How to appeal to coop board for permission to turn 1st floor window into door and access back area?

Our 9 unit coop building has a little strip of concrete behind the building. It’s accessible only through the basement so no one ever uses it. We’d like to turn a window into a door and use the area as a backyard. Anyone btdt? Idea about how to begin negotiating with the board? Should we offer to buy rights to the backyard? How much? We’re on the ground floor and the other 1st floor apt is a pied a terre used 2-3 wkds/year. The bldg next door just did this and it looks nice. Any advice appreciated!

kjb

in Construction 13 years and 11 months ago

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slopegirl | 13 years and 8 months ago

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You may want to read the by-laws first and see how rights are assigned for that space. We found in our first floor coop that rights were already assigned to our unit. Maybe rights are in common but maybe they are shared with other ground floor unit, which would be a different scenario for you. We did this job in the ’90s, got a window turned into a door and a porch/stair to garden below. You will need to make sure stairs etc are fireproof and meet DOB code as far as distance from property lines etc. You will also need to make sure if you tear up backyard cement that the new surface drains properly away from building and won’t cause basement flooding. In our case we used an engineer to consult for the grade.A french drain would only help the basement be more dry if you were to include in your plans. As long as you address these issues in proposal, I think the project will only enhance the building overall. Some in apartments above you might worry about noise potential I suppose. also by the way, we found the bottom part of our “patch” (our patch was 10′ deep by 25′ wide) was pretty buggy. We used the upper “porch” to grow herbs and sit outside, and we only really went down to garden and not to hang out. If I had it to do over, I’d make sure porch was a little bigger than we’d made it. Say maybe at least 4′ deep and as wide as possible. That top space will probably be the one you want to hang out on more.

kjb | 13 years and 11 months ago

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Thanks! I’ve been watching your post too. I don’t mind sharing the back area since we’re not planning to do anything but sit and hang out back there (no building or alterations). We just want an easier way to get to it. Only access points would be through our apt or the basement and we haven’t seen anyone out there in 6 yrs.

kissiffer4 | 13 years and 11 months ago

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Kb, we’re trying to do something similar with our roof – obtaining roof rights. Problem is, one person has suggested the area will become a ‘limited common area’, however, another has said you should try to obtain outright rights in case you want to do something with the space down the road, and avoid having to go through the board to do it. As a limited common area, despite having exclusive rights, I believe you will need to get approval for most things.

kjb | 13 years and 11 months ago

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Thank you! I’m hoping to use the same contractor as neighbors. Do realtors offer estimates like this or does anyone know how to estimate the value?

Minmin | 13 years and 11 months ago

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Kb–I think you’ve found your strategy. Prepare a nice letter/proposal expressing what you wish to do, offering to buy a portion of the backyard (or all of it, depending upon whether the building staff uses it at all), and explaining how you would like to turn a window into a door. Use the building next door to bolster your claim: get pics, inside and out if possible. You might want to do a little homework and call in an engineer, because your building will probably make you do this. Upfront costs will be rewriting the coop docs (to account for the increased number of shares), costs of the sale (call in a realtor or someone to make a best estimate for your proposed price), and then the costs of making it livable. They might go for it, but they might just decide to make it a building amenity, or an amenity shared between you (exclusive use of a portion) and the building (the remainder).