@Roberta,
Roberta wrote:
dlowan wrote:
roger wrote:
Finally starting to settle down, huh?
I may have to leave...they're killing me with doubling the strata fees and these $5,500 special levies.
1. What the hell are doubling strata fees and $5,500 levies?
I mentioned earlier that I've been in my apt. for 35 years. The rent isn't high by Noo Yawk standards. You could move here, and we could be roomies. The apartment is clean and I have new slipcovers. I've never had a roomie. I'd probably kill you after a week or so, but we'd probably have fun the first few days. Then you'd be dead, and I'd be in jail. Neither of us would don't have to worry about rent or strata feels or levies.
Whadya think?
1. I don't rent, I own (well, I own two thirds and the bank owns the rest.) I think you guys call this a condominium? We call it a strata title building. We have to pay fees every quarter for building insurance, building maintenance, cleaning of public areas etc. Normally, bigger buildings hire a strata management company to manage the building...so we also pay towards their salaries. I was paying about $600 a quarter. A year ago, the building committee (elected from owners of units) and strata company flagged that we had some big jobs coming up, and a general meeting agreed to impose a levy to save towards these things ( a new roof and major lift work). This doubled my fees to over $1,200 a quarter.
Then, when the new roof suddenly stopped being something we could do in about a year, and became a job that had to be done asap, another meeting was held which decided NOT to use any of the money we had already saved towards the roof work (about half of the eventual cost) but to impose a special levy upon all owners for the full amount. In my case (all these things vary with the value of your apartment and mine is one of the more valuable ones) this amounted to a demand for $5,500 with no time to pay.
The doubling of the fees was already causing me quite big problems financially. Thing is, my instincts tell me that once anything goes up, it never goes down again. The doubling was meant to be a temporary thing until we had enough money saved, but I am already hearing stuff about a whole bunch of other things the committee want to do. I agree with keeping the building well maintained, it's my investment and where I live, but I suspect that our committee is now composed of wealthy people, who will not understand that many people do not have the money to pay for things fast. ( For instance, re the $5,500 one of the options presented at the meeting was that people be given six months to pay...that was voted down...and I can almost never get to these meetings because they begin too early for me to be able to get away from work in time...that option would have saved me a lot of grief.) This is, I discover, a common fate for such buildings.
It's getting hard for me to meet my mortgage plus the $200 per fortnight in strata fees plus these sudden demands for money. I would never have bought the ticket to go overseas if I had known I would suddenly have to find this five and a half grand.
2. Sure. I just need permanent residency in the US, and a job. If you die first, do I get the apartment?
