and you all know
03:00 what your rights again signing a
03:04 proposal from a vendor is not really
03:06 enough to address that or to give you
03:08 those kinds of protections a lot of
03:13 times when we’re drafting a contract we
03:15 don’t just sit down and just come up
03:17 with some in general we go through the
03:19 specifications for the project the bid
03:22 if there you know and if it’s a going to
03:25 mostly refer to construction issues but
03:30 when you’re dealing with a larger
03:31 project we will often work with the
03:35 engineer or the architect will have when
03:38 they’re when they’re first creating the
03:40 specifications and before it even goes
03:41 out to bid and what we’d like to do in
03:44 those larger projects is we’d like to
03:45 give them a template of the contract for
03:49 a couple reasons before they send the
03:51 bids out so that way number one they can
03:54 look at the contract and they can tell
03:56 us if there’s any issues that raining
03:59 any terms that we’ve put or any issues
04:00 that we’ve raised that either are not
04:03 typical to that particular type of
04:04 project or you know need to be modified
04:07 so it could be a payment terms he’s a
04:10 frequent one sometimes we like to do
04:13 usually we like to do progress payments
04:15 but their situation where that just
04:16 doesn’t apply I had a situation recently
04:19 where the building there was a building
04:21 that was doing a large electrical
04:22 upgrade they were replacing all the fuse
04:24 boxes in the building with circuit
04:26 breaker boxes and the way that the
04:28 payment was going to be structured was
04:30 that the contractor there was a couple
04:32 things he’s gonna have to do in each
04:33 apartment and he would get X dollars a
04:36 certain amount of dollars for each box
04:37 that he replaced and then for some of
04:41 the other stuff and then they did the
04:42 outlets and whatever and everything was
04:44 based on each item that he did he wasn’t
04:47 being he wasn’t charging how early he
04:49 wasn’t getting a flat fee for the whole
04:51 project because the apartments of
04:52 everything so based on the scope that
04:55 was how it was so that was something
04:56 that we found out and talking to the
04:57 engineer they gave us the schedule or
05:00 what they anticipated it would be they
05:01 didn’t know what the exact dollars would
05:02 be but they gave us a general idea and
05:05 then you know we had that prepared so
05:07 when the contractor came they filled in
05:09 their bid the bid pack of bid
05:11 specifications and the contract then was
05:13 able to reflect that there there we had
05:17 you know we have a standard contract
05:19 we’ve draft that we’ve crafted but we’ve
05:23 you know we have we vary it depending on
05:26 the size of the project the nature of
05:28 the project in nature of the type of
05:30 work that’s being performed weather
05:31 would say if it’s landscaping contract
05:34 or management contract it’s you know
05:36 certain things and it’s a different form
05:38 that we use that a construction contract
05:43 the as far as the actual contracts go
05:47 that one backtracking segments the other
05:50 reason why we like to work with the
05:52 engineering the architect in those
05:53 situations as they send out the contract
05:55 with the big mackeage and then the
05:58 contractor knows exactly what he’s
06:00 bidding not just the specifications but
06:03 also the contract runs the payment terms
06:04 the the time frame that is expected to
06:08 complete what the guarantee is that the
06:09 board expects to get on the project and
06:12 various other things so there’s no
06:16 confusion when they when their bid is
06:18 accepted there’s no confusion that they
06:20 were expected to have the project
06:22 completed in you know three months four
06:24 months whatever it is we thought it was
06:25 going to be progress payments or that it
06:27 was going to be you know whatever the
06:28 term is that there’s it limits the
06:30 confusion and there’s frequently still
06:32 some negotiating that goes on but at
06:35 least that you know that helps make that
06:38 process go more efficiently we try not
06:42 to get involved too much in a very
06:46 specific description of the work we
06:48 leave that to the bid specifications the
06:51 specs and the plans of the architect or
06:53 engineer withdraw and we usually
06:56 attached that or if it’s smaller than we
06:58 usually tax the proposal to the contract
07:00 because that usually has those type of
07:02 things if it was at you know if it was
07:04 the circuit breaker type thing that I
07:05 was talking about you know the architect
07:07 would specify exactly which type of
07:09 circuit breaker he wanted to go in each
07:10 apartment what type of outlets you know
07:14 whatever it is the architect or engineer
07:16 usually specify that and we will refer
07:20 back to those specifications if it’s a
07:23 smaller situation where there is no
07:25 architect or engineer then we go back to
07:27 the
07:28 contractors proposal we look at that and
07:30 we use that and will often just refer to
07:32 that proposal in terms of the actual
07:35 work that he’s doing and the board will
07:37 always look over the contract we have we
07:40 send it to them in the managing agent
07:41 first they can look it over let us know
07:44 if there’s anything that that they see
07:45 in there that was not what they expected
07:47 or was not what they you know what they
07:49 thought they were getting they look it
07:51 over in advance there’s any questions we
07:53 deal with it that way everybody is on
07:55 the same page we like the contracted
07:59 what one of the other things that the
08:02 contract has that we like the contractor
08:04 to be aware of is we want to make sure
08:06 he was familiar with all the local
08:07 requirements he knows you know not only
08:11 permitting and other municipal
08:13 requirements but by the board
08:15 departments how you know cleanup of the
08:17 site that he’s got to be fully familiar
08:21 with the plans if all’s the contract
08:24 also usually sets forth any method for
08:29 resolving any discrepancies sometimes
08:31 the contractors see something when he’s
08:33 already doing the word that he doesn’t
08:35 think can be done as the architect had
08:38 specified architect or engineer creates
08:40 set of plans but there you know things
08:42 happen and then in the process of the
08:44 word he might feel that he can’t do it
08:45 the way they’ve specified so we have a
08:48 procedure in the contract that lets him
08:51 know who we supposed to call what’s
08:53 supposed to govern so we all know that
08:54 in whatever situation how things are
08:57 supposed to progress I already do the
09:00 payment terms usually we have we like to
09:03 have progress payments but again that
09:05 doesn’t know it’s not always the case we
09:08 like the architect we also usually
09:10 specify in a number of place in the
09:11 contract we like the architect and
09:13 engineer to stay involved in the project
09:15 their job does not usually
09:17 and the minute that the bid is awarded
09:20 their job is ongoing they need to
09:23 approve the work if a payments being
09:25 issued especially in bigger projects
09:28 where you have an architecture engineer
09:30 they should be involved in sure that
09:33 what the contractors saying he did that
09:36 not only did he actually do it but that
09:37 he did it in accordance with what the
09:39 architect or engineer specifications
09:41 were that he did it with the quality
09:42 that they expected and as their plans
09:45 set forth the contract as I mentioned it
09:52 sets forth the the warranty and
09:54 guarantee term how many years or what
09:56 the provisions of that are the you know
09:59 the board needs to know these things if
10:01 you’re getting a roof you know it could
10:02 be a ten or twenty year warranty other
10:05 things could be short but at least the
10:07 board has to be aware of it because
10:08 those are things they’re paying for they
10:09 need to be aware of what they’re getting
10:11 at the outset there’s any confusion you
10:14 can clear it up then we also have hold
10:17 harmless than occasional visions and
10:20 insurance requirements and I won’t touch
10:21 on that too much I’ll let Jason go into
10:24 that sent us step on his toes but you
10:27 know those are very important things you
10:30 need to make sure that the contractor
10:32 understands that he’s responsible for
10:34 his men and for not only his men but any
10:36 sub contractors that are on the site
10:38 anybody that’s on the property during
10:40 the course of the project he’s
10:43 responsible for them and he’s
10:44 responsible for anything not only the
10:46 happens to them but anybody else that
10:48 happens to be coming through you know
10:51 while the work is happening I mean this
10:53 is just where people live so people are
10:54 you know walking by outside they might
10:56 be walking through inside he has to make
10:58 sure that the site is secure enough and
11:01 safe enough that nobody’s going to get
11:03 hurt whether its own people or whether
11:05 it’s other you know just passers-by or
11:08 residents of the building that happened
11:10 to be there he has to be familiar with
11:14 the local farming process because it’s
11:16 usually the contract or sometimes the
11:18 architect or engineer helps with this
11:19 but it’s usually
11:20 tractor with dense departments even if
11:22 it’s at the owner’s expense they’re the
11:23 ones that actually go out and do it and
11:25 the boards aren’t going to be you know
11:27 local city hall or whatever to get the
11:30 building permits the the contract almost
11:34 always specifies the rules about
11:37 subcontractor some deals boards don’t
11:40 care if there’s a subcontractor and they
11:42 expected some deals they’re hiring a
11:44 particular contractor and they want that
11:45 contract to do the work and they don’t
11:47 want any subcontractors so we like to we
11:50 like to try to make sure the contractor
11:52 understands that if he’s going to get a
11:53 subcontractor yes to get the board’s
11:55 approval first and he’s responsible for
11:57 all those subcontractors and he’s
11:59 responsible for paying them and he’s
12:00 responsible for making sure that when
12:02 the work is done that they release
12:05 whatever lien they have that they get
12:06 paid that they don’t you know to make
12:08 sure if anything happens that they’re
12:10 not going to come back to the coop or
12:12 condo and say I wasn’t paid the other
12:15 thing that we always have in our
12:16 contract that we insist on as best we
12:19 can as a termination provision that
12:20 doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay
12:22 for work that’s been done but there are
12:24 times that the contract doesn’t always
12:26 go according to plan it could be because
12:27 you don’t like the quality of the work
12:29 the contractors doing it could be
12:31 because you don’t like the time frame
12:32 he’s taking too long that there could be
12:35 a variety of reasons why during the
12:36 course of a project you become unhappy
12:38 with a contractor and you feel it
12:41 necessary to terminate the project and
12:42 we like as best we can to make sure that
12:45 the board has the right to terminate the
12:47 contract even if it without having to
12:49 give a reason you know that’s one of
12:51 those things that sometimes you have to
12:52 negotiate and and give on a little bit
12:55 but as best we can that’s something that
12:57 you know we try to insist on the other
13:01 thing is content as I said contractors
13:03 in writing and similarly we expect and
13:06 it’s in the contract
13:07 any changes have to be in writing so if
13:09 you’re doing a project and you know
13:11 mentioned before things happen sometimes
13:13 you need to make a change for whatever
13:15 the reason is that still has to be in
13:18 writing whether it’s a whether it’s
13:20 amendment to the contract or a change
13:22 order something like that has to be in
13:24 writing if it’s a project where you’re
13:25 doing change orders that’s another
13:27 situation where the architect or
13:29 engineer would have to be involved
13:30 because they have to make sure that the
13:32 change that the contractor is requesting
13:35 will work you know in accordance with
13:37 their plans that it will still be okay
13:39 that it all still goes together so there
13:42 that’s your board relying on for help
13:45 with that so they they need to be
13:46 involved in that so you really need you
13:49 know contractor requests a change order
13:51 at the board and the board has to review
13:54 and make sure they’re okay with it
13:55 making sure they’re okay with how much
13:56 the change order is going to cost the
13:58 architect engineer has to review it for
14:01 that reason a lot of my boards will have
14:04 me double check it and make sure that
14:05 everything looks okay from a legal
14:07 standpoint so we do that as well again
14:12 the contract from a legal standpoint is
14:15 really a lot about expectations about
14:17 knowing from the board side what you’re
14:20 getting into how much you’re going to
14:21 pay having the security of knowing you
14:24 know what project it is that’s being
14:26 done the time frame it’s going to happen
14:29 know that it’s going to be done in and
14:31 in terms of time frame wheel we will a
14:34 lot of times the way I get the time
14:35 frame if it’s not from the engineer or
14:37 the architect is I ask the contractor
14:39 themselves how long they think the
14:40 project should take and if they tell me
14:42 two months I’ll usually put in the
14:44 contract two and a half or three months
14:45 and I give them a cushion so that way
14:48 you know whatever time frame they tell
14:50 me is the longest that they expect it’s
14:52 going to take I usually give them a
14:53 little longer in the contract unless
14:54 there’s some particular reason why the
14:56 board says it has to be done by a
14:58 certain date I usually will give them a
15:00 cushion so that way at the end if
15:02 they’re delaying even further and they
15:05 get to that outside date and the project
15:07 isn’t done then we can go there when you
15:09 say you know look I gave you longer than
15:11 you want it you know and they
15:14 they can’t complain if the board doesn’t
15:15 want to pay that more if they want to
15:17 have some kind of penalty for it that so
15:19 they’re aware of that but it’s again
15:21 it’s all about the expectations and
15:23 about everybody knowing exactly what’s
15:25 expected of them what their role is so
15:29 that at the end of the day the project
15:31 gets done in timely fashion and it gets
15:33 completed as the board wanted within the
15:36 expense that the board was anticipated
15:38 okay thank you
15:41 (applause)
15:48 thank you very much
15:48 when the board of directors of the coop
15:51 condo council was good together this
15:54 rope man they know it in this dress that
15:58 we definitely needed an account from
16:01 both the coop and condo perspective well
16:04 we have V account in Westchester County
16:06 (laughs)
16:07 when it comes to Cohen condos mini
16:09 eisenberg maybe has spoken to several
16:13 money to the Hutts well known in her
16:16 field please welcome Vinnie now I only
16:19 (applause)
16:23 now I only hope I can live up to that introduction
16:25 so from a legal perspective the contract
16:30 is really that spoke rights obligation
16:33 and protection and from an accounting
16:35 perspective it really is about money
16:38 money money which I know is something
16:41 that as boards of directors world fair
16:43 they’re concerned about when I started
16:46 to think about contracts of course
16:48 construction contracts were you know
16:50 more than one of the four fronts of
16:52 I was thinking about but boards enter
16:54 into many many contracts then I think
16:57 need to have the same type of
16:59 consideration as construction contracts
17:01 and I’ll talk a little bit about
17:03 construction contracts but i just want
17:06 to mention some of the other contracts
17:08 that i believe that council really
17:10 should be involved in one is management
17:13 contracts let’s say you’re going to
17:15 change managing agents a lot of managing
17:18 agents have boilerplate contracts but
17:21 for the unsophisticated board what you
17:25 need to realize is that there are a lot
17:27 of variables in those contracts as well
17:29 are you paying a fixed fee are you
17:32 paying fixed fees plus monthly operating
17:34 expenses is there a charge for
17:37 attendance and board meetings is there
17:40 in charge for attendance and union
17:41 meetings so a lot of the attorneys have
17:45 actually developed contracts that go
17:47 beyond the boilerplate that some of the
17:49 management companies have and I believe
17:52 that those contracts should be reviewed
17:54 by council as well before I invited to
17:56 those the other thing would be your
17:58 laundry agreement there are a lot of
18:01 variables and laundry contracts when you
18:03 change laundry companies for example how
18:05 many machines are going to be in
18:07 installed how much is it going to cost
18:09 per cycle what is the vendor going to do
18:14 in terms of rehabilitating the laundry
18:16 room so again these are contracts I
18:19 think that you’ll be entered into with
18:21 consideration and thought and also
18:24 reviewed by council what about a cell
18:27 tower contract in case I know a lot of
18:29 buildings here in Westchester especially
18:31 ones that are up on a higher hill there
18:34 they’ve put cell towers
18:36 the top of their properties what is the
18:39 term of the contract what in renewal
18:41 obligations who’s responsible for
18:44 repairs to the roof in case there’s
18:46 damage so again I think it’s another
18:49 important contract that council should
18:51 be looking at mortgage refinance and
18:54 documents another contract is a contract
18:58 to you know borrow some money perhaps
19:02 have a credit line attached to it and
19:04 you know attorney should obviously be
19:06 intricately involved in the negotiation
19:09 of mortgage refinancing NYSERDA
19:13 contracts many of you may have been done
19:16 been doing in oil to gas conversion you
19:19 may have been getting energy credits
19:21 through NYSERDA or some of the federal
19:23 programs again I think these are things
19:25 that council should be looking at and
19:28 reviewing so that you understand the
19:30 terms what the benchmarking procedures
19:32 are what thresholds you need to be able
19:35 to meet in order to be able to get the
19:38 credits that have been promised to you
19:41 construction management very often what
19:43 happens is when you take on a
19:45 construction project you’re also
19:47 bringing the construction manager on
19:49 site so for example if you’re doing a
19:51 window project and you have 400 units in
19:54 your building and someone needs to be
19:56 doing all the scheduling of the
19:57 replacements and the appointments and
20:00 you know managing the project again so
20:04 really just to bring to mind that there
20:06 are many many contracts that boards
20:08 enter into beyond just construction
20:12 contracts I think Dan brought up a lot
20:15 of very important points about the
20:17 construction contract from an accounting
20:20 perspective on both the CPA and a muscle
20:22 CFE I’m a certified forensic in fraud
20:25 examiner and we rely very very heavily
20:29 on the contracts one of the procedures
20:32 that we do in all of our audit
20:34 engagements is we reconcile
20:37 the payments made by the corporation or
20:40 condominium association to the contracts
20:43 and very often we find that there have
20:46 been over payments there have been
20:48 change orders where certain pieces this
20:51 change orders are actually duplicated in
20:53 second change orders so you know you
20:57 could be spending quite a bit of money
20:59 between you know these energy
21:02 conversions on down in New York City we
21:04 have all the local or 11 projects where
21:07 they doing these your facade projects I
21:09 know up here as well I think it’s very
21:11 important that the financial terms are
21:14 very well understood at the beginning
21:17 one of the important things is retainage
21:20 clauses whereby you get a hold back on
21:23 the project usually it’s about ten
21:26 percent so that you make sure that you
21:29 know the contract has some skin in the
21:31 game and that all the monies are not
21:33 paid out until that punch list is
21:35 finished and again these are all things
21:38 that have an attorney review the
21:41 contract from the very beginning you’ll
21:43 make sure that those provisions are
21:46 taken care of the in terms of
21:51 construction contracts to most of the
21:54 time contractors use what are called AIA
21:56 documents which is the American
21:58 Institute of Architects and there are
22:01 numerous forms of AI 88 contracts most
22:05 of them that you probably will enter
22:06 into or would have called stipulated
22:08 some contracts where x is a flat fee
22:11 plus allowances for certain things like
22:14 working or the
22:16 or of you know feet running feet of a
22:19 certain project and then obviously it
22:22 breaks down the scope of that project
22:24 one of the litigation that we were
22:27 involved in was with a building that
22:29 actually signed an AI a document that
22:32 was a cost plus P contract and basically
22:35 they’re caught their obligation was the
22:38 costs that subcontracted out plus a
22:42 percentage of those subcontracts to the
22:45 general contractor and when we found
22:48 through the course of the project was
22:50 that the fees that were being presented
22:54 by the general contractor as being paid
22:57 to subcontractor or in fact fictitious
23:01 they were fraudulent and the building
23:04 was over being significantly based upon
23:08 the fees that were actually being paid
23:10 to the subcontractors so again you know
23:14 I think it’s very important that an
23:15 attorney be part of that project so you
23:18 understand exactly what type of
23:20 contracts are entering into and what the
23:24 dollars are going to be in terms of
23:27 those you know those contracts should I
23:32 speak about aging buildings now or okay
23:34 okay so the other half of the program
23:38 that I know is going to be what board
23:40 should be aware of in aging facilities
23:43 and while a lot of condos were at one
23:48 point new construction almost all of the
23:52 cooperative housing corporations in New
23:54 York or conversions from rental
23:57 buildings and some of them can be quite
24:00 in an old probably very few of them
24:05 would be you know newer than like maybe
24:06 early 70s and probably most or even
24:09 older than that and what they carry with
24:11 them is
24:12 not just the things you can see but the
24:14 things you can’t see as well so while
24:17 you can see if Assad and you can see the
24:21 things that are visible what you’re not
24:23 able to see is the pipework the
24:27 foundation the steel beams inside the
24:30 terraces we’ve seen quite a number of
24:33 these projects done over the number of
24:36 years that I’ve been doing this which is
24:38 I don’t want to tell you how long but
24:40 you know the things that come up that
24:43 you can’t see with the naked eye so one
24:47 of the things from an accounting
24:49 perspective that we advise boards to do
24:51 is number one whenever you’re
24:54 contemplating a mortgage refinancing you
24:57 should be thinking about what your
24:59 capital projects are going to look like
25:00 during the terms of that mortgage so
25:04 that you can have sufficient equity at
25:06 the time of the refinance in order to be
25:09 able to meet any capital projects that
25:12 you’re planning on during the term of
25:14 that mortgage for those of you who are
25:17 not aware commercial organ sirs
25:19 commercial mortgages are not like if
25:21 they are the end loans on your units
25:24 because you can’t just refinance them
25:27 and well they carry very large
25:29 prepayment penalties so if you have a
25:32 two-million-dollar mortgage engineer
25:34 you’re an ear for of that mortgage and
25:36 all of a sudden you find out that you
25:39 need to do risers in the building and or
25:42 you need to do a massive electrical
25:44 project you can’t just easily refinance
25:48 that mortgage to take out the equity you
25:50 might need in order to be able to do
25:52 that project so when you go to refinance
25:55 you want to think long term that what
25:57 you may need to do in the project in
26:00 building until the time you refinance
26:02 again the other thing would be that most
26:05 banks will allow her credit line at the
26:08 same time that you are refinancing so
26:13 while you may just be paying the feed to
26:15 maintain that line it would be important
26:18 to have a line attached to the mortgage
26:20 so that it’s your rainy day fund in case
26:23 these projects do come up you were not
26:27 aware of them at the time of the
26:28 refinancing but you have the borrowing
26:31 capability to be able to do these large
26:33 infrastructure projects the other things
26:37 that are important is you should always
26:39 keep them you know there are different
26:40 philosophies do we borrow or do we
26:43 assess do we have the people who live
26:45 here now pay for projects that are going
26:48 to benefit future generations or do we
26:51 borrow the money so that those who are
26:53 going to benefit from these project for
26:55 years to come or pain the cost of these
26:58 projects and a lot of it is very
27:00 philosophical in terms of the boards but
27:03 it’s certainly something that needs to
27:05 be thought about and considered and you
27:08 know work with your professionals work
27:10 with your attorneys work with your
27:11 accountants we’re very often brought in
27:14 to work on assessment programs to help
27:17 pay for some of the projects a
27:20 combination of assessments and financing
27:24 how to buildings you know structure
27:27 their budgets to be able to pay for the
27:29 financing or to build up reserve funds
27:32 so that they can start saving the money
27:35 they need to do those capital projects
27:37 so I think the tape away from what
27:41 boards need to do in aging facilities is
27:43 really be aware of the various options
27:46 available to them and the need to plan
27:49 ahead for projects that mean
27:52 beyond the horizon at this moment but to
27:55 make sure that you give consideration to
27:56 those projects when you start looking at
27:58 your capital needs your refinancing some
28:02 things like that thank you very much
28:05 (applause)
28:08 maybe maybe so much great job thanks
28:11 very much when the board again was
28:16 planning this program we decided that we
28:19 needed the perspective of construction
28:22 professionals I’m happy to report that
28:25 tonight we have some very very top notch
28:29 construction professionals our first
28:32 speaker in that scenario will be dr.
28:34 Richard cerulli Richard is a
28:37 construction consultant he is a
28:40 professor of business and economics he
28:43 is the former chair of the facilities
28:46 and construction management program and
28:48 Iona College and nourish shell and he
28:51 also is a frequent contributor to impact
28:54 newspaper online publication please
28:57 welcome dr. Richard cerulli back volta
29:00 (applause)
29:04 Jeff what I want to address tonight is
29:06 the economics of Asian buildings and we
29:09 all know economics is a dismal science
29:12 and by the time I get through with this
29:14 lecture I’m going to convince you it is
29:16 truly a dismal science if it doesn’t put
29:19 you to sleep in the next five minutes
29:20 when we saw talking of economics of an
29:23 aging building there’s two terms that
29:25 should come to mind as an owner one is
29:29 the opportunity costs and the other is
29:32 the production possibility curve the
29:35 opportunity cost in layman’s term is the
29:38 next best alternate and a textbook
29:41 example would be is when you graduate
29:43 high school do you go to college take on
29:46 the debt and give up for years of income
29:48 or do you go to college pick up the debt
29:52 and earn your money over a period of
29:54 time so you’re earning increase your
29:56 earnings so if you were to go to if the
29:59 choice was to go to college the
30:00 opportunity lost was for
30:02 of income and this is a decision that a
30:05 lot of businesses sometimes fail to see
30:08 and in all my years in the industry a
30:11 lot of owners never look at opportunity
30:14 cost so if we take a look at of an Asian
30:17 building there’s a couple of ways you
30:19 could approach it one is the building is
30:21 aging and it needs some type of
30:23 maintenance and preventive maintenance
30:24 so your first option would be to bring
30:28 in a professional and architect and
30:29 someone who does diagnostic testing
30:31 maybe on a semi-annual basis and say
30:35 let’s see what the state of our building
30:36 is and you may spend a very small amount
30:38 of maybe ten fifteen thousand dollars
30:41 depending on the extent of it or you can
30:44 make the option of not doing it it’s not
30:47 broken you know don’t fix it and you
30:50 could wait and defer that and the
30:53 opportunity cost is going to be 10 years
30:55 later you don’t have a minor problem
31:00 with the building you have a failure or
31:02 facade start the failures are getting
31:05 leaking in the system the roofs are
31:06 leaking and then you have to put in a
31:09 tremendous amount of money to fix
31:10 something which could have been of what
31:12 it over time so the opportunity cost
31:14 would be basically do we take a small
31:16 amount of money say $10,000 do some
31:19 diagnostic testing bringing a
31:22 professional architect or engineer and
31:24 actually do some type of capital
31:27 improvement assessment they’re
31:28 relatively very inexpensive and will
31:30 tell you well in advance what needs to
31:32 be done and many times it’s deferred to
31:36 the point of failure and that brings us
31:38 up to the next topic which they call
31:40 production possibility curve in layman’s
31:43 terms it’s basically guns or butter and
31:45 at that particular point in time when
31:47 the building starts to fail and you have
31:50 to start putting money into facades
31:52 roofing or things like that are very
31:54 expensive you’re putting money into a
31:57 facade of every dollar you put into that
31:59 you’re taking money out of revenue and
32:01 you take in money out of architectural
32:04 upgrades which make the building
32:06 architectural aesthetically more
32:08 pleasing so since the money that we’re
32:10 dealing with a spy night you know for
32:12 every dollar you spend for butter it’s
32:15 one
32:15 staller for guns and that’s what really
32:18 happens when we start managing a lot of
32:20 these buildings and I think when we look
32:23 at this we have to look at this very
32:24 carefully and at the old days of just
32:27 calling a rule for in one day and just
32:28 do some quick patching are over because
32:31 technology today roofing systems are
32:34 very complex the chemicals are very
32:36 complex and there’s a number of
32:38 buildings where I went on and somebody
32:40 said well over the last four years all
32:42 we did is we put this we call the rule
32:44 for you put this car on and everything
32:46 was fine but a lot of these different
32:48 cars are very sophisticated materials
32:50 are not compatible and the actual repair
32:54 tar actually accelerated the
32:56 deterioration of the roof so by putting
32:58 you know spending five thousand dollars
33:01 in all the patent spend $300,000 a few
33:04 years later and that’s the opportunity
33:06 cost and that gets back down into the
33:09 production possibility curve there’s a
33:12 finite amount of money how are we going
33:14 to spend it and it also gets into
33:16 accounting which are long-term value
33:18 system present values of money and
33:19 things like that so when we start
33:22 looking at age buildings it’s very
33:24 important to do that for those who do
33:26 work in the city there is local all ten
33:29 eleven which you have to have your
33:31 facades inspected every five years on a
33:33 five-year cycle by an architect or
33:36 engineer the reason why that law came
33:38 about was because in 1980 at Columbia
33:41 University a medical student was walking
33:43 on a sudden point clicking a walk on a
33:45 Sunday morning and a piece of masonry
33:47 hit her on the head and killed her
33:50 needless to say there is an attorney
33:52 here you’ve got your hands full on that
33:54 is pure negligence the city was so
33:57 outraged by this that the building
34:00 owners were not really being good
34:02 stewards of their property they put a
34:04 local law 10-11 program it means every
34:07 five years you have to have an architect
34:09 or engineer come in and save the
34:11 building safe or unsafe and if you fail
34:13 to do it and a brick fit somebody it’s
34:16 not a criminal action at this point is a
34:18 criminal offense and the opportunity
34:20 cost is very high you know maybe 10,000
34:24 for an architect inspection or 10 years
34:26 in prison
34:27 I mean that’s that’s some you know on a
34:30 very extreme case so we look at this we
34:33 I think we have to look at in a very
34:34 practical way in terms of saving money
34:37 so and we look at dealing with the older
34:41 buildings it’s basically cost avoidance
34:43 and trying to do good preventive
34:45 maintenance so in the future you don’t
34:47 have to get stuck paying some tremendous
34:49 expenses that you know you can’t afford
34:51 and since construction costs are very
34:53 expensive you know we like to push it to
34:55 the right next year next year next year
34:57 but when the economy not so much now but
35:00 when the economy starts booming
35:02 construction prices accelerate much
35:04 higher than the CPI because at that
35:07 point those prices could accelerate the
35:09 pending just on supplying to managing
35:12 both sides twenty percent so if you can
35:14 support if you can afford it this year
35:16 are you going to afford it three here’s
35:18 some battle you no matter fifteen
35:20 percent escalation rate so what’s that
35:25 Oh Consumer Price Index I’m sorry I
35:27 talked about the autonomous we’re very
35:29 bored kid so with that we had an
35:34 architect was supposed to be here
35:36 tonight but something came up but yo
35:38 architects you can’t depend on them
35:40 anyway so its support of course any
35:43 architects here summer code so our
35:47 silicon sorta but but anyway what you
35:50 should have a design professional
35:52 architect or engineer who’s well-versed
35:54 in you know building envelopes and agent
35:58 buildings they know what to look for
35:59 they will know how to correct it and now
36:03 if you have to and if the building is
36:05 unsafe you’d much rather catch that the
36:07 very beginning phases before it becomes
36:09 a major problem especially if you’re a
36:11 co-op or a condo and you have to start
36:14 replacing walls over multiple units your
36:17 chance of lawsuit by the tenants are
36:19 even greater so your opportunity cost is
36:21 actually much higher so with that I want
36:24 to turn it over to the next person of us
36:26 a great experience in terms of absolute
36:28 doing diagnostics so I didn’t quite put
36:30 you to sleep yet so I think I’ll exit
36:32 before I do being as an economist okay
36:34 thank you
36:26 (applause)
36:40 baby there’s a job as you can imagine
36:44 someone is well versed as Richard and
36:48 his area comes across outstanding
36:51 professionals daily and monthly basis we
36:54 have one this evening his name is Audrey
36:56 ah no deeper level he is a senior
36:59 consultant with a firm named Metro spec
37:03 building Diagnostics which is based in
37:05 the Bronx Adriano told us this evening
37:09 that he will most definitely be joining
37:11 the bri so even though he’s for rookie
37:14 we are very happy to have him here and
37:17 on this opinion on this topic right now
37:19 it’s all good thank you everyone I’m not
37:20 (applause)
37:27 going to bore you what economics is I
37:28 don’t know the first thing about
37:29 economics Grow Rich thank you for why
37:32 would he go thank you when half the room
37:33 to sleep to make sure everyone’s still
37:35 awake we saw off you still have the
37:37 puffy still out there ok good all right
37:40 so uh oops so essentially i provide
37:46 building diagnostic services so many of
37:48 the facilities you know commercial
37:51 commercial facilities residential
37:53 facilities all over throughout Manhattan
37:55 Bronx Westchester and one of the most
37:59 neglected items that I’ve seen
38:03 throughout every building that I’ve been
38:04 to the well let’s say ninety percent of
38:07 the buildings that I’ve been to is the
38:09 two dirty words that everyone hates to
38:11 use does anybody know what it is
38:15 preventative maintenance nobody likes to
38:19 do preventative maintenance one of the
38:23 in addition to that the most neglected
38:25 part of preventive maintenance is the
38:27 building facade a lot of people don’t
38:30 understand that a facility is a living
38:32 breathing thing and facade get to think
38:34 of it as this skin so the first thing
38:37 that’s going to go is the skin
38:41 a lot of the programs that we have about
38:44 you know when the building first opened
38:46 up when it was new construction never
38:49 has never been updated so it is by quick
38:52 show of hands from the last time you’ve
38:53 seen a preventive maintenance done who’s
38:56 that who has updated it since then I
38:59 don’t think so it happens it happens
39:02 more often than you think happens more
39:04 than you think one of the most highly
39:06 impact items of the facility aside from
39:11 the facade is the HVAC system fire life
39:17 safety which should actually go before
39:19 the HVAC system the allergic will
39:22 distribution which then follows by be
39:24 building envelope by your quick show of
39:28 hands how many people have an active
39:31 preventive maintenance program set up
39:32 with their facilities right now meaning
39:35 it’s proactive you have your building
39:38 engineers or maintenance guys actively
39:40 going and checking no building equipment
39:43 running tests I see a lot of
39:46 head-shaking of sounding and nervous do
39:48 we have a lawyer in there we did okay to
39:53 the most common going back to the
39:56 building facade to the most important
40:00 aspects of the building facade is
40:02 something called a vapor barrier and a
40:04 thermal barrier does anybody know what a
40:07 thermal or a vapor barrier is okay a
40:12 vapor barrier essentially is the
40:15 resistance of moisture coming into the
40:19 structure it doesn’t take much to break
40:21 that that barrier once you do that
40:24 that’s when you start getting old you
40:26 start getting pests start writing a tree
40:29 foundation and you start causing all
40:31 types of damage on the interior
40:33 of the building the thermal barrier is
40:37 is more financially financially geared
40:41 because you’re you’re you’re allowing
40:44 unwanted excuse me that unwanted climate
40:51 from the outside entering the building
40:53 therefore causing you to you know run
40:56 your acs longer run your cooling towers
40:58 over for those who have cooling towers
41:00 we all know how much cooling towers
41:02 close to run so you know those are two
41:05 of the most neglected parts of the of
41:08 the facade a brief study that i’ve done
41:14 on a couple of the facilities is that on
41:17 average an average 15-story building
41:20 will cost with a compromise thermal and
41:25 or vapor barrier will cost you
41:28 approximately twelve thousand dollars a
41:30 year in waste so you’re looking at about
41:34 a thousand you’re looking at about a
41:36 thousand dollars a month shut the window
41:38 how many people have extra money to
41:40 throw out in their budget I don’t one of
41:47 the most current technologies that that
41:51 are out right now that could actually
41:52 aid you in preventing these type of
41:55 deficiencies is is infrared has anyone
41:58 ever had an infrared inspection done you
42:01 have okay you have as well it’s
42:04 excellent there’s not that is probably
42:07 the most underutilized piece of
42:08 technology that’s out right now for
42:12 those who don’t know what infrared is
42:13 it’s essentially measuring heat
42:17 signatures off of different materials
42:20 used in your building so in other words
42:23 if you have a leak somewhere hidden in
42:25 your facade you perform an infrared
42:27 inspection you will be able to see the
42:30 water where it’s originating from where
42:33 it’s winding up and what
42:35 think that that is probably the most
42:40 effective and most cost-effective
42:42 solution to figuring out what
42:45 deficiencies you have rather quickly
42:48 there it’s inexpensive and it will
42:51 identify where your issues are almost
42:54 immediately the average cost of net for
42:59 our inspections is is peanuts compared
43:01 to what the repairs are if you don’t
43:02 catch what you’re looking for an average
43:05 in for inspection depending on the size
43:07 your building is anywhere between 1200
43:11 to 1500 so yes oh absolutely but 220
43:21 word really is what it says oh
43:23 absolutely absolutely nine easy thing
43:26 work back in the 90s you know I haven’t
43:28 had gotten this before back in the
43:29 nineties people refer as anyone seen
43:30 Jurassic Park where they got the guy
43:32 with the dinosaurs comment and their
43:34 lien Fred you can see it like that was a
43:36 much earlier version of that but now you
43:40 can see you know that the accuracy of
43:44 what you’re measuring is down 2.1
43:47 degrees so you can do either qualitative
43:50 inspection or a quantitative inspection
43:53 depending on what you’re looking for so
43:56 yes since the 90s it has become a lot
43:59 more accurate and a lot more widely used
44:01 as a matter of fact it does anyone here
44:03 looking to looking to turn the facility
44:07 to an elite certified building lead
44:09 actually is mandating that infrared
44:13 inspections have to be performed in
44:16 order to receive I’m not mistaken I
44:18 believe hits the lows which is LEED
44:20 certified so if your elite certified
44:22 you’re doing work to your roof or your
44:25 your qualifying for those credits you
44:28 have to do an infrared inspection in
44:30 order to prove that or is doing the work
44:32 has done it
44:33 ordinance to the efficiency standards
44:39 inference also versatile for a lot of
44:41 other things you know mainly it’s it’s
44:43 the facade but also capturing electrical
44:46 hot spots mechanical mechanical issues
44:49 no HVAC equipment fans belts motors and
44:52 so on you know roof damage that’s a big
44:55 one very easy to see roof damage when
44:59 conducting these type of inspections so
45:01 if anyone who has had of any type of
45:05 roofing defense it’s probably a good
45:06 idea to get it done you know it’s quick
45:09 and painless and you’ll be able to even
45:12 go back to your contractor who may have
45:14 recently done the work and go back and
45:17 you know to make sure that whatever he
45:19 has done you know was done the right way
45:21 and you know real know how much a roof
45:23 boss so you know to make sure they do it
45:25 the right way sometimes you take a look
45:27 at it and you may not know you know oh
45:29 let me look okay you know he may just
45:31 painted it and walk the way you don’t
45:33 really know until you know here comes
45:34 the winter in the summer and you have
45:36 you have a waterfall in someone’s living
45:38 room so or a Jacuzzi depending on how to
45:41 use it so at the beginning of this year
45:47 proactively try to seek to incorporate
45:49 this into your facilities pans I found
45:54 it throughout various projects that
45:56 become invaluable especially in aging
45:59 buildings aging buildings they seem to
46:02 benefit the most from it you know a lot
46:04 of people between changing management
46:06 companies different contractors coming
46:08 in the DMV evolving use of of different
46:12 types of materials you don’t really know
46:14 what has happened before you you know
46:17 before you have gotten it before you’ve
46:19 had control of the building so you know
46:22 it is it is definitely a good piece of
46:23 technology to look into that’s all I
46:26 have for today I’m appreciate preciate
46:28 everybody having me here and enjoy your
46:30 night thank you
46:32 (applause)
46:35 and even beyond JCC shawano as I
46:39 mentioned earlier is co-president to let
46:42 our first associates insurance manager
46:45 for our associations Jason will kam wah
46:48 wah program this even by touching on
46:50 both topics from the insurance
46:52 perspective it’s all yours Jason is
46:56 anybody upset with the architect in Sean
46:58 I actually asked Jeff if I could go last
47:00 (laughs)
47:03 as I’m talking about those subjects
47:06 today two things all right I have a
47:09 handout it’s on your tables does anybody
47:12 know the font that I used for the small
47:16 text and the charts 9mon 11 anyone else
47:22 it’s Times New Roman 10 so I have good
47:28 news and bad news the bad news is you
47:32 probably can’t read this because it’s
47:34 too small and I had a lot of information
47:37 to give you the good news is i’m not
47:38 going to read it all for yourself he’ll
47:41 be out of here quicker than you thought
47:42 all right insurance effects obviously
47:46 legal contracts and aging buildings in a
47:51 plethora of way so I put some bullet
47:54 points down you can read them i’m going
47:56 to try to be really brief the first one
47:58 is with respect to legal contracts
48:01 obviously there’s an insurance section
48:04 in every or most legal contracts you
48:07 want to make sure that based on the
48:09 purpose of the contract the job that the
48:12 contract is outlining etc there are
48:14 certain types of insurance that should
48:16 go along with the requirements in the
48:19 job that’s being outlined in the
48:21 contract there there are a number of
48:22 different types of policies you’ve
48:24 probably seen them in contracts before
48:26 that you’re going to require of a
48:28 contract or whether it be a service
48:29 contractor or a construction contractor
48:32 general liability insurance auto
48:35 umbrella workers comp pollution and
48:38 separate set drive I’ve listed the
48:40 policy types and the reasons why you may
48:43 want to have them in examples
48:45 claims that can happen as a result of a
48:48 certain type of contractors worked that
48:50 that particular policy might respond to
48:53 so you know always good to check the the
48:56 insurance clause to make sure that the
48:57 insurance is appropriate to the to the
48:59 work being done there’s usually and
49:02 should be a hold harmless section
49:04 holding the building harmless as well as
49:06 the property manager and the board
49:09 importantly reverse-fold harmlessness
49:13 have started to cut crop up in a lot of
49:15 contracts and and even agreements
49:19 purchase orders you’ll see this with
49:21 snow plowing companies that’s come up in
49:23 the last couple of years where the
49:25 insurance company that’s ensuring the
49:27 snow pawn contractor is telling snow
49:29 upon a contractor you’re not allowed to
49:31 indemnify the building that you’re
49:33 calling for and we want you to get their
49:36 indemnification so that the building the
49:39 condo the coop is actually holding
49:41 harmless and indemnify the snow plowing
49:43 contractor the worst possible thing that
49:46 you can do is sign something with a
49:48 reverse indemnification so be on the
49:50 lookout for those additional insured on
49:52 a primary non-contributory basis with
49:54 waivers subrogation you can ask your
49:56 broker what that is but it’s good to
49:58 have you may want to get the insurance
50:00 policy declaration pages if you’re doing
50:03 a really big expensive project with a
50:05 lot of exposure like people on roofs are
50:07 hanging off the side of a building to
50:09 make sure that the insurance policy
50:10 doesn’t have the exclusions that we’re
50:12 going to talk about it that februari
50:14 meeting which you should come too if
50:15 you’re curious you know what I’m plug
50:17 mark and also notice if the insurance
50:20 policy is going to be cancelled or
50:22 changed or non renewed is a additional
50:25 insured you can have the right to get
50:26 that notice in advance of the
50:29 cancellation or change so that’s kind of
50:32 the insurance related issues with
50:34 respect to legal top legal contracts and
50:36 then on aging buildings from an
50:39 insurance perspective most of you that
50:41 are on boards or managing agents or or
50:45 even lenders are familiar that insurance
50:46 companies come out and inspect buildings
50:48 and then the issue what they call
50:50 recommendations which is kind of a
50:51 misnomer because if you don’t do the
50:54 rocket
50:54 ended things that the insurance company
50:56 wants you to do what happens we’ve
50:59 talked about this before your insurance
51:00 can get canceled or it can get non
51:02 renewed and if you don’t do those things
51:05 and if you’ve got an older building
51:06 sometimes those things can be a lot
51:07 there can be they want the the roof
51:09 repaired or replaced they want sidewalks
51:12 patch driveways patch brick pointing if
51:16 you ignore those things and your
51:19 insurance is non renewed you’re probably
51:21 going to end up paying a lot more money
51:23 for your insurance for the money that
51:24 you save by not doing the projects and
51:27 you may get less coverage with not as
51:29 high-quality accompany so think twice
51:31 before not doing the insurance company’s
51:34 recommendations it’s usually money well
51:37 spent and it’s also money well spent
51:39 because those insurance company
51:40 recommendations for them in particular
51:43 for older buildings are normally things
51:45 that can actually cost you a lot of
51:47 exposure whether it be liability
51:49 exposure or property damage exposure
51:52 such as if you’ve got fuses we talked
51:54 about a contract involving the
51:56 replacement of fuses with circuit
51:57 breakers ileana earlier in the night the
51:59 reason why insurance companies don’t
52:01 like fuses is because they can pause
52:02 fire fighters can burn down your
52:04 building which is an insurance event
52:05 costing millions of dollars that can
52:07 drive your premiums up and it’s also a
52:09 risk to the people that live there and
52:11 hurt people or killed people so I’ve
52:13 listed a whole bunch of examples of
52:15 aging building conditions that can
52:17 result in insurance recommendations and
52:19 if they’re not addressed in result
52:21 insurance claims and that pretty much
52:23 sums it up if you have questions happy
52:25 to speak to you afterwards have a good
52:27 evening thank you
52:28 (applause)
52:31 fury or questions and answers does
52:34 anyone have any questions for our panel
52:37 members seasoned and ready contract you
52:43 have a standard social teenager applause
52:46 no hero property sanitarium don’t know
52:50 dirty kind of property I said hands on
52:54 your way of those two particular I get
52:58 done with those two particular examples
53:00 are no Jack I know we have and give some
53:04 general yet particularly concerned about
53:07 no alcohol on the property because
53:09 somebody gets hurt if they drink beer
53:11 for lunch it gets to be a major problem
53:14 right the question was do we have our
53:18 standard contract any social behavior
53:20 clause we had something I honestly I
53:23 couldn’t tell you without looking at it
53:24 right now you know if it mentions that
53:27 your particular examples of fear or
53:29 whatever but i would say that those
53:32 things are probably covering and i think
53:34 our provision is a little more general
53:35 but it’s kind of a common sense thing
53:40 anyone else a not very on my way that
53:44 Lewis Katz they are there mr. Serling
53:50 this is what I probably one of the
53:53 biggest arguments we had an award is for
53:56 big projects on it was an engineer when
53:58 not some people say it goes too much
54:01 money let’s just throw it out on a
54:04 little penny saver unless you who comes
54:07 in and of course the problem isn’t if
54:09 you just leave it up
54:10 the contractor you’re going to get three
54:11 different bids for three different
54:13 totally types of work so what is the
54:15 percentage I mean four big jobs I you
54:19 know replacing the front steps and
54:21 replacing a roof that you should use an
54:24 engineer is that always a given that you
54:26 should alicious engineer outside outside
54:33 so what the question was a gentleman is
54:37 really how often do you need to use an
54:39 engineer if it will I Inc construction
54:42 Trevor Project see you as an engineer
54:45 well you would have to find an engineer
54:50 or an architect that’s very immersed
54:52 well well versed and cost estimating but
54:55 that’s very important there you know
54:56 every architect by profession has their
54:59 sub specialties so you need someone
55:02 that’s very well versed with
55:04 construction costs and also when they do
55:06 get a project one of the bigger problems
55:09 that as a problem I confront to all the
55:12 time as if a client calls maybe we put
55:14 something out to bid and the bids come
55:16 back and you get a cluster of bids
55:18 around a certain point then you have the
55:20 outlier to hide then you have the low
55:23 bidder what I general would recommend to
55:26 apply knows take those clustered bids
55:28 get to mean median made really don’t
55:32 even entertain the outliers because if
55:34 you have say for argument’s Satan you
55:37 know ten bidders on a job and seven over
55:40 in that cluster that’s the real cost of
55:42 the project and I’ve heard clients you
55:45 know tell me I’ll take the chance of the
55:47 lower bid notes the three hundred
55:49 thousand dollars less 200,000 by i’ll
55:51 gamble for two hundred thousand dollars
55:54 and they never wouldn’t it the bed
55:56 because by the time the job is over they
55:59 usually don’t pick up the scope of work
56:01 and you probably pay more than the
56:02 highest bidder with change lawyers a
56:05 little is the criteria for living
56:07 should use an engineering when you don’t
56:09 need to use one well I think it depends
56:13 on your comfort you’re all covered in
56:16 terms of the scope of the project I mean
56:18 if you’re doing a very complex project a
56:21 very big infrastructure project I’ll
56:24 even go back father if it’s a sizable
56:27 project I would always recommend the
56:30 architect had to scope of work that
56:32 means i think i think i’m answering the
56:34 question of this better now ah if you’re
56:36 going to have a project that sizable you
56:38 don’t really want the contractor
56:42 designing the project if you can’t
56:45 because it’s a conflict of interest
56:47 because a contractor will rightfully so
56:50 contractor is out to make as much money
56:52 as they can and even if they give the
56:54 best service they they’re out that’s
56:56 what it’s all about and so their
56:58 interest is for their own interests
57:01 obviously it’s a business where an
57:03 architect or engineer is really paid to
57:05 be the owner’s representative so if
57:08 you’re doing a project and I think it’s
57:10 I don’t think there’s quite a dollar
57:12 amount but I would probably say that
57:14 it’s the best way to proceed is to have
57:18 an architect or engineer if we should
57:19 have a scope of work well I mean if the
57:22 cynical problem i run into that granted
57:24 that’s very recently was also no no okay
57:27 and was that they put out a contract for
57:31 windows replacement windows and you know
57:34 one bit came at two hundred thousand
57:35 what came in at 60,000 and it was a
57:40 commercial project and they and the
57:42 person at the sixty thousand dollar
57:44 window was a residential built-in
57:46 someone who’d estatehouses not
57:48 commercial buildings they didn’t know if
57:50 it was an aluminum clad building with
57:51 the r-value was that you value was so he
57:55 compared to two he won’t even compare
57:56 apples to apples if they put the sixty
57:59 thousand dollar contract into windows
58:02 would have failed because they would
58:03 have lost in energy and everything else
58:05 so it’s it’s it’s always err on the side
58:08 of hiring an architect or engineer okay
58:11 I just wanted to add more
58:14 that I think one thing to keep in mind
58:16 he said whenever you’re bidding at
58:17 abroad whenever you’re doing a project
58:18 we need to send out bids whether its
58:21 construction or any kind of contract
58:23 type situation where you’re sending out
58:24 bids it’s as you just alluded to you
58:26 need to make sure you’re comparing
58:28 apples to apples so when you get four
58:30 bits three bids whatever it is you need
58:32 to know that you’re comparing the same
58:34 thing if it’s a simpler thing that you
58:36 can come up with the specs and you can
58:38 say that you know here’s what the specs
58:41 are and you want them to bid on that
58:42 fine if it’s something that’s more
58:44 complicated and you know and so you need
58:47 an architect or an engineer to help you
58:49 come up with that set of specs so that
58:51 the contractors can all bid on it and
58:53 then you might need their services to
58:54 help you that evaluate the bids to make
58:56 sure about that then you need an
58:58 architect or engineer I mean in some
59:00 ways if you’re asking the question then
59:02 then you might have your answer you know
59:04 if it’s if you yourselves as a board
59:06 can’t come up with the specifications
59:08 and it’s not really either your job or
59:11 necessarily your training to be able to
59:13 do that although some boards obviously
59:15 have people that are first it can assist
59:17 in that but you know other than that if
59:19 it’s not you know that it’s not a
59:20 nacelle your job so that’s why you have
59:22 professionals like engineers and
59:23 architects that you hire to help you
59:25 create those specs you know obviously
59:27 there’s some situations or it’s simpler
59:29 you know if you’re not dealing with
59:30 construction you might be dealing with
59:32 laundry contract or managing agent
59:34 contract then you don’t obviously you
59:35 don’t need necessarily another
59:37 professional but you know and a basic
59:39 thing you know some kind of basic
59:41 contract you know if it’s painting you
59:42 might be able to come up with your you
59:44 know with your specifications but
59:46 something more complicated if you as a
59:48 board don’t feel comfortable in creating
59:49 the specifications so you know what
59:51 you’re going to be getting then that’s
59:53 when that’s when you need I think I
59:56 would just go one step further in terms
60:00 of not just creating the specifications
60:02 but putting together what’s called an
60:04 RFP which is a request for proposal
60:07 where the same request is going out to
60:10 all the potential bidders so then
60:12 they’re all bidding on exactly the same
60:14 project and then
60:17 the bids are basically tailored so that
60:20 you can compare apples to apples but in
60:22 addition to just the bidding process
60:24 what we find in terms of using
60:27 architects and engineers is that they’re
60:30 also your eyes and ears on the ground so
60:32 that when a requisition is made for
60:35 payment from a contractor most
60:39 architectural requisition zaia
60:42 requisitions require the sign off of
60:45 either an architect or an engineer
60:47 before payment would be made and
60:50 basically they’re certifying that the
60:52 work was done in accordance with the
60:55 specifications and that the dollars that
60:58 have been requisitioned that the word
61:00 was actually performed so I think it’s
61:04 not just in the specification process
61:07 but it’s also in the ongoing supervisory
61:11 process to make sure that the work is
61:13 being performed in accordance with the
61:15 specifications and with the lead and the
61:19 parameters that were laid out Lewis kept
61:22 that question yes the difference between
61:27 an aia me who told me badly written up
61:30 contracts which you prefer your type of
61:33 a contractor that’s handwritten versus
61:35 an AI a contract or which way do you go
61:39 as a co-op I mean I don’t sit back and
61:42 write it I have it out of template on my
61:44 side
61:45 I personally I don’t like the AAA
61:49 contract there’s a lot of things in it i
61:51 don’t like there’s some things in it
61:52 that I do like our contract are
61:54 different templates that we have
61:56 actually we do incorporate a number of
61:59 the provisions from the AIA we’ve taken
62:02 a number of those provisions but we’ve
62:04 also changed them and added them and you
62:07 added things and and you know we’ve
62:10 crafted it in our own way so I it’s I
62:13 can’t say that that’s a blanket I don’t
62:15 like the IAA part of the reason why we
62:17 drafted our own contract is because
62:19 logistically it’s a lot easier there
62:21 otherwise there would be so many changes
62:23 to the IAA it’s not in word form it’s
62:25 not an easy template to use we would be
62:27 making so many changes every time this
62:29 way we’ve done it all in advance we have
62:31 in the floor that we want with all the
62:33 changes that that you know we wanted and
62:35 it’s an easier I think it’s personally
62:38 think its knees here lay out the ia one
62:39 is a lot of short sentences and I don’t
62:42 think is there so the easiest thing to
62:44 look at myself but I mean so I prefer ma
62:47 I prefer mine for that you know for
62:49 those reasons which is not to say that
62:51 there isn’t anything in the yeah that’s
62:53 good there’s a lot of good things and
62:54 I’ve used a lot of them we have time for
62:58 two more as we are near nine okay hang
63:02 on son I’ll be right there I’ll have a
63:07 workout I am walking member bcurtin eyes
63:15 from
63:16 analysts up there the recommendation of
63:24 your future what is it too sharp from an
64:01 accounting standpoint there’s a
64:03 difference between having an
64:06 understanding of what projects are going
64:08 to come on over the next number of years
64:10 in other words knowing that your roof
64:12 has a 20-year warranty in your near 15
64:15 or that you’re looking to do and you
64:18 know an oil to gas conversion or that
64:20 you’re in the fourth year and you have a
64:23 local or eleven project coming up versus
64:26 actually have an engineer doing a what
64:30 we color and placement study once you do
64:33 a replacement study and I’ll let Dan
64:35 speak to the legality of that but for
64:38 those of you who have audited financial
64:41 statements for your properties which I’m
64:43 sure most of you do there is a
64:47 recommendation by the American Institute
64:49 of Certified Public Accountants EIC PA
64:52 that they recommend that coops and
64:56 condos include in their financial
64:58 statements a thorough study or you’re
65:01 supposed to take all of the component
65:03 parts of a building you’re supposed to
65:05 basically scope out their estimated
65:07 useful life their cost of a plate
65:10 and how the entity is going to fund for
65:14 those eventual replacements both the
65:18 legal community and the accountant
65:20 community is very dead set against
65:22 putting those engineering studies in
65:24 financial statements because I think
65:27 that so do the attorneys in New York
65:31 metropolitan area that it leaves the
65:33 corporation of the condominium
65:34 association wide open in that if you did
65:38 anticipate something in someone bought
65:40 on that understanding that you would
65:44 open yourself up to lawsuit we also
65:46 don’t believe from accounting standpoint
65:48 that an engineer of study has any place
65:52 in accounting document so almost all
65:57 buildings i would say Robin ninety-nine
65:59 point nine percent you’ll see language
66:01 on the front page of the audited
66:03 financial statement stating that they
66:05 did not do the syrah study and that
66:09 coops have the ability to borrow or
66:12 assess or defer capital projects as
66:15 required and similar in condominiums so
66:20 the dib there is a big difference
66:22 between having a formalized engineering
66:26 costs replacement study and being aware
66:29 of what your major infrastructure
66:31 projects are and when in fact they may
66:34 need to be done in an approximate value
66:36 of those replacements and just about the
66:43 only thing that I would add is that as
66:45 you said when you do the replacement
66:47 study or the capital study you have to
66:50 start budgeting for it you have to have
66:52 to add it into your budget and you have
66:54 to plan for it and then if it’s
66:56 necessary you have to
66:58 not to do that that work but you know
67:02 that that’s the problem and it’s a
67:04 difference between being aware that
67:06 these things are out there and knowing
67:07 that your roof has a certain warranty
67:09 and then you know as was just mentioned
67:11 at doing a formal engineering study
67:13 where then you have to put it in your
67:15 financials you have to have a fact into
67:17 your budget if it’s factored into your
67:18 budget you have to then start basically
67:20 putting aside the money I mean if you’re
67:22 saying in your budget that that you’re
67:24 budgeting twenty thousand dollars a year
67:26 for for future replacements you have to
67:29 actually be budgeting that and putting
67:30 that somewhere Robbins timer alarm
67:35 energy Asians counselor Warren’s big
67:37 we’re couple points hopefully only the
67:41 microphone i really appreciate them and
67:42 they said it’s a dance set s someone
67:47 who’s managing properties and dealing
67:50 with both their firms and other firms
67:52 other legal firms other kind of person
67:54 account what we found it’s tremendously
67:57 effective because when you patent or an
68:00 ancient building stock that is to do
68:04 some kind of long-term papal state keep
68:07 it a draft form but let the residents
68:11 know because what’s going to happen is
68:12 that lo and behold you’re gonna have to
68:15 replace room in the next two or three
68:17 years you don’t start planning for now
68:19 from financial standpoint and also from
68:21 a public relations standpoint you’re
68:24 going to surprise the heck out of you
68:26 have your your shareholders or your your
68:29 honors so it’s really important to do
68:31 something
68:32 one hundred percent be no water in the
68:34 financials because one things that we
68:37 haven’t mentioned because they’re
68:39 plotting is that your different levels
68:41 of engineering studies here’s a good one
68:43 the Senators bad ones it once you’re
68:45 going to say you need two hundred
68:47 thousand dollars to improve your
68:48 building and the good ones going to say
68:50 ten billion dollars because they’re
68:51 going to be very careful and if you have
68:54 similar buildings you would have a lot
68:57 of trouble explaining that to potential
68:59 purchasers over time thank you Robert
69:04 this concludes our program many many
69:07 thanks to Daniel Jason mehndi wizard
69:11 adriano and all of you for attending
69:14 (applause)
69:18 should be tomorrow condo council and
69:21 again the BR I’s general vanishing bees
69:24 is thursday at six thirty was advancing
69:27 at way
1/26/2015: Legal Representation for Your Building’s Contracts & Aging Buildings
Cooperative and Condo Advisory Council (CACC)
00:00 ( A man standing at the podium introducing the topic and the members to give their speech)
10/14/2014: House Rules: A Review for Co-op & Condo Board Members
Cooperative and Condo Advisory Council (CACC)
00:07 (A slide shows up with a text “Risk Reduction Services”)
00:09 (slide changes)
00:18 (A man standing at the podium)
00:23 good evening welcome to the membership
00:28 meeting of the cooperative and
00:30 condominium advisory council I am Jeff
00:34 Hanley associate director of the CCAC
00:36 and our parent organization the building
00:41 and realty Institute on behalf of our
00:43 chair Diana Baur ill and our vice chairs
00:47 Jane Curtis and Angelo Ponzi welcomed a
00:51 couple of program notes before we begin
00:54 our presentation if you have not filled
00:57 out our registration green card please
01:00 do so as you were leaving this evening
01:02 we would appreciate that also if you
01:06 have not gotten your parking validation
01:09 sticker please see me at the end of the
01:11 program at the front desk we would be
01:14 happy to validate your parking stub and
01:17 this way you would not have a parking
01:19 fee as you were leaving the garage of
01:21 the crowne plaza a couple of quick
01:25 program notes the next general
01:29 membership meeting of the building and
01:30 realty Institute is scheduled for
01:33 thursday jun 12 630 here at the crowne
01:36 plaza the topic is development issues in
01:40 the New York City Water said we have the
01:43 assistant attorney general of new york
01:45 state Philip bean is our key speaker
01:48 that is thursday jun 12 630 here at the
01:52 crowne plaza the evening before
01:54 wednesday June eleventh we are having me
01:58 a meeting for the members of our
02:00 collective bargaining group on issues
02:03 that the Bri will be focusing upon and
02:05 its upcoming labor contract negotiations
02:09 with local 32bj that meeting is only
02:12 open two buildings and complexes that
02:15 are members of our collective bargaining
02:17 group again that is wednesday jun 11 6
02:22 30 here at the crowne plaza you’ll be
02:24 receiving reminder notices on those two
02:27 events in the days ahead we hope to see
02:30 what both program
02:31 m’s at this point i will turn over the
02:34 podium and the mic to JCC shawano of
02:36 levitt first associates and he will
02:39 handle the program from this point on in
02:42 terms of the program content and the
02:44 speakers you all know Jason everyone
02:46 please welcome jasus Kishan Oh of
02:48 leather first associates our insurance
02:50 (applause)
02:51 manager for both the CCAC in the bli
02:53 thank you hi I’m Jason see John I’m
03:03 co-president of it first the other
03:05 co-president over first hand versus
03:07 right over here she will support us this
03:10 evening and you can and I’m here this
03:12 evening with your hands in who’s
03:14 director of risk reduction services risk
03:16 reduction services is another company
03:19 formed by Levitt first for reasons that
03:22 you’ll hopefully understand much better
03:23 at the end of our presentation this
03:28 evening we wanted to explain to you why
03:32 the insurance advocate is not enough and
03:36 the hopefully have still trying to a
03:39 better idea of what risk transfer for
03:43 contractors working and condominium and
03:45 cooperative apart show is all about
03:56 obviously this relates to property
03:59 management and two orders of property in
04:03 common I know many of you read the quad
04:08 under magazine and it often has many
04:10 (displaying a presentation)
04:11 excellent articles related to insurance
04:14 issues there was an article recently
04:17 entitled escalating insurance and your
04:20 contract and what it talked about is
04:24 you’ve heard me say from time to time
04:26 and I presented new york new york is
04:29 deep in higher united states it’s the
04:34 only state in the Union where it’s an
04:38 injured worker seeks remedy he can claim
04:42 something other than just for the
04:45 compensation insurance every other state
04:48 Union just workers comp hurt injured
04:50 worker in New York there’s more in New
04:56 York we have label up to 42 41 which
05:03 basically allows an employee you make a
05:05 liability claim against the proper you a
05:10 proper you the condominium or the
05:13 co-operative for an injury that occurred
05:16 on the property so there are several
05:23 sections to this law 240 involves
05:26 forever gravity related injuries caused
05:29 by Falls 241 involves trip hazards and
05:33 flooring elevators in 241 a involves
05:33 (displaying a screen)
05:36 openings quick stairwells but in essence
05:39 they all accomplish the same thing which
05:42 is to give an injured worker and avenue
05:44 to file a lawsuit against the property
05:47 owner in a basis for a liability now
05:52 we’re not just talking about
05:56 make go away by my dollar checkers in
06:02 New York these claims and keep in mind
06:04 this was a year how things have only
06:05 gotten worse instead in New York these
06:08 claims typically from average according
06:11 the article about 850,000 dollars or
06:16 more now what this means for insurance
06:23 carrier is the security insurance
06:25 company you’ve got 50 states do business
06:28 in use your contractors or buildings
06:31 would you look to New York you know to
06:35 make day probably not you’re going to go
06:37 out spit as a result there are very few
06:41 contractors in New York servicing the
06:46 consumer the consumer who’s the consumed
06:52 contractors business law only affects
06:57 contractors know it affects the property
07:02 property owners are consumers of
07:04 insurance as well in this flaw in every
07:08 way affects property owners in addition
07:10 to contractors because the law allows
07:13 the injured worker to suit the property
07:17 and so everybody is aware of this bag
07:22 for general terms and everybody
07:24 understands that it’s important to try
07:27 to transfer risk away from the property
07:30 of us away from the condominium or the
07:32 co-operative retardation and I’m so cool
07:38 where’s my faster the riskier
07:41 cooperative our content where you back
07:46 down to the contractors you get a free
07:50 hand sanitizer make sure to hold it in
07:53 the right direction it is not enough to
07:55 (laughs)
07:58 have fresh Brussels right so why is it
08:02 important why do we want to transfer
08:04 which risk away from the property owner
08:07 and after the contract costs of what’s
08:08 (displaying the slide)
08:14 possible Curren okay so if the property
08:18 owners insurance its hit with a claim
08:21 for an injured worker who was injured
08:24 from a ball from pipes or gravity
08:26 related Christmas ball hazards from
08:29 labor law to 42 41 and if the property
08:32 owners insurance has to pay that claim
08:34 what happens surance goes up for what
08:40 for how much how long forever that’s
08:43 right forever probably not well actually
08:48 you know what insurance went down for
08:50 about eight years before the last few
08:51 years so that’s not exactly true but
08:53 your shirts is going to go up and most
08:56 likely in a vacuum all of the things
08:58 being equal if you have a claim of this
09:00 nature for eight hundred fifty thousand
09:02 dollars against your condo order or your
09:04 co-op it’s not picked up by the
09:06 contractors insurance your condo or
09:09 proper insurance will will likely go up
09:11 all other things being equal hurt
09:13 certainly several years to come because
09:15 condo and co-op insurance carriers look
09:18 at something called book experience what
09:22 kind of lost experience right and they
09:24 they typically look back how many years
09:28 five years we have a very educated okay
09:33 so risk transfer is critical because you
09:36 don’t want to 850,000 dollar claim on
09:38 your condo or swap lost experience for
09:41 five years effective you’re sure it’s
09:44 prune juice so how do you get it how do
09:49 you get more how do you get risk rain
09:52 cover it what do you need in order to
09:54 suffer it has to have what insurance
09:59 that leaves you cold sure okay so you
10:03 have to somehow rely on a contractor
10:06 insurance what is it what you need to
10:08 make that bad what else what do you need
10:17 some instead of just one shirt back
10:19 there what do you need to show your
10:21 additional shirt syndicate of insurance
10:24 certificate of insurance from who from
10:28 the contractor is showing the property
10:31 owner as additional insured additional
10:36 ok so here is a certificate of insurance
10:41 everybody recognize this everybody
10:44 (displaying another slide that contains a sample document)
10:46 recognizes that looked at it carefully
10:49 hundreds of times
10:50 I never read this portion it’s a portion
10:51 (displaying another slide that contains a certificate)
10:54 in big black letters at the very top old
10:59 bricks I’ll read it as a certificate
11:05 issued is a matter of information only
11:08 and confers no rights upon the
11:10 certificate bulb that’s this certificate
11:15 is not affirmatively or negatively
11:17 atlantic center ultra coverage afforded
11:19 by the policies below the certificate
11:22 holder does not constitute a contract
11:24 between the issuing insurers authorized
11:26 representative or producer and the
11:28 certificate holder then in a little bit
11:30 smaller bold black creek at the top of
11:33 the document it says important if the
11:38 certificate molar is an additional
11:40 insured the policies must be indoors and
11:46 then it goes on to say a couple more
11:48 things and it says a statement obvious
11:50 certificate is not confer rights to the
11:53 certificate holder and who’s such a
11:54 dorkus so everyone or a lot of people
11:58 here told me you got to get the
12:00 certificate what is the certificate you
12:05 not much is your information if you’re
12:09 the property owner doesn’t give you a
12:12 lot of Rights that’s for sure okay now
12:15 as I stand I should say and I know I
12:18 haven’t bought these battles in court
12:20 there there have been court cases that
12:23 have been decided where the certificate
12:25 alone has given some level of coverage
12:29 I’m not saying that if you have the
12:30 certificate and only the certificate is
12:32 it’s worth literally worthless but it’s
12:37 close
12:38 I wouldn’t want to rely on the specific
12:40 it well because truly the certificate
12:43 alarm is not so certainly the first
12:55 thing you need to have and whenever you
12:59 file an insurance claim the very first
13:01 thing that your insurance brokers claim
13:04 department gets asked by the carrier
13:06 it’s asking that’s being asked to
13:08 provide coverage is a contract if you
13:13 are doing business with contractors on a
13:16 handshake or verbal contract or you’ve
13:20 been using them for years and just
13:22 notice to show up in the spring start
13:25 cleaning the shrubbery events and
13:27 whatnot clowes the snow and you know
13:29 whenever it snows you should have a
13:32 written contract in this day and age you
13:35 should also have certificates of
13:37 insurance because they do evidence and
13:40 they’re issued by the insurance
13:41 brokerage insurance brokers reputable
13:44 then hopefully he’s not issuing an
13:46 insurance certificate that is false or
13:49 is it is exhibited information it’s not
13:53 true so these with the certificate you
13:55 know that the contractor has insurance
13:58 and the insurance assuming the previous
14:01 of the paid arm is enforced for the
14:04 terms for the term listed on the other
14:06 certificate but the other key documents
14:10 and it may be embedded in the hot track
14:13 is the indemnification insurance
14:16 required a dream so the three things a
14:20 contract insurance certificate and
14:22 indemnification of insurance requirement
14:30 so with those documents how do you
14:37 administer risk transfer because when
14:41 you think about it if you’re commenting
14:42 or cooperative you got a lot of
14:45 contractors and every single one of them
14:49 has several insurance policies and every
14:52 single one of those insurance policies
14:54 has a different expiration date mostly
14:57 frequently the workers compensation
15:00 insurance expires at a different time
15:02 than the general liability and if you’re
15:07 managing a generally management is that
15:10 manages our property and they’re
15:12 managing 15 30 60 properties that’s a
15:18 lot of documentation to collect when you
15:20 think about an indemnification
15:22 additional request and a certificate for
15:24 every single location for every single
15:26 contract so risk transfer document ID
15:29 document administration is collecting
15:32 the certificate the indemnification for
15:35 all the contractors of all the
15:37 properties verified by the way most of
15:41 your condominium and cooperatives have a
15:43 contract with the managing agent right
15:47 right everybody else kind of romantic
15:50 (laughs)
15:50 and probably in that managing agent
15:54 contract you’ve agreed to do what for
15:57 your manager
16:01 anything else may be related to risk in
16:04 Jersey like we said it multiple identify
16:10 you’ve probably agreed to indemnify your
16:14 manager well if I’m an injured worker
16:18 and I hurt myself in a labor law to 42
16:22 41 claim in New York I’m going to sue
16:25 everybody that I possibly do so I’m not
16:29 a suit a condo or the coop I’m also
16:31 going to sue the managing agent
16:40 (laughs)
16:49 it certainly doesn’t hurt and I’m the
16:52 kind of quality of course automatic okay
16:56 so so you want to make sure that the
16:58 magic isn’t the building manager
17:00 property are named in all these
17:02 documents and then you need to collect
17:05 them and store them and then also
17:11 ideally you need to be able to present
17:15 the document status in an easy to access
17:19 and useful format right someone’s got to
17:23 have all this stuff somewhere and be
17:25 able to access that you know maybe
17:26 you’re not going to pay a contractor
17:29 before you verifies got all this
17:32 information properly submitted to and in
17:35 good order so you know to have a file
17:38 full wrinkled certificates and
17:42 indentations in this file this thing of
17:44 this file over here is probably not very
17:46 functional
17:52 so as we discussed you need a
17:55 certificate of insurance and you need
17:57 the identification additional insured
17:59 requirements but you need to be able to
18:01 have access to them to be able to know
18:04 what they say and how long they’re real
18:07 for etc you need to make them useful and
18:12 so the question is now that I’ve
18:14 educated you for those of you that
18:16 didn’t understand where Chris transfer
18:17 was and how to accomplish but the
18:20 question is how do you accomplish it I
18:23 live here going to this easy one thanks
18:26 Peter good evening everyone so we talked
18:32 about the riskier facing the stresses
18:36 involved in collecting this information
18:39 so the question becomes what are you
18:41 doing now and how successful are you for
18:43 (displaying a slide)
18:48 you currently collecting certificate of
18:50 insurance talked about you’re not the be
18:52 all and end all that they are important
18:54 they merit by insurance they’ve ever by
18:56 the coverage for a policy terms and are
19:00 you collecting the identification
19:01 ingredients from all of your costs from
19:05 anyways coming on your property during
19:07 work
19:12 not only are you collecting it are you
19:14 organizing it are you collecting it so
19:17 that you can pull it back up when the
19:18 need arises it’s not just having the
19:20 informations have some information like
19:22 you needed that you start to really
19:24 benefit of having a good programming
19:27 place workers comp honest it happens
19:30 very regularly if you can’t get the
19:33 verification that these companies have
19:35 workers come you’re going to be the ones
19:37 paying for it’s going to come up with
19:38 your workers comp policy are you getting
19:43 updates if a job is happening over the
19:46 course of a timeframe of three or four
19:48 months and that policy reduce in the
19:50 middle of that time frames are you
19:52 getting the renewal certificate it’s
19:53 alerting the same is it giving you
19:55 additional insurance status for your
19:56 property or the building manager okay
19:59 remember you have workers comp C of
20:02 general liability you have beyond owed
20:04 you know it’s a very odd of intensive
20:07 job those might have different dates so
20:10 you want to make sure you’re collecting
20:12 not all of the original information but
20:13 remembering to get that information as
20:15 the renewals big place so what do you
20:20 need to know you need to know first of
20:24 all the contact information to log your
20:26 contract is very simple very
20:28 straightforward but you need to be able
20:29 to access that information given moment
20:33 you need to know where for the building
20:36 managers for the manners of your
20:38 properties where are they working if
20:40 their work and multiple properties to
20:41 make sure that you’re getting the
20:42 verbiage that you need a mr.
20:43 so you’re getting the additional insured
20:45 steps for all the pencils making sure
20:47 that your property is protected for any
20:49 any contractors coming on now when we
20:55 discussed this quite a bit about what
20:57 you should collect the identification
20:59 we’ve spoken a lot about indentification
21:01 insurance requirement agreements it
21:04 works as an agreement the one thing that
21:05 a certificate truly Lance is this not a
21:07 concert it is a one directional document
21:10 is given to you by the carrier state of
21:14 coverage but you’re not signing it the
21:17 point run into a lot of times and we
21:21 talked about additional insurance status
21:22 is you have like additional insured
21:24 coverage on the policies and that
21:26 requires a contract this will work as a
21:30 contract as well as the original
21:31 contractor working none but you know
21:34 that a cosine document a magnification
21:38 insurance requirement agreement it
21:39 protects you and it gets you that
21:41 additional insured status that you’re
21:42 looking for certificate insurance
21:46 generally you like to have 1 million two
21:49 million on your basic certificate of
21:51 insurance that is the standard for most
21:53 of your commercial contractors you’d
21:56 like a million dollars auto especially
21:57 for those contractors that are part of
21:59 intensive vehicles are heavy vehicles
22:02 are coming on your property you want to
22:04 make sure that if they hit five of your
22:05 vehicles and one of those vehicles do
22:07 vehicles happen to be BMWs and Mercedes
22:09 they have the coverage of connective one
22:09 (displaying another slide)
22:11 or if they hit god forbid one of your
22:14 penance
22:17 umbrella clearly a great idea of them
22:21 rather for all of your contract it’s not
22:23 going to happen for your smaller
22:24 contractor but it will happen for any of
22:27 your large truck you want to make her
22:28 for any capital or any of those
22:31 situations where large work is being
22:33 done roofing work is being done anything
22:35 that can have large potential claims you
22:38 want to make sure that you have an
22:39 umbrella policy in place for them and
22:44 workers compensation we’re going to talk
22:47 about this a little bit a minute workers
22:48 compensation is required for any company
22:50 that has employees but you will notice
22:53 they’re going to do a lot of sole
22:54 proprietors that come under property
22:55 individuals that do work and they give
22:57 up as workers compensation we’re running
23:00 into very large increases in numbers of
23:03 compensation premiums and for a sole
23:05 proprietor it is cost prohibitive to
23:08 have a workers found policy there are
23:10 risks associated but as long as you
23:12 understand the risks it gives you some
23:14 idea whether or not you want to let them
23:16 work on your property or not the primary
23:18 concept with sole proprietors is that
23:21 they don’t have the workers comp
23:23 themselves so it will fall onto your
23:26 promise that you have on it so if the
23:28 workers comp for your building if they
23:32 do a large amount of work a lot of that
23:34 is from their effort not supplies that
23:38 will come on to and all
23:43 so it’s an arduous past this is a lot of
23:48 information for your properties you’ve
23:50 got ten to twenty contractors regularly
23:53 coming to your properties how do you
23:55 keep on top of this you know it’s too
23:57 much work is it necessary we’ll give you
24:01 a huge samples as to situations that
24:04 have actually reason that we’ve dealt
24:05 with directly or indirectly because they
24:07 give you some ideas of some of the
24:08 things that you may run into recently we
24:13 had an individual not send us a renewal
24:16 certificate for their general liability
24:18 policy and they were doing pointed at
24:20 work including roofing work for one of
24:23 the property managers in the region we
24:26 went we talked to them back and forth it
24:28 turned out that their general liability
24:30 policy was too expensive they just
24:35 didn’t renew their policy it was that
24:38 simple but it happened in the middle of
24:39 the season and the building manager is
24:42 they hadn’t asked wouldn’t have known
24:44 something that they just didn’t do it
24:46 and they were not going to redo that
24:48 policy regardless of getting the job
24:51 proactively you could address such a
24:53 situation and make sure those people are
24:55 not working on your property it is far
24:57 too compressed right the board like him
25:00 anyway it’s cheap Street why was he
25:03 cheats he wasn’t any furniture
25:05 (laughs)
25:13 of course well if you cancel the middle
25:16 of the term it’s very greater unit have
25:18 much you know you’re not going to find
25:20 out about at the bottom of certificate
25:23 it says you’ll be notified by evening
25:25 for cancellations as per the policy and
25:29 the policy do not notify for
25:31 certificates motors for the most part so
25:34 there are just you know there aren’t
25:35 there is no perfect solution for any of
25:38 these days that’s why you have your own
25:40 insurance our goal is to make sure that
25:42 you do everything you can so that when
25:46 the renewal comes up that there is a
25:47 place you can say we set these processes
25:50 up there’s no foolproof method but you
25:54 want to make sure that ever know you’re
25:56 getting the information so that it
25:57 something you know got really one of
25:59 your contract decided not to renew your
26:01 catching that
26:06 I’m sorry correct yes Otto personal auto
26:12 that some of the smaller contractors
26:14 usually a six-month period and
26:15 everything else is going to be a 12-hour
26:17 period so if the other stolen again
26:19 small he won’t see six months except for
26:23 like a geico policy for an individual
26:25 that happy that they use as a handicap
26:28 that’s the only time it is six month of
26:29 April contracts we mentioned the
26:33 importance of x rays I’m sorry it was a
26:38 (laughs)
26:49 handyman that is moving work but yes you
26:56 are correct that carries for sure but if
26:59 he goes up to the clean gutters and so I
27:01 didn’t say
27:36 your day
28:02 if there’s a bomb going work certainly
28:06 it’s a new job it is ongoing work what
28:08 happens is you collect the information
28:09 that’s the beginning of work and if that
28:12 information lenses expires this
28:17 different from Lansing okay aspiring yes
28:25 make sure that is our point those are
28:28 quite exact somebody’s responsibility
28:31 and the point that we’re trying to make
28:33 is is that responsibility being taken
28:36 seriously and being patient Airlines
28:40 second option here second situation a
28:42 (displaying another slide)
28:43 sandy claim we all ran into sandy we all
28:46 had problems with so many properties in
28:48 this particular case there was a tree
28:50 damage that was causing some sort of
28:52 problem on the property had to get
28:55 repaired quickly okay the contract was
28:59 signed literally a lot of math him there
29:01 was a claim now the problem in this
29:04 particular case was additional insurance
29:06 step it didn’t matter that the
29:08 certificate said that there was an
29:09 additional insured or not there was no
29:11 contracts of that work the contract was
29:13 lost in that was lost amongst everything
29:15 else at losses so the claim that arose
29:19 there was no additional insurance status
29:21 for this particular situation again you
29:24 want to keep track this information then
29:27 indemnification agreement with a harbor
29:29 because it’s a
29:30 cosine document it becomes a contract
29:32 for a future work as well so providers
29:37 we talked about that a little bit
29:39 knowing that someone considers
29:41 themselves a sole proprietor is
29:43 essential to you okay just because
29:45 someone comes onto your property with
29:48 five employees doesn’t mean their
29:50 employees you need to know that you hire
29:52 the sole proprietor they don’t want
29:53 workers comp and the second they walked
29:55 on your property with more than one
29:57 person is more than just themselves you
29:59 need to make sure that work doesn’t
30:00 vegetables okay because that happens all
30:03 the time this particular case true case
30:06 in laborers came on digging ditches
30:09 during after storm the ditch class what
30:13 (displaying another slide)
30:14 died one gravely injured again no
30:16 workers comp associated with this
30:17 contractor at all because he was so
30:19 deprived you know they get offered a
30:21 good job they get off her good financial
30:24 means to do it they say yes I can do it
30:26 they go down and they bring people but
30:27 again knowing me knowing the information
30:31 knowing who is it sold appliance so much
30:34 more work
30:37 and this is what we’re talking about no
30:42 workers compensation for a roofer the
30:44 Coptic workers compensation policy had
30:46 lapsed and someone had died and it he
30:49 was fun at this point it was a huge time
30:51 this is years ago this marta
30:52 thousand-dollar plank would be
30:53 dramatically higher these days but that
30:56 was directly against the building and
30:58 double the premiums or at least two
31:00 years in this case was with the
31:08 playground because the roof acclaimed in
31:11 the something is safe the question
31:13 before us warranty her injuries are
31:16 injuries you know there’s wine in there
31:18 was no workers about to protect him so
31:21 if you know any of us or injured and we
31:24 don’t have anything you’re going to do
31:25 what you can to improve your medical
31:27 expenses enter the new york this whole
31:30 area is referred to me as absolute
31:33 liability in the building so even if the
31:36 roof / strong give it through postal
31:38 don’t go up on the murders it’s mentally
31:41 draining the airliner don’t use that
31:43 Lazarus crocus guru for Falls and go to
31:46 small
31:47 one hundred percent that’s why the
31:50 claims are settling all seven figures a
31:54 precision no defense there’s no defense
31:56 with the table filter whatsoever
31:57 everyone here in Mecca so there is no
32:01 defense regarding a fall from Heights
32:04 due to the labor laws if you are drunk
32:08 if you are you know honestly pretty rope
32:10 if you’ve been told not to be where you
32:11 are and you enter yourself there is
32:13 still one from set my ability to build
32:21 so Chris print for making it happen
32:23 we’ve talked about all the scare tactics
32:25 we’ve got you nervous about so what’d
32:27 you do he is to make sure that you are
32:30 crowing what are the elements of a
32:36 successful program you’re collecting the
32:40 documents up front absolutely essential
32:42 you have an indemnification agreement
32:44 that you agreed on your lawyer has
32:46 agreed on that is it acceptable awarded
32:48 indemnification agreement you’re letting
32:50 inform everybody you are organizing
32:55 these documents so you can access them
32:57 again having the documents are very
33:01 little importance if you can’t get this
33:03 when you need them when the audit comes
33:05 when the claim comes it’s the ability to
33:07 gather that information at the time of
33:09 need and monitoring and updating you
33:14 have contractors coming in this month
33:15 and then they come in in two months is
33:17 their policy lapse in the middle for
33:19 their expiration date you got to make
33:21 sure to get their renewal royalty if
33:22 they’re coming throughout the year you
33:24 might have two or three expiration dates
33:27 that you have to make sure to collect
33:28 that information usually it’s no more
33:31 than three that’s the worst case
33:33 scenario
33:35 so how you doing internally within the
33:39 organization there is some options paper
33:42 tracking is the standard and little
33:44 bit terrifying to those of us that do
33:46 this early because you have a files or
33:49 and you put everything into the files or
33:51 you haven’t labeled by contractor or by
33:53 date or by the building or buying
33:56 whatever the case is what’s a difficulty
33:59 here is getting the renewals of those
34:02 certificates you don’t know when those
34:04 certificates are renewing because we put
34:06 them in that has you found we’re under
34:08 with us all the time is it scary
34:10 proposition do not recommend the paper
34:13 alter database tracking a little bit
34:16 better at least you’re keeping track of
34:17 your contractors using date you know
34:19 basis for all of at least you’re getting
34:21 general liability and workers comp
34:23 you’re making sure to ask them for that
34:25 information collecting that information
34:26 storing it at least if you’re using it
34:28 on the computer constantly scanning the
34:30 information so you can access it later
34:32 you’re giving yourself really a leg up
34:35 on those people that have the document
34:37 paper is property management software
34:42 some of the programs out there that
34:44 manistee particular properties will have
34:46 don’t pay unless you know this is Tecton
34:49 less st to put a date in there for some
34:51 of them so you will pay up until a date
34:54 but that mate would be the general
34:55 liability expiration date for example so
34:58 you can make sure that no texts are
35:00 going out of your office and particular
35:02 date unless you get them
35:03 you forward so they have simple tools
35:06 within those programs that may assist
35:08 you there are third-party options out
35:13 there you can go on to the weapon look
35:16 there are several programs that do this
35:18 son will sell it directly to the
35:19 property manager or to the building it
35:20 (displaying another slide)
35:21 makes they use a little bit easier or
35:23 gives you places to put the information
35:25 that you need to call it later you
35:27 select the store you still have to
35:28 access but at least this gives you some
35:30 of the tools and then there are external
35:34 programs and an external program are
35:36 going to be full service providers that
35:38 take that up cool the way from you take
35:40 the process away from you development of
35:43 tools there are several of us out there
35:45 Risk Reduction being one of them where
35:47 we actually do the collection for you
35:50 and let you know what a contractor is in
35:52 or out of compliance and that allows you
35:55 to directly work only with those
35:58 contractors are in compliance so the
36:04 conundrum Jason
36:07 just to finish up before I conclude make
36:11 sure that everybody understands based on
36:15 the certificate that i showed you
36:16 earlier that certificate alone is not
36:19 enough what else do you need the
36:24 contract the contract has to have in it
36:27 an identification identification of hold
36:30 harmless basically says the contractor
36:33 is going to protect you if a claim
36:35 arrives from injury from his worker and
36:38 it also says additional insured steps
36:41 right I agree to name the property owner
36:43 has an additional sure it’s that trigger
36:46 for coverage in the contract it gives
36:49 you the additional sure to ensure steps
36:52 that’s why you need both okay but the
36:56 conundrum is this it takes a lot of time
37:00 it takes a lot of staffing and all of
37:01 (displaying another slide)
37:04 those things relate to money right now
37:08 those of you that are associated with a
37:10 condo or co-op in here do any of you do
37:14 this on your own meaning the condos
37:16 board or committee members and shown as
37:20 anybody do this under did you hear if
37:24 you’re if you are a unit owner or
37:28 shareholder in a condo or co-op if
37:30 you’re on a board as a condo you
37:33 actually self-managed or do this stuff
37:35 on your own razorback make a couple a
37:37 couple do and then if you rely on your
37:42 managing agent or property manager to do
37:44 this razor here okay so or more and
37:47 that’s pretty typical there’s a lot of
37:49 condos and co-ops it either because
37:52 they’re smaller or because they’re
37:54 saving money they’re self-managed and
37:56 they have to do this on their own
37:59 and then there’s others that are managed
38:00 by managing agents that expect they’re
38:03 managing agent to do this no matter who
38:05 is doing it it takes time it takes
38:07 people and it takes money and the
38:12 question is after what we showed you can
38:16 you afford not to do this well you can
38:21 afford not to do this well is long is
38:25 there’s not a claim and firm frankly
38:30 most of you most condos most coops
38:34 frankly you won’t have a claim I don’t
38:39 know what the percentage is maybe in a
38:41 hundred years or 50 years maybe ten
38:42 (displaying another slide)
38:44 percent of you will have claims ninety
38:47 percent well maybe it’s a t20 I don’t
38:49 know but mark my words you don’t want to
38:53 be the other ten percent or twenty
38:55 percent that has a claim and you don’t
38:58 want to be a shareholder or a unit owner
38:59 in a condo who gets the increase in your
39:02 maintenance costs or your comment
39:04 charges for the next five years pay the
39:07 premiums which is Peter said potentially
39:10 and I see it not only double I saw one
39:12 trip will issue you don’t want to be in
39:15 that kind of a college so if if you’re
39:20 not sure how your hard work coop is
39:22 addressing this right now find out
39:26 protect your property by taking control
39:29 of your risk transfer documents and if
39:34 you’re not sure but you’re interested in
39:37 taking the first step by just knowing
39:40 what these documents look like because
39:41 you walked in here thinking it was the
39:43 certificate of bone this all about all
39:45 that you needed and we didn’t even get
39:49 into by the way that details that need
39:51 to be on the certificate how these are
39:53 because that’s just born but if you want
39:57 come up to Peter myself be around for a
39:59 couple more minutes if you give us
40:00 either carve your contact information we
40:03 will email you a sample identification
40:07 hold harmless agreement and a SAP sample
40:09 certificate of insurance like the ones
40:12 we flashed up on the string and you got
40:14 that in the first step who’s your
40:23 occlusion the question was how much
40:25 because how much does it cost of risk
40:26 reduction services those who is your
40:28 imagine it ok so we risk reduction
40:33 services actually contracts through
40:36 Manitou ninjas the number of managing
40:38 agents in Westchester uses service and
40:40 obviously some don’t but they’ve got
40:43 other ways to do it and what I would ask
40:44 you because of the way we’re set up
40:46 either has had Europe a board member
40:50 contact fear his business card is there
40:53 you can go over price review and Mary’s
40:54 but really the services through the
40:56 management engine services what we’re
40:59 trying to show here tonight is just the
41:01 importance of collecting the
41:02 documentation and the documentation that
41:05 you actually need to be plucked in the
41:06 format didn’t should be any other
41:10 questions yes
41:18 we do have hold harmless agreement with
41:21 owners with a higher contractor
41:27 insurance but we don’t collect their
41:32 contracts as this transfer company would
41:36 you collect the contracts that the
41:37 owners within the condominium side so
41:41 the question is this there’s two types
41:44 of contractors to come onto a property
41:46 right there’s the contractors servicing
41:49 the actual co-op for the actual
41:51 association and then there’s the
41:53 contractors to come in basically on a
41:56 private basis did you work like you know
41:59 I’m plugging a toilet investor
42:01 responsibility order new renovations
42:03 inside of the Union right the first
42:07 question is do you collect you collect
42:09 the both doctors the certificate any
42:12 dedication for all the service
42:13 contractors or the servicing
42:14 associations yeah yes okay so that’s
42:17 that’s you know in terms of the
42:19 association’s insurance that’s arguably
42:22 the bigger exposure risk reduction does
42:25 not collect for unit owners or
42:28 shareholders doing work inside the
42:30 individual units but we can help you
42:33 develop the system in order to do that
42:35 and we’ve been asked to do that on
42:37 number of occasions
42:40 they’re going to have a contractor come
42:42 on for the property say there’s one
42:45 right now they actually find a
42:46 renovation documents but I’m not sure
42:53 again all right here’s that’s a great
42:56 point so you’re some guidance on them
42:59 but your point is that when the managing
43:03 agent is tracking the contract which is
43:05 going into a unit to do work inside the
43:07 unit who have the unit on our hold the
43:09 Association harness and you’re you’re
43:13 exactly correct I would not want to rely
43:15 on the unit owner in the universe net
43:19 worth in the unit owners make $300,000
43:23 with a liability insurance if they have
43:25 insurance I would not want to rely on
43:29 that and frankly they can’t even name
43:31 you as an additional insured anyway on a
43:33 homeowner policy typically so ideally
43:36 you should change your process for your
43:38 for your you know renovation package and
43:44 sign off whereby you require the
43:48 contractor going into that unit to name
43:50 the unit owner is an additional insured
43:52 to name the association is additional
43:55 shirt in the name the managing agent is
43:57 an additional insured and I look for
44:01 Lauren and also to get the
44:02 identification and additional insurance
44:04 agreement it’s certainly for larger
44:06 renovations in the department doing the
44:08 whole process getting that
44:10 identification
44:11 as if they were working for the
44:12 association is absolutely a good idea
44:15 you know they’re just doing you know
44:17 it’s small kitchen rent that’s one thing
44:19 but if you’re talking about doing a
44:20 large renovation you need to treat them
44:22 as if they are working on your property
44:25 because it really can affect come on
44:28 right but I mean many of you know you
44:32 know this is an interesting divide
44:34 between New York City and in Westchester
44:38 in the outlying areas you is a
44:41 contractor cannot step foot in a
44:44 building in New York City certainly in
44:47 Manhattan even if you’re doing private
44:50 work without all this documentation so
44:54 in Westchester it’s much more difficult
44:56 because many of the properties are
44:58 sprawling and there’s no way you know if
45:01 the contractors is a multiple ways in as
45:04 opposed to one way n so it’s different
45:06 and it’s more difficult should
45:28 yeah the repair renovation package for
45:31 unit owner a shareholder should
45:33 definitely encompass all of the risk
45:36 grass skirts documentation requirements
45:39 that we’ve discussed the sea yes that
45:41 was that would be a really good ideas
45:44 anyone else thank you very much Jason
45:49 (applause)
45:56 (displaying another slide)
45:58 ten quarter saw your news feed on sorry
46:03 Anthony Anderson great job great program
46:07 very ball been the ceaseless board would
46:10 welcome your suggestions on meeting
46:13 topics if you have any suggestions on
46:15 future topics of our association shorts
46:18 feel free to contact me the Bo I would
46:21 be more than happy to have any
46:23 suggestions that should be in come up
46:25 okay thank you for your participation
46:26 we’ll be in touch to do email have a
46:29 great week
46:34 (applause)
46:43 (picture time)
46:46 thank you
00:09 (slide changes)
00:18 (A man standing at the podium)
00:23 good evening welcome to the membership
00:28 meeting of the cooperative and
00:30 condominium advisory council I am Jeff
00:34 Hanley associate director of the CCAC
00:36 and our parent organization the building
00:41 and realty Institute on behalf of our
00:43 chair Diana Baur ill and our vice chairs
00:47 Jane Curtis and Angelo Ponzi welcomed a
00:51 couple of program notes before we begin
00:54 our presentation if you have not filled
00:57 out our registration green card please
01:00 do so as you were leaving this evening
01:02 we would appreciate that also if you
01:06 have not gotten your parking validation
01:09 sticker please see me at the end of the
01:11 program at the front desk we would be
01:14 happy to validate your parking stub and
01:17 this way you would not have a parking
01:19 fee as you were leaving the garage of
01:21 the crowne plaza a couple of quick
01:25 program notes the next general
01:29 membership meeting of the building and
01:30 realty Institute is scheduled for
01:33 thursday jun 12 630 here at the crowne
01:36 plaza the topic is development issues in
01:40 the New York City Water said we have the
01:43 assistant attorney general of new york
01:45 state Philip bean is our key speaker
01:48 that is thursday jun 12 630 here at the
01:52 crowne plaza the evening before
01:54 wednesday June eleventh we are having me
01:58 a meeting for the members of our
02:00 collective bargaining group on issues
02:03 that the Bri will be focusing upon and
02:05 its upcoming labor contract negotiations
02:09 with local 32bj that meeting is only
02:12 open two buildings and complexes that
02:15 are members of our collective bargaining
02:17 group again that is wednesday jun 11 6
02:22 30 here at the crowne plaza you’ll be
02:24 receiving reminder notices on those two
02:27 events in the days ahead we hope to see
02:30 what both program
02:31 m’s at this point i will turn over the
02:34 podium and the mic to JCC shawano of
02:36 levitt first associates and he will
02:39 handle the program from this point on in
02:42 terms of the program content and the
02:44 speakers you all know Jason everyone
02:46 please welcome jasus Kishan Oh of
02:48 leather first associates our insurance
02:50 (applause)
02:51 manager for both the CCAC in the bli
02:53 thank you hi I’m Jason see John I’m
03:03 co-president of it first the other
03:05 co-president over first hand versus
03:07 right over here she will support us this
03:10 evening and you can and I’m here this
03:12 evening with your hands in who’s
03:14 director of risk reduction services risk
03:16 reduction services is another company
03:19 formed by Levitt first for reasons that
03:22 you’ll hopefully understand much better
03:23 at the end of our presentation this
03:28 evening we wanted to explain to you why
03:32 the insurance advocate is not enough and
03:36 the hopefully have still trying to a
03:39 better idea of what risk transfer for
03:43 contractors working and condominium and
03:45 cooperative apart show is all about
03:56 obviously this relates to property
03:59 management and two orders of property in
04:03 common I know many of you read the quad
04:08 under magazine and it often has many
04:10 (displaying a presentation)
04:11 excellent articles related to insurance
04:14 issues there was an article recently
04:17 entitled escalating insurance and your
04:20 contract and what it talked about is
04:24 you’ve heard me say from time to time
04:26 and I presented new york new york is
04:29 deep in higher united states it’s the
04:34 only state in the Union where it’s an
04:38 injured worker seeks remedy he can claim
04:42 something other than just for the
04:45 compensation insurance every other state
04:48 Union just workers comp hurt injured
04:50 worker in New York there’s more in New
04:56 York we have label up to 42 41 which
05:03 basically allows an employee you make a
05:05 liability claim against the proper you a
05:10 proper you the condominium or the
05:13 co-operative for an injury that occurred
05:16 on the property so there are several
05:23 sections to this law 240 involves
05:26 forever gravity related injuries caused
05:29 by Falls 241 involves trip hazards and
05:33 flooring elevators in 241 a involves
05:33 (displaying a screen)
05:36 openings quick stairwells but in essence
05:39 they all accomplish the same thing which
05:42 is to give an injured worker and avenue
05:44 to file a lawsuit against the property
05:47 owner in a basis for a liability now
05:52 we’re not just talking about
05:56 make go away by my dollar checkers in
06:02 New York these claims and keep in mind
06:04 this was a year how things have only
06:05 gotten worse instead in New York these
06:08 claims typically from average according
06:11 the article about 850,000 dollars or
06:16 more now what this means for insurance
06:23 carrier is the security insurance
06:25 company you’ve got 50 states do business
06:28 in use your contractors or buildings
06:31 would you look to New York you know to
06:35 make day probably not you’re going to go
06:37 out spit as a result there are very few
06:41 contractors in New York servicing the
06:46 consumer the consumer who’s the consumed
06:52 contractors business law only affects
06:57 contractors know it affects the property
07:02 property owners are consumers of
07:04 insurance as well in this flaw in every
07:08 way affects property owners in addition
07:10 to contractors because the law allows
07:13 the injured worker to suit the property
07:17 and so everybody is aware of this bag
07:22 for general terms and everybody
07:24 understands that it’s important to try
07:27 to transfer risk away from the property
07:30 of us away from the condominium or the
07:32 co-operative retardation and I’m so cool
07:38 where’s my faster the riskier
07:41 cooperative our content where you back
07:46 down to the contractors you get a free
07:50 hand sanitizer make sure to hold it in
07:53 the right direction it is not enough to
07:55 (laughs)
07:58 have fresh Brussels right so why is it
08:02 important why do we want to transfer
08:04 which risk away from the property owner
08:07 and after the contract costs of what’s
08:08 (displaying the slide)
08:14 possible Curren okay so if the property
08:18 owners insurance its hit with a claim
08:21 for an injured worker who was injured
08:24 from a ball from pipes or gravity
08:26 related Christmas ball hazards from
08:29 labor law to 42 41 and if the property
08:32 owners insurance has to pay that claim
08:34 what happens surance goes up for what
08:40 for how much how long forever that’s
08:43 right forever probably not well actually
08:48 you know what insurance went down for
08:50 about eight years before the last few
08:51 years so that’s not exactly true but
08:53 your shirts is going to go up and most
08:56 likely in a vacuum all of the things
08:58 being equal if you have a claim of this
09:00 nature for eight hundred fifty thousand
09:02 dollars against your condo order or your
09:04 co-op it’s not picked up by the
09:06 contractors insurance your condo or
09:09 proper insurance will will likely go up
09:11 all other things being equal hurt
09:13 certainly several years to come because
09:15 condo and co-op insurance carriers look
09:18 at something called book experience what
09:22 kind of lost experience right and they
09:24 they typically look back how many years
09:28 five years we have a very educated okay
09:33 so risk transfer is critical because you
09:36 don’t want to 850,000 dollar claim on
09:38 your condo or swap lost experience for
09:41 five years effective you’re sure it’s
09:44 prune juice so how do you get it how do
09:49 you get more how do you get risk rain
09:52 cover it what do you need in order to
09:54 suffer it has to have what insurance
09:59 that leaves you cold sure okay so you
10:03 have to somehow rely on a contractor
10:06 insurance what is it what you need to
10:08 make that bad what else what do you need
10:17 some instead of just one shirt back
10:19 there what do you need to show your
10:21 additional shirt syndicate of insurance
10:24 certificate of insurance from who from
10:28 the contractor is showing the property
10:31 owner as additional insured additional
10:36 ok so here is a certificate of insurance
10:41 everybody recognize this everybody
10:44 (displaying another slide that contains a sample document)
10:46 recognizes that looked at it carefully
10:49 hundreds of times
10:50 I never read this portion it’s a portion
10:51 (displaying another slide that contains a certificate)
10:54 in big black letters at the very top old
10:59 bricks I’ll read it as a certificate
11:05 issued is a matter of information only
11:08 and confers no rights upon the
11:10 certificate bulb that’s this certificate
11:15 is not affirmatively or negatively
11:17 atlantic center ultra coverage afforded
11:19 by the policies below the certificate
11:22 holder does not constitute a contract
11:24 between the issuing insurers authorized
11:26 representative or producer and the
11:28 certificate holder then in a little bit
11:30 smaller bold black creek at the top of
11:33 the document it says important if the
11:38 certificate molar is an additional
11:40 insured the policies must be indoors and
11:46 then it goes on to say a couple more
11:48 things and it says a statement obvious
11:50 certificate is not confer rights to the
11:53 certificate holder and who’s such a
11:54 dorkus so everyone or a lot of people
11:58 here told me you got to get the
12:00 certificate what is the certificate you
12:05 not much is your information if you’re
12:09 the property owner doesn’t give you a
12:12 lot of Rights that’s for sure okay now
12:15 as I stand I should say and I know I
12:18 haven’t bought these battles in court
12:20 there there have been court cases that
12:23 have been decided where the certificate
12:25 alone has given some level of coverage
12:29 I’m not saying that if you have the
12:30 certificate and only the certificate is
12:32 it’s worth literally worthless but it’s
12:37 close
12:38 I wouldn’t want to rely on the specific
12:40 it well because truly the certificate
12:43 alarm is not so certainly the first
12:55 thing you need to have and whenever you
12:59 file an insurance claim the very first
13:01 thing that your insurance brokers claim
13:04 department gets asked by the carrier
13:06 it’s asking that’s being asked to
13:08 provide coverage is a contract if you
13:13 are doing business with contractors on a
13:16 handshake or verbal contract or you’ve
13:20 been using them for years and just
13:22 notice to show up in the spring start
13:25 cleaning the shrubbery events and
13:27 whatnot clowes the snow and you know
13:29 whenever it snows you should have a
13:32 written contract in this day and age you
13:35 should also have certificates of
13:37 insurance because they do evidence and
13:40 they’re issued by the insurance
13:41 brokerage insurance brokers reputable
13:44 then hopefully he’s not issuing an
13:46 insurance certificate that is false or
13:49 is it is exhibited information it’s not
13:53 true so these with the certificate you
13:55 know that the contractor has insurance
13:58 and the insurance assuming the previous
14:01 of the paid arm is enforced for the
14:04 terms for the term listed on the other
14:06 certificate but the other key documents
14:10 and it may be embedded in the hot track
14:13 is the indemnification insurance
14:16 required a dream so the three things a
14:20 contract insurance certificate and
14:22 indemnification of insurance requirement
14:30 so with those documents how do you
14:37 administer risk transfer because when
14:41 you think about it if you’re commenting
14:42 or cooperative you got a lot of
14:45 contractors and every single one of them
14:49 has several insurance policies and every
14:52 single one of those insurance policies
14:54 has a different expiration date mostly
14:57 frequently the workers compensation
15:00 insurance expires at a different time
15:02 than the general liability and if you’re
15:07 managing a generally management is that
15:10 manages our property and they’re
15:12 managing 15 30 60 properties that’s a
15:18 lot of documentation to collect when you
15:20 think about an indemnification
15:22 additional request and a certificate for
15:24 every single location for every single
15:26 contract so risk transfer document ID
15:29 document administration is collecting
15:32 the certificate the indemnification for
15:35 all the contractors of all the
15:37 properties verified by the way most of
15:41 your condominium and cooperatives have a
15:43 contract with the managing agent right
15:47 right everybody else kind of romantic
15:50 (laughs)
15:50 and probably in that managing agent
15:54 contract you’ve agreed to do what for
15:57 your manager
16:01 anything else may be related to risk in
16:04 Jersey like we said it multiple identify
16:10 you’ve probably agreed to indemnify your
16:14 manager well if I’m an injured worker
16:18 and I hurt myself in a labor law to 42
16:22 41 claim in New York I’m going to sue
16:25 everybody that I possibly do so I’m not
16:29 a suit a condo or the coop I’m also
16:31 going to sue the managing agent
16:40 (laughs)
16:49 it certainly doesn’t hurt and I’m the
16:52 kind of quality of course automatic okay
16:56 so so you want to make sure that the
16:58 magic isn’t the building manager
17:00 property are named in all these
17:02 documents and then you need to collect
17:05 them and store them and then also
17:11 ideally you need to be able to present
17:15 the document status in an easy to access
17:19 and useful format right someone’s got to
17:23 have all this stuff somewhere and be
17:25 able to access that you know maybe
17:26 you’re not going to pay a contractor
17:29 before you verifies got all this
17:32 information properly submitted to and in
17:35 good order so you know to have a file
17:38 full wrinkled certificates and
17:42 indentations in this file this thing of
17:44 this file over here is probably not very
17:46 functional
17:52 so as we discussed you need a
17:55 certificate of insurance and you need
17:57 the identification additional insured
17:59 requirements but you need to be able to
18:01 have access to them to be able to know
18:04 what they say and how long they’re real
18:07 for etc you need to make them useful and
18:12 so the question is now that I’ve
18:14 educated you for those of you that
18:16 didn’t understand where Chris transfer
18:17 was and how to accomplish but the
18:20 question is how do you accomplish it I
18:23 live here going to this easy one thanks
18:26 Peter good evening everyone so we talked
18:32 about the riskier facing the stresses
18:36 involved in collecting this information
18:39 so the question becomes what are you
18:41 doing now and how successful are you for
18:43 (displaying a slide)
18:48 you currently collecting certificate of
18:50 insurance talked about you’re not the be
18:52 all and end all that they are important
18:54 they merit by insurance they’ve ever by
18:56 the coverage for a policy terms and are
19:00 you collecting the identification
19:01 ingredients from all of your costs from
19:05 anyways coming on your property during
19:07 work
19:12 not only are you collecting it are you
19:14 organizing it are you collecting it so
19:17 that you can pull it back up when the
19:18 need arises it’s not just having the
19:20 informations have some information like
19:22 you needed that you start to really
19:24 benefit of having a good programming
19:27 place workers comp honest it happens
19:30 very regularly if you can’t get the
19:33 verification that these companies have
19:35 workers come you’re going to be the ones
19:37 paying for it’s going to come up with
19:38 your workers comp policy are you getting
19:43 updates if a job is happening over the
19:46 course of a timeframe of three or four
19:48 months and that policy reduce in the
19:50 middle of that time frames are you
19:52 getting the renewal certificate it’s
19:53 alerting the same is it giving you
19:55 additional insurance status for your
19:56 property or the building manager okay
19:59 remember you have workers comp C of
20:02 general liability you have beyond owed
20:04 you know it’s a very odd of intensive
20:07 job those might have different dates so
20:10 you want to make sure you’re collecting
20:12 not all of the original information but
20:13 remembering to get that information as
20:15 the renewals big place so what do you
20:20 need to know you need to know first of
20:24 all the contact information to log your
20:26 contract is very simple very
20:28 straightforward but you need to be able
20:29 to access that information given moment
20:33 you need to know where for the building
20:36 managers for the manners of your
20:38 properties where are they working if
20:40 their work and multiple properties to
20:41 make sure that you’re getting the
20:42 verbiage that you need a mr.
20:43 so you’re getting the additional insured
20:45 steps for all the pencils making sure
20:47 that your property is protected for any
20:49 any contractors coming on now when we
20:55 discussed this quite a bit about what
20:57 you should collect the identification
20:59 we’ve spoken a lot about indentification
21:01 insurance requirement agreements it
21:04 works as an agreement the one thing that
21:05 a certificate truly Lance is this not a
21:07 concert it is a one directional document
21:10 is given to you by the carrier state of
21:14 coverage but you’re not signing it the
21:17 point run into a lot of times and we
21:21 talked about additional insurance status
21:22 is you have like additional insured
21:24 coverage on the policies and that
21:26 requires a contract this will work as a
21:30 contract as well as the original
21:31 contractor working none but you know
21:34 that a cosine document a magnification
21:38 insurance requirement agreement it
21:39 protects you and it gets you that
21:41 additional insured status that you’re
21:42 looking for certificate insurance
21:46 generally you like to have 1 million two
21:49 million on your basic certificate of
21:51 insurance that is the standard for most
21:53 of your commercial contractors you’d
21:56 like a million dollars auto especially
21:57 for those contractors that are part of
21:59 intensive vehicles are heavy vehicles
22:02 are coming on your property you want to
22:04 make sure that if they hit five of your
22:05 vehicles and one of those vehicles do
22:07 vehicles happen to be BMWs and Mercedes
22:09 they have the coverage of connective one
22:09 (displaying another slide)
22:11 or if they hit god forbid one of your
22:14 penance
22:17 umbrella clearly a great idea of them
22:21 rather for all of your contract it’s not
22:23 going to happen for your smaller
22:24 contractor but it will happen for any of
22:27 your large truck you want to make her
22:28 for any capital or any of those
22:31 situations where large work is being
22:33 done roofing work is being done anything
22:35 that can have large potential claims you
22:38 want to make sure that you have an
22:39 umbrella policy in place for them and
22:44 workers compensation we’re going to talk
22:47 about this a little bit a minute workers
22:48 compensation is required for any company
22:50 that has employees but you will notice
22:53 they’re going to do a lot of sole
22:54 proprietors that come under property
22:55 individuals that do work and they give
22:57 up as workers compensation we’re running
23:00 into very large increases in numbers of
23:03 compensation premiums and for a sole
23:05 proprietor it is cost prohibitive to
23:08 have a workers found policy there are
23:10 risks associated but as long as you
23:12 understand the risks it gives you some
23:14 idea whether or not you want to let them
23:16 work on your property or not the primary
23:18 concept with sole proprietors is that
23:21 they don’t have the workers comp
23:23 themselves so it will fall onto your
23:26 promise that you have on it so if the
23:28 workers comp for your building if they
23:32 do a large amount of work a lot of that
23:34 is from their effort not supplies that
23:38 will come on to and all
23:43 so it’s an arduous past this is a lot of
23:48 information for your properties you’ve
23:50 got ten to twenty contractors regularly
23:53 coming to your properties how do you
23:55 keep on top of this you know it’s too
23:57 much work is it necessary we’ll give you
24:01 a huge samples as to situations that
24:04 have actually reason that we’ve dealt
24:05 with directly or indirectly because they
24:07 give you some ideas of some of the
24:08 things that you may run into recently we
24:13 had an individual not send us a renewal
24:16 certificate for their general liability
24:18 policy and they were doing pointed at
24:20 work including roofing work for one of
24:23 the property managers in the region we
24:26 went we talked to them back and forth it
24:28 turned out that their general liability
24:30 policy was too expensive they just
24:35 didn’t renew their policy it was that
24:38 simple but it happened in the middle of
24:39 the season and the building manager is
24:42 they hadn’t asked wouldn’t have known
24:44 something that they just didn’t do it
24:46 and they were not going to redo that
24:48 policy regardless of getting the job
24:51 proactively you could address such a
24:53 situation and make sure those people are
24:55 not working on your property it is far
24:57 too compressed right the board like him
25:00 anyway it’s cheap Street why was he
25:03 cheats he wasn’t any furniture
25:05 (laughs)
25:13 of course well if you cancel the middle
25:16 of the term it’s very greater unit have
25:18 much you know you’re not going to find
25:20 out about at the bottom of certificate
25:23 it says you’ll be notified by evening
25:25 for cancellations as per the policy and
25:29 the policy do not notify for
25:31 certificates motors for the most part so
25:34 there are just you know there aren’t
25:35 there is no perfect solution for any of
25:38 these days that’s why you have your own
25:40 insurance our goal is to make sure that
25:42 you do everything you can so that when
25:46 the renewal comes up that there is a
25:47 place you can say we set these processes
25:50 up there’s no foolproof method but you
25:54 want to make sure that ever know you’re
25:56 getting the information so that it
25:57 something you know got really one of
25:59 your contract decided not to renew your
26:01 catching that
26:06 I’m sorry correct yes Otto personal auto
26:12 that some of the smaller contractors
26:14 usually a six-month period and
26:15 everything else is going to be a 12-hour
26:17 period so if the other stolen again
26:19 small he won’t see six months except for
26:23 like a geico policy for an individual
26:25 that happy that they use as a handicap
26:28 that’s the only time it is six month of
26:29 April contracts we mentioned the
26:33 importance of x rays I’m sorry it was a
26:38 (laughs)
26:49 handyman that is moving work but yes you
26:56 are correct that carries for sure but if
26:59 he goes up to the clean gutters and so I
27:01 didn’t say
27:36 your day
28:02 if there’s a bomb going work certainly
28:06 it’s a new job it is ongoing work what
28:08 happens is you collect the information
28:09 that’s the beginning of work and if that
28:12 information lenses expires this
28:17 different from Lansing okay aspiring yes
28:25 make sure that is our point those are
28:28 quite exact somebody’s responsibility
28:31 and the point that we’re trying to make
28:33 is is that responsibility being taken
28:36 seriously and being patient Airlines
28:40 second option here second situation a
28:42 (displaying another slide)
28:43 sandy claim we all ran into sandy we all
28:46 had problems with so many properties in
28:48 this particular case there was a tree
28:50 damage that was causing some sort of
28:52 problem on the property had to get
28:55 repaired quickly okay the contract was
28:59 signed literally a lot of math him there
29:01 was a claim now the problem in this
29:04 particular case was additional insurance
29:06 step it didn’t matter that the
29:08 certificate said that there was an
29:09 additional insured or not there was no
29:11 contracts of that work the contract was
29:13 lost in that was lost amongst everything
29:15 else at losses so the claim that arose
29:19 there was no additional insurance status
29:21 for this particular situation again you
29:24 want to keep track this information then
29:27 indemnification agreement with a harbor
29:29 because it’s a
29:30 cosine document it becomes a contract
29:32 for a future work as well so providers
29:37 we talked about that a little bit
29:39 knowing that someone considers
29:41 themselves a sole proprietor is
29:43 essential to you okay just because
29:45 someone comes onto your property with
29:48 five employees doesn’t mean their
29:50 employees you need to know that you hire
29:52 the sole proprietor they don’t want
29:53 workers comp and the second they walked
29:55 on your property with more than one
29:57 person is more than just themselves you
29:59 need to make sure that work doesn’t
30:00 vegetables okay because that happens all
30:03 the time this particular case true case
30:06 in laborers came on digging ditches
30:09 during after storm the ditch class what
30:13 (displaying another slide)
30:14 died one gravely injured again no
30:16 workers comp associated with this
30:17 contractor at all because he was so
30:19 deprived you know they get offered a
30:21 good job they get off her good financial
30:24 means to do it they say yes I can do it
30:26 they go down and they bring people but
30:27 again knowing me knowing the information
30:31 knowing who is it sold appliance so much
30:34 more work
30:37 and this is what we’re talking about no
30:42 workers compensation for a roofer the
30:44 Coptic workers compensation policy had
30:46 lapsed and someone had died and it he
30:49 was fun at this point it was a huge time
30:51 this is years ago this marta
30:52 thousand-dollar plank would be
30:53 dramatically higher these days but that
30:56 was directly against the building and
30:58 double the premiums or at least two
31:00 years in this case was with the
31:08 playground because the roof acclaimed in
31:11 the something is safe the question
31:13 before us warranty her injuries are
31:16 injuries you know there’s wine in there
31:18 was no workers about to protect him so
31:21 if you know any of us or injured and we
31:24 don’t have anything you’re going to do
31:25 what you can to improve your medical
31:27 expenses enter the new york this whole
31:30 area is referred to me as absolute
31:33 liability in the building so even if the
31:36 roof / strong give it through postal
31:38 don’t go up on the murders it’s mentally
31:41 draining the airliner don’t use that
31:43 Lazarus crocus guru for Falls and go to
31:46 small
31:47 one hundred percent that’s why the
31:50 claims are settling all seven figures a
31:54 precision no defense there’s no defense
31:56 with the table filter whatsoever
31:57 everyone here in Mecca so there is no
32:01 defense regarding a fall from Heights
32:04 due to the labor laws if you are drunk
32:08 if you are you know honestly pretty rope
32:10 if you’ve been told not to be where you
32:11 are and you enter yourself there is
32:13 still one from set my ability to build
32:21 so Chris print for making it happen
32:23 we’ve talked about all the scare tactics
32:25 we’ve got you nervous about so what’d
32:27 you do he is to make sure that you are
32:30 crowing what are the elements of a
32:36 successful program you’re collecting the
32:40 documents up front absolutely essential
32:42 you have an indemnification agreement
32:44 that you agreed on your lawyer has
32:46 agreed on that is it acceptable awarded
32:48 indemnification agreement you’re letting
32:50 inform everybody you are organizing
32:55 these documents so you can access them
32:57 again having the documents are very
33:01 little importance if you can’t get this
33:03 when you need them when the audit comes
33:05 when the claim comes it’s the ability to
33:07 gather that information at the time of
33:09 need and monitoring and updating you
33:14 have contractors coming in this month
33:15 and then they come in in two months is
33:17 their policy lapse in the middle for
33:19 their expiration date you got to make
33:21 sure to get their renewal royalty if
33:22 they’re coming throughout the year you
33:24 might have two or three expiration dates
33:27 that you have to make sure to collect
33:28 that information usually it’s no more
33:31 than three that’s the worst case
33:33 scenario
33:35 so how you doing internally within the
33:39 organization there is some options paper
33:42 tracking is the standard and little
33:44 bit terrifying to those of us that do
33:46 this early because you have a files or
33:49 and you put everything into the files or
33:51 you haven’t labeled by contractor or by
33:53 date or by the building or buying
33:56 whatever the case is what’s a difficulty
33:59 here is getting the renewals of those
34:02 certificates you don’t know when those
34:04 certificates are renewing because we put
34:06 them in that has you found we’re under
34:08 with us all the time is it scary
34:10 proposition do not recommend the paper
34:13 alter database tracking a little bit
34:16 better at least you’re keeping track of
34:17 your contractors using date you know
34:19 basis for all of at least you’re getting
34:21 general liability and workers comp
34:23 you’re making sure to ask them for that
34:25 information collecting that information
34:26 storing it at least if you’re using it
34:28 on the computer constantly scanning the
34:30 information so you can access it later
34:32 you’re giving yourself really a leg up
34:35 on those people that have the document
34:37 paper is property management software
34:42 some of the programs out there that
34:44 manistee particular properties will have
34:46 don’t pay unless you know this is Tecton
34:49 less st to put a date in there for some
34:51 of them so you will pay up until a date
34:54 but that mate would be the general
34:55 liability expiration date for example so
34:58 you can make sure that no texts are
35:00 going out of your office and particular
35:02 date unless you get them
35:03 you forward so they have simple tools
35:06 within those programs that may assist
35:08 you there are third-party options out
35:13 there you can go on to the weapon look
35:16 there are several programs that do this
35:18 son will sell it directly to the
35:19 property manager or to the building it
35:20 (displaying another slide)
35:21 makes they use a little bit easier or
35:23 gives you places to put the information
35:25 that you need to call it later you
35:27 select the store you still have to
35:28 access but at least this gives you some
35:30 of the tools and then there are external
35:34 programs and an external program are
35:36 going to be full service providers that
35:38 take that up cool the way from you take
35:40 the process away from you development of
35:43 tools there are several of us out there
35:45 Risk Reduction being one of them where
35:47 we actually do the collection for you
35:50 and let you know what a contractor is in
35:52 or out of compliance and that allows you
35:55 to directly work only with those
35:58 contractors are in compliance so the
36:04 conundrum Jason
36:07 just to finish up before I conclude make
36:11 sure that everybody understands based on
36:15 the certificate that i showed you
36:16 earlier that certificate alone is not
36:19 enough what else do you need the
36:24 contract the contract has to have in it
36:27 an identification identification of hold
36:30 harmless basically says the contractor
36:33 is going to protect you if a claim
36:35 arrives from injury from his worker and
36:38 it also says additional insured steps
36:41 right I agree to name the property owner
36:43 has an additional sure it’s that trigger
36:46 for coverage in the contract it gives
36:49 you the additional sure to ensure steps
36:52 that’s why you need both okay but the
36:56 conundrum is this it takes a lot of time
37:00 it takes a lot of staffing and all of
37:01 (displaying another slide)
37:04 those things relate to money right now
37:08 those of you that are associated with a
37:10 condo or co-op in here do any of you do
37:14 this on your own meaning the condos
37:16 board or committee members and shown as
37:20 anybody do this under did you hear if
37:24 you’re if you are a unit owner or
37:28 shareholder in a condo or co-op if
37:30 you’re on a board as a condo you
37:33 actually self-managed or do this stuff
37:35 on your own razorback make a couple a
37:37 couple do and then if you rely on your
37:42 managing agent or property manager to do
37:44 this razor here okay so or more and
37:47 that’s pretty typical there’s a lot of
37:49 condos and co-ops it either because
37:52 they’re smaller or because they’re
37:54 saving money they’re self-managed and
37:56 they have to do this on their own
37:59 and then there’s others that are managed
38:00 by managing agents that expect they’re
38:03 managing agent to do this no matter who
38:05 is doing it it takes time it takes
38:07 people and it takes money and the
38:12 question is after what we showed you can
38:16 you afford not to do this well you can
38:21 afford not to do this well is long is
38:25 there’s not a claim and firm frankly
38:30 most of you most condos most coops
38:34 frankly you won’t have a claim I don’t
38:39 know what the percentage is maybe in a
38:41 hundred years or 50 years maybe ten
38:42 (displaying another slide)
38:44 percent of you will have claims ninety
38:47 percent well maybe it’s a t20 I don’t
38:49 know but mark my words you don’t want to
38:53 be the other ten percent or twenty
38:55 percent that has a claim and you don’t
38:58 want to be a shareholder or a unit owner
38:59 in a condo who gets the increase in your
39:02 maintenance costs or your comment
39:04 charges for the next five years pay the
39:07 premiums which is Peter said potentially
39:10 and I see it not only double I saw one
39:12 trip will issue you don’t want to be in
39:15 that kind of a college so if if you’re
39:20 not sure how your hard work coop is
39:22 addressing this right now find out
39:26 protect your property by taking control
39:29 of your risk transfer documents and if
39:34 you’re not sure but you’re interested in
39:37 taking the first step by just knowing
39:40 what these documents look like because
39:41 you walked in here thinking it was the
39:43 certificate of bone this all about all
39:45 that you needed and we didn’t even get
39:49 into by the way that details that need
39:51 to be on the certificate how these are
39:53 because that’s just born but if you want
39:57 come up to Peter myself be around for a
39:59 couple more minutes if you give us
40:00 either carve your contact information we
40:03 will email you a sample identification
40:07 hold harmless agreement and a SAP sample
40:09 certificate of insurance like the ones
40:12 we flashed up on the string and you got
40:14 that in the first step who’s your
40:23 occlusion the question was how much
40:25 because how much does it cost of risk
40:26 reduction services those who is your
40:28 imagine it ok so we risk reduction
40:33 services actually contracts through
40:36 Manitou ninjas the number of managing
40:38 agents in Westchester uses service and
40:40 obviously some don’t but they’ve got
40:43 other ways to do it and what I would ask
40:44 you because of the way we’re set up
40:46 either has had Europe a board member
40:50 contact fear his business card is there
40:53 you can go over price review and Mary’s
40:54 but really the services through the
40:56 management engine services what we’re
40:59 trying to show here tonight is just the
41:01 importance of collecting the
41:02 documentation and the documentation that
41:05 you actually need to be plucked in the
41:06 format didn’t should be any other
41:10 questions yes
41:18 we do have hold harmless agreement with
41:21 owners with a higher contractor
41:27 insurance but we don’t collect their
41:32 contracts as this transfer company would
41:36 you collect the contracts that the
41:37 owners within the condominium side so
41:41 the question is this there’s two types
41:44 of contractors to come onto a property
41:46 right there’s the contractors servicing
41:49 the actual co-op for the actual
41:51 association and then there’s the
41:53 contractors to come in basically on a
41:56 private basis did you work like you know
41:59 I’m plugging a toilet investor
42:01 responsibility order new renovations
42:03 inside of the Union right the first
42:07 question is do you collect you collect
42:09 the both doctors the certificate any
42:12 dedication for all the service
42:13 contractors or the servicing
42:14 associations yeah yes okay so that’s
42:17 that’s you know in terms of the
42:19 association’s insurance that’s arguably
42:22 the bigger exposure risk reduction does
42:25 not collect for unit owners or
42:28 shareholders doing work inside the
42:30 individual units but we can help you
42:33 develop the system in order to do that
42:35 and we’ve been asked to do that on
42:37 number of occasions
42:40 they’re going to have a contractor come
42:42 on for the property say there’s one
42:45 right now they actually find a
42:46 renovation documents but I’m not sure
42:53 again all right here’s that’s a great
42:56 point so you’re some guidance on them
42:59 but your point is that when the managing
43:03 agent is tracking the contract which is
43:05 going into a unit to do work inside the
43:07 unit who have the unit on our hold the
43:09 Association harness and you’re you’re
43:13 exactly correct I would not want to rely
43:15 on the unit owner in the universe net
43:19 worth in the unit owners make $300,000
43:23 with a liability insurance if they have
43:25 insurance I would not want to rely on
43:29 that and frankly they can’t even name
43:31 you as an additional insured anyway on a
43:33 homeowner policy typically so ideally
43:36 you should change your process for your
43:38 for your you know renovation package and
43:44 sign off whereby you require the
43:48 contractor going into that unit to name
43:50 the unit owner is an additional insured
43:52 to name the association is additional
43:55 shirt in the name the managing agent is
43:57 an additional insured and I look for
44:01 Lauren and also to get the
44:02 identification and additional insurance
44:04 agreement it’s certainly for larger
44:06 renovations in the department doing the
44:08 whole process getting that
44:10 identification
44:11 as if they were working for the
44:12 association is absolutely a good idea
44:15 you know they’re just doing you know
44:17 it’s small kitchen rent that’s one thing
44:19 but if you’re talking about doing a
44:20 large renovation you need to treat them
44:22 as if they are working on your property
44:25 because it really can affect come on
44:28 right but I mean many of you know you
44:32 know this is an interesting divide
44:34 between New York City and in Westchester
44:38 in the outlying areas you is a
44:41 contractor cannot step foot in a
44:44 building in New York City certainly in
44:47 Manhattan even if you’re doing private
44:50 work without all this documentation so
44:54 in Westchester it’s much more difficult
44:56 because many of the properties are
44:58 sprawling and there’s no way you know if
45:01 the contractors is a multiple ways in as
45:04 opposed to one way n so it’s different
45:06 and it’s more difficult should
45:28 yeah the repair renovation package for
45:31 unit owner a shareholder should
45:33 definitely encompass all of the risk
45:36 grass skirts documentation requirements
45:39 that we’ve discussed the sea yes that
45:41 was that would be a really good ideas
45:44 anyone else thank you very much Jason
45:49 (applause)
45:56 (displaying another slide)
45:58 ten quarter saw your news feed on sorry
46:03 Anthony Anderson great job great program
46:07 very ball been the ceaseless board would
46:10 welcome your suggestions on meeting
46:13 topics if you have any suggestions on
46:15 future topics of our association shorts
46:18 feel free to contact me the Bo I would
46:21 be more than happy to have any
46:23 suggestions that should be in come up
46:25 okay thank you for your participation
46:26 we’ll be in touch to do email have a
46:29 great week
46:34 (applause)
46:43 (picture time)
46:46 thank you
6/9/2014: What is REALLY Required to Property Transfer Risk to Your Contractor
Building and Realty Institute (BRI)
Personal Insurance
00:00 Insurance is not a commodity.
00:02 Those people that own significant assets soon learn that there are insurance companies that
00:03 (a block of text saying “Ken Fuirst Co- President” displays)
00:07 specialize and provide the coverages that you don’t get with standard insurance companies.
00:12 (a small slide show with background music)
00:24 Ken asked us thorough questions about what our needs were.
00:27 We brought in our policies and we went over what we had, and he went over what we possibly
00:29 (a block of text saying “Lisa Bianchi Client”)
00:32 didn’t need, and where we should be adding things, and covered all of our areas of concerns.
00:38 Areas and things that we hadn’t thought about.
00:40 Levitt-Fuirst really brought to light the fact that our homeowners policy only covered
00:43 (a block of text saying “Mark Weigle Client”)
00:45 the house and did not necessarily cover a lot of our valuable content, such as art and
00:50 jewelry.
00:52 There are many types of different insurance that Levitt-Fuirst provides.
00:55 (a block of text saying “Kimberly Vargas Managing Director Personal Lines)
00:57 One would be high value homeowners insurance, another would be collectors insurance, umbrella,
01:03 automobile, and also travel accident insurance.
01:06 What is different about the way the agency runs is we’re not order takers.
01:11 We’re more of risk advisors.
01:12 What does being a risk advisor mean as opposed to just selling insurance?
01:13 (a block of text saying “Jason Schiciano Co-President”)
01:17 It means having the foresight and asking the questions to understand what the unexpected
01:23 might bring, and then coming up with the proper insurance product to protect against that
01:27 eventuality.
01:28 Jason came to my home and was able to compare that I was considering an insurance to what
01:34 other products were out there.
01:36 This really opened my eyes to the difference that personal insurance coverage can provide.
01:44 While we’re one of the largest independently owned insurance brokers our clients can call
01:49 me on their cells 24/7 to deal with questions, problems, claims.
01:55 Last year over the winter we had a serious flood.
01:58 We were away when it happened, and when we found out about it I had absolutely no idea
02:03 what to do.
02:04 The first thing I did was I picked up the phone, I called Ken on his cell phone, and
02:05 (pictures of the flooded house)
02:08 said “Okay, I got this.
02:09 Don’t worry about it I’m going to your house now.
02:12 I will call and have the restoration company come.”
02:15 By the time we landed back in New York it was already in process of being taken care
02:20 of.
02:21 I love helping people.
02:22 I enjoy, whether I’m dealing with a business owner or a family, trying to solve their problems
02:28 and provide them an answer and a solution to their needs.
02:33 I would highly recommend Levitt-Fuirst, not only for their personal care but their expertise
02:39 in multiple facets of insurance.
02:42 What you get from Levitt-Fuirst is caring dedication to you, and they make you feel
02:47 like you’re part of the family.
02:53 (Levitt-Fuirst logo, website address, and phone number)
00:02 Those people that own significant assets soon learn that there are insurance companies that
00:03 (a block of text saying “Ken Fuirst Co- President” displays)
00:07 specialize and provide the coverages that you don’t get with standard insurance companies.
00:12 (a small slide show with background music)
00:24 Ken asked us thorough questions about what our needs were.
00:27 We brought in our policies and we went over what we had, and he went over what we possibly
00:29 (a block of text saying “Lisa Bianchi Client”)
00:32 didn’t need, and where we should be adding things, and covered all of our areas of concerns.
00:38 Areas and things that we hadn’t thought about.
00:40 Levitt-Fuirst really brought to light the fact that our homeowners policy only covered
00:43 (a block of text saying “Mark Weigle Client”)
00:45 the house and did not necessarily cover a lot of our valuable content, such as art and
00:50 jewelry.
00:52 There are many types of different insurance that Levitt-Fuirst provides.
00:55 (a block of text saying “Kimberly Vargas Managing Director Personal Lines)
00:57 One would be high value homeowners insurance, another would be collectors insurance, umbrella,
01:03 automobile, and also travel accident insurance.
01:06 What is different about the way the agency runs is we’re not order takers.
01:11 We’re more of risk advisors.
01:12 What does being a risk advisor mean as opposed to just selling insurance?
01:13 (a block of text saying “Jason Schiciano Co-President”)
01:17 It means having the foresight and asking the questions to understand what the unexpected
01:23 might bring, and then coming up with the proper insurance product to protect against that
01:27 eventuality.
01:28 Jason came to my home and was able to compare that I was considering an insurance to what
01:34 other products were out there.
01:36 This really opened my eyes to the difference that personal insurance coverage can provide.
01:44 While we’re one of the largest independently owned insurance brokers our clients can call
01:49 me on their cells 24/7 to deal with questions, problems, claims.
01:55 Last year over the winter we had a serious flood.
01:58 We were away when it happened, and when we found out about it I had absolutely no idea
02:03 what to do.
02:04 The first thing I did was I picked up the phone, I called Ken on his cell phone, and
02:05 (pictures of the flooded house)
02:08 said “Okay, I got this.
02:09 Don’t worry about it I’m going to your house now.
02:12 I will call and have the restoration company come.”
02:15 By the time we landed back in New York it was already in process of being taken care
02:20 of.
02:21 I love helping people.
02:22 I enjoy, whether I’m dealing with a business owner or a family, trying to solve their problems
02:28 and provide them an answer and a solution to their needs.
02:33 I would highly recommend Levitt-Fuirst, not only for their personal care but their expertise
02:39 in multiple facets of insurance.
02:42 What you get from Levitt-Fuirst is caring dedication to you, and they make you feel
02:47 like you’re part of the family.
02:53 (Levitt-Fuirst logo, website address, and phone number)
Levitt-Fuirst Personal Insurance
High value home, auto and jewelry services
Office News & Awards
00:00 [Music]
00:06 Levesque first is one of West Chester’s
00:08 largest independently owned insurance
00:10 agencies we’re a third-generation agency
00:13 and while most agencies of our size have
00:16 long since been bought up by the
00:17 national brokerage firms we remain
00:17 (a block of text “Jason Schiciano President Levitt-Fuirst Associates)
00:19 independent and growing level first
00:22 insurers both businesses and successful
00:24 family construction insurance real
00:24 (block of text “Ken Fuirst President Levvit-Fuirst Associates)
00:27 estate insurance general business
00:29 insurance and the personal side we
00:31 specialize in insurance for successful
00:33 families that have a lot of assets to
00:35 protect Lebanon did buy my partner Jason
00:38 skis jános father-in-law Dave Leonhard
00:40 and my father Alan first when Jase and I
00:42 (pictures of Jason and Ken’s fathers)
00:43 joined in 290 the firm was a small 12
00:47 person insurance agency and we’ve grown
00:49 it to 60 employees at this point we’ve
00:51 recently moved to a brand new
00:53 state-of-the-art 10,000 square foot
00:55 office in Tarrytown New York our growth
00:57 has taken us well outside the boundaries
00:59 of Westchester and in fact we do
01:01 business in almost every state in the
01:03 country in an industry that’s dominated
01:06 by the large national firms we’re still
01:08 doing business the way my father-in-law
01:10 Dave Leavitt and Kent’s father Allen
01:12 first did business when they first
01:14 started out decades ago we’re still
01:16 going out to the client meeting with
01:18 them face to face picking up the phone
01:20 and talking to them instead of just
01:22 sending emails all day long we’ve hired
01:24 some of the best people in the insurance
01:27 industry to join love at first over the
01:28 last 20 years and we’ve invested in them
01:31 we’re now a 60 person family and in 2015
01:35 business insurance magazine recognized
01:37 us as one of the best places to work in
01:40 the insurance industry every time a
01:42 competitor gets bought out it’s an
01:44 opportunity for us to hire the best
01:46 people in the industry who realizes the
01:48 culture change at their place of work
01:50 and want to come to a more
01:51 family-oriented environment frankly that
01:54 that’s the family part of the
01:56 family-owned business it’s everybody
01:57 that’s a part of our company right now
01:59 and in the future we were very
02:00 appreciative that the Business Council
02:02 of Westchester recognized us as a
02:05 successful third generation because
02:06 statistically most companies don’t make
02:09 it to the third generation
02:10 and we thrived
00:06 Levesque first is one of West Chester’s
00:08 largest independently owned insurance
00:10 agencies we’re a third-generation agency
00:13 and while most agencies of our size have
00:16 long since been bought up by the
00:17 national brokerage firms we remain
00:17 (a block of text “Jason Schiciano President Levitt-Fuirst Associates)
00:19 independent and growing level first
00:22 insurers both businesses and successful
00:24 family construction insurance real
00:24 (block of text “Ken Fuirst President Levvit-Fuirst Associates)
00:27 estate insurance general business
00:29 insurance and the personal side we
00:31 specialize in insurance for successful
00:33 families that have a lot of assets to
00:35 protect Lebanon did buy my partner Jason
00:38 skis jános father-in-law Dave Leonhard
00:40 and my father Alan first when Jase and I
00:42 (pictures of Jason and Ken’s fathers)
00:43 joined in 290 the firm was a small 12
00:47 person insurance agency and we’ve grown
00:49 it to 60 employees at this point we’ve
00:51 recently moved to a brand new
00:53 state-of-the-art 10,000 square foot
00:55 office in Tarrytown New York our growth
00:57 has taken us well outside the boundaries
00:59 of Westchester and in fact we do
01:01 business in almost every state in the
01:03 country in an industry that’s dominated
01:06 by the large national firms we’re still
01:08 doing business the way my father-in-law
01:10 Dave Leavitt and Kent’s father Allen
01:12 first did business when they first
01:14 started out decades ago we’re still
01:16 going out to the client meeting with
01:18 them face to face picking up the phone
01:20 and talking to them instead of just
01:22 sending emails all day long we’ve hired
01:24 some of the best people in the insurance
01:27 industry to join love at first over the
01:28 last 20 years and we’ve invested in them
01:31 we’re now a 60 person family and in 2015
01:35 business insurance magazine recognized
01:37 us as one of the best places to work in
01:40 the insurance industry every time a
01:42 competitor gets bought out it’s an
01:44 opportunity for us to hire the best
01:46 people in the industry who realizes the
01:48 culture change at their place of work
01:50 and want to come to a more
01:51 family-oriented environment frankly that
01:54 that’s the family part of the
01:56 family-owned business it’s everybody
01:57 that’s a part of our company right now
01:59 and in the future we were very
02:00 appreciative that the Business Council
02:02 of Westchester recognized us as a
02:05 successful third generation because
02:06 statistically most companies don’t make
02:09 it to the third generation
02:10 and we thrived
2017 Business Council of Westchester Hall of Fame Award in the “Family Owned Business” category
00:00 (music with a logo and a text “Habitat for Humanity Westchester County – New York”)
00:06 leavitt first at a historic kickoff of a
00:10 house sponsorship of a small business
00:12 and Yonkers of one of our homes on
00:14 battle Hill would taking it back today
00:16 with these guys they don’t know what
00:18 they’re in for but it’s exciting and was
00:20 so blessed that they have committed to
00:22 sponsor a house for our 25th anniversary
00:23 a small business family-run business 40
00:27 years in business we need you to be part
00:29 of this your first would love it first
00:31 here and with Habitat the excitement is
00:33 building state-owned it’s a wonderful
00:36 way to be apart of something that helps
00:40 build the community and we’re so excited
00:45 and proud to be a part of that
00:47 organization it’s a way of giving
00:49 someone that doesn’t have what we have
00:51 he is an arm it gives them a home to
00:54 live in a better home a family that
00:57 needs it this is better than the NBA
00:59 Playoffs I have coaches Ken and Jason
01:02 here coach what do you think holidays
01:04 kickoff go I think we have potential to
01:06 make it all through the season all
01:07 through the season you think we got some
01:09 winners hit a very diverse team it’s
01:11 going to be an outstanding effort well
01:12 well you guys are out staying at Jason
01:15 and Ken who run this great company why’d
01:18 you decide to do this we thought after
01:21 being in Yonkers for 20 years and in
01:23 business for over 40 years it was time
01:24 to give back we’ve got some great
01:26 employees from the Yonkers community and
01:29 we thought this would be the perfect
01:30 location to give back and housing is in
01:33 such demand in this area we thought this
01:36 would be a great way for all 45 of our
01:38 employees to really make a concrete
01:40 contribution to the neighborhood get
01:43 involved right and Jason you everyone
01:45 should have a good home and a good
01:46 insurance policy just a little bit what
01:50 kind of insurance to you guys right or I
01:52 don’t know I know I’ve never asked you
01:53 that question but we write a lot of
01:56 diverse types of insurance or right
01:58 insurance for virtually all types of
01:59 businesses in particular contractors and
02:02 in real estate and we also write
02:04 homeowners insurance as well but you got
02:06 to have a home first so that’s why we’re
02:07 doing what we’re doing right absolutely
02:09 and also I know like you have your hard
02:13 hat so I’m excited to hear that you know
02:15 you also said Ken there’s already some
02:17 company signed up to help and how can
02:19 someone
02:20 they want to get that company or be a
02:21 sponsor get involved to make this happen
02:23 well we’ve already had quite a few of
02:26 our partners travelers chubs cna
02:28 hartford jian greater new york McGowan
02:34 and Bank direct as you know corporate
02:37 sponsors have come to underwrite part of
02:39 this project with us so we’re excited
02:41 about that and anyone that’s interested
02:42 in coming to any of the eight days that
02:44 we’re coming out or just make a
02:46 financial contribution they could go to
02:48 the Levitt first website there’s a link
02:50 right to our project and you know we’d
02:53 love to have more people you know come
02:54 out and help us absolutely Kenan Jason
02:56 the excitement is building it’s gonna be
02:58 a great great time nug thank you guys
03:00 these guys are amazing that there are
03:02 small business I mean look at they’re
03:04 getting ready to have fun and we’re just
03:06 so blessed to be here and that really
03:09 maybe it will be the executive Boulevard
03:11 challenge at every company like they did
03:13 in executive Boulevard came out and
03:15 imagine if everyone did we’d start to
03:17 rebuild the whole neighborhood that’s
03:18 what they’re doing here today stay tuned
03:20 the excitement is building we love you
03:23 and we love first love it what they’re
03:26 doing love it first all together we’re
03:28 going to make it happen god bless
03:30 (Text displayed “Make a Donation Today”)
03:37 you
00:06 leavitt first at a historic kickoff of a
00:10 house sponsorship of a small business
00:12 and Yonkers of one of our homes on
00:14 battle Hill would taking it back today
00:16 with these guys they don’t know what
00:18 they’re in for but it’s exciting and was
00:20 so blessed that they have committed to
00:22 sponsor a house for our 25th anniversary
00:23 a small business family-run business 40
00:27 years in business we need you to be part
00:29 of this your first would love it first
00:31 here and with Habitat the excitement is
00:33 building state-owned it’s a wonderful
00:36 way to be apart of something that helps
00:40 build the community and we’re so excited
00:45 and proud to be a part of that
00:47 organization it’s a way of giving
00:49 someone that doesn’t have what we have
00:51 he is an arm it gives them a home to
00:54 live in a better home a family that
00:57 needs it this is better than the NBA
00:59 Playoffs I have coaches Ken and Jason
01:02 here coach what do you think holidays
01:04 kickoff go I think we have potential to
01:06 make it all through the season all
01:07 through the season you think we got some
01:09 winners hit a very diverse team it’s
01:11 going to be an outstanding effort well
01:12 well you guys are out staying at Jason
01:15 and Ken who run this great company why’d
01:18 you decide to do this we thought after
01:21 being in Yonkers for 20 years and in
01:23 business for over 40 years it was time
01:24 to give back we’ve got some great
01:26 employees from the Yonkers community and
01:29 we thought this would be the perfect
01:30 location to give back and housing is in
01:33 such demand in this area we thought this
01:36 would be a great way for all 45 of our
01:38 employees to really make a concrete
01:40 contribution to the neighborhood get
01:43 involved right and Jason you everyone
01:45 should have a good home and a good
01:46 insurance policy just a little bit what
01:50 kind of insurance to you guys right or I
01:52 don’t know I know I’ve never asked you
01:53 that question but we write a lot of
01:56 diverse types of insurance or right
01:58 insurance for virtually all types of
01:59 businesses in particular contractors and
02:02 in real estate and we also write
02:04 homeowners insurance as well but you got
02:06 to have a home first so that’s why we’re
02:07 doing what we’re doing right absolutely
02:09 and also I know like you have your hard
02:13 hat so I’m excited to hear that you know
02:15 you also said Ken there’s already some
02:17 company signed up to help and how can
02:19 someone
02:20 they want to get that company or be a
02:21 sponsor get involved to make this happen
02:23 well we’ve already had quite a few of
02:26 our partners travelers chubs cna
02:28 hartford jian greater new york McGowan
02:34 and Bank direct as you know corporate
02:37 sponsors have come to underwrite part of
02:39 this project with us so we’re excited
02:41 about that and anyone that’s interested
02:42 in coming to any of the eight days that
02:44 we’re coming out or just make a
02:46 financial contribution they could go to
02:48 the Levitt first website there’s a link
02:50 right to our project and you know we’d
02:53 love to have more people you know come
02:54 out and help us absolutely Kenan Jason
02:56 the excitement is building it’s gonna be
02:58 a great great time nug thank you guys
03:00 these guys are amazing that there are
03:02 small business I mean look at they’re
03:04 getting ready to have fun and we’re just
03:06 so blessed to be here and that really
03:09 maybe it will be the executive Boulevard
03:11 challenge at every company like they did
03:13 in executive Boulevard came out and
03:15 imagine if everyone did we’d start to
03:17 rebuild the whole neighborhood that’s
03:18 what they’re doing here today stay tuned
03:20 the excitement is building we love you
03:23 and we love first love it what they’re
03:26 doing love it first all together we’re
03:28 going to make it happen god bless
03:30 (Text displayed “Make a Donation Today”)
03:37 you
5/1/2013: Levitt-Fuirst Habitat for Humanity Kickoff
00:11 Go in I’m sure you got a lot of work to do
00:19 Oh yeah you already…
00:19 Oh yeah you already…
8/4/2014: Ken’s Return 1: Post Cross Country Bicycle Ride
00:05 (camera man laughing)
00:22 oh my god
00:26 this is not gonna be a productive day is this
00:22 oh my god
00:26 this is not gonna be a productive day is this
8/4/2014: Ken’s Return 2: Post Cross Country Bicycle Ride
00:02 where are you hand this is like where’s
00:10 (laughs)
00:11 waldo at a point n there’s can
00:19 (Whooo!)
00:27 (laughs)
00:10 (laughs)
00:11 waldo at a point n there’s can
00:19 (Whooo!)
00:27 (laughs)
