Roof rights and roof deck
Hi, Looking for a bit of Brownstoner advice. We recently moved into the top unit of a brownstone (2 other units below us in the building) and I was wondering how we might go about attaining roof rights? We would like to have the roof renovated (the inspector said before we bought the place that…
Hi,
Looking for a bit of Brownstoner advice. We recently moved into the top unit of a brownstone (2 other units below us in the building) and I was wondering how we might go about attaining roof rights?
We would like to have the roof renovated (the inspector said before we bought the place that the roof would need to be replaced anyway within a year or two). The plan is to build a roof deck.
The existing condo offering plan has the roof designated as a common area.
Nobody else uses the roof apart from us and the entrance is currently a ladder from the hallway outside the top floor door.
Any advice much appreciated 🙂
Thanks.
What newsouthsloper said.
The bylaws would also have to make clear what part of the roof would remain the responsibility of all of the owners to repair, and what part would be solely your responsibility.
Slick is thinking outside the box: it might get the ball rolling.
The interest would probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% of the square foot price of other units in the building, for about half the surface of the roof. I seem to recall seeing that figure somewhere but I’ll be damned if I can remember where!
Roof rights are propert rights, you will have to offer to buy out the other owner’s interest in the roof and and then ammed the bylaws by a vote.
I dont know what the value of the rights would be, but simply offering to pay to fix the roof probably wouldnt cut it for me if I was one of the owners.
Kissiffer don’t go too far making agreeing to pick up expenses if your end goal is to create a roofdeck. There are other issues there too that might create obstacles. If the condo is requiring the roofdeck to be legally and properly constructed, a ladder isn’t going to cut it — a legal roofdeck requires proper egress, meaning a stairway.
i think the solution is to propose a large assessment to repair the roof. then offer to pay for it in exchange for roof rights.
Sounds good. Thanks all.
Those sort of issues would be specific to how the bylaws are written for your condo. Once you agree, you just write up an ammendment.
Thanks. Just wondered what steps are involved to make it official – legally changing bylaw agreements etc. (getting together to discuss it was a little bit obvious ;).
Once the roof gets renovated, the others will want to use it.
What denton said.
If there’s only three units, obviously, you get together and discuss it.