Elevator Repair/Maintenance Company Needed for Small Building
Six months ago I posted a similar thread and got a recommendation that didn’t pan out. So here I am in hopes of getting another name or two. I manage a small building with one older elevator and we’ve been using the same company for service and mandated inspections the entire time. Not only have their prices gone up way faster than inflation over the past decade, but the quality of interacting with them has suffered after the operation was sold by the original owner. We’re looking for an elevator service company but we fear our single small old elevator will not fit into the profile of most of the industry giants. Are there any reliable reasonable smaller companies still left in NYC? Thanks for your recs.
ejalbk
in General Discussion 5 years and 3 months ago
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27 replies
restorationcontractor | 5 years and 2 months ago
Coronavirus vaccine development-Promising.
Vaccine to protect us from our so called “leaders” not so much….
IronBalls | 5 years and 2 months ago
I know folks who recently left Brooklyn permanently after 20 years and bought a nice house in St. Louis for less than the price of a studio apartment in Bed Stuy. A lot of people will never be returning, at least not until the city has fully recovered, which could be decades with our current crop of socialist leaders taxing and regulating up the wazoo.
stevecym | 5 years and 2 months ago
@restoration contractor: people leaving the city was part of the problem in the 60’s and 70’s. only they did not leave for the weekend, they left for good. i hope it does not go back to that-
lkrshacmzcy | 5 years and 2 months ago
This has been an interesting thread to follow! Off to South Dakota it will be soon enough
lkrshacmzcy | 5 years and 2 months ago
This has been an interesting thread to follow! Off to South Dakota it will be soon enough
restorationcontractor | 5 years and 2 months ago
Ironballs you have a very good point there that I did not consider. Covid is one thing, our “leaders” and the current state of affairs quite another.
Amidst rumors of a police sickout I myself left the city with my family for the weekend. I just didn’t care to be there. Absolutely nothing to do with Covid!
IronBalls | 5 years and 2 months ago
Restorationcontractor, NYC was saved in the past when voters said enough is enough and elected business oriented, tough on crime leaders. With current NYC voting demographics, how is that possibly going to happen now? Yes, Covid 19 won’t last, but our left wing leaders will inevitably resort to raising taxes instead of slashing government spending in a failed attempt to close the budget deficit. Real estate pays 40% of the annual budget in property taxes. Property taxes on commercial and multifamily are currently about 30% of gross rents annually. Considering we can’t find tenants now because folks are leaving NYC and almost nobody is looking to expand, I see a future of mass foreclosures and bankruptcy. Where’s the possible upside? Everything looks so grim.
restorationcontractor | 5 years and 2 months ago
Ironballs, agree with you on most, but I don’t have the apocalyptic view you have, it’s still NYC and I think after Covid people will still want to be here. We will probably see some reasonable decline, if you’re holding long term it shouldn’t be concerning, it seems at some point we will have a vaccine so there is that to consider as well.
I think the upstate NY market is going to boom with more second home and first home buyers fleeing NYC, not to mention the much better investment market return.
Can’t comment on PA, the NY market is enough for me to follow, but is seems reasonable that it can only improve as well.
Only time will tell.
IronBalls | 5 years and 2 months ago
Absolutely. Which is why we may be looking at a property market apocalypse in NYC. With rents falling 10-20% so far, coop, condo, and townhouse prices are sure to follow. I own rental property in NYC and PA, and it’s so much easier in PA to get permits, evict non-paying tenants, and actually make a decent return on investment. Doing business in NYC is an expensive headache. Without the upside now eliminated, we’re screwed.
restorationcontractor | 5 years and 2 months ago
RGB sucks, there are real cap rates north of NYC. easy to find turnkey (or close to it) 10% and up. & non elevator buildings.
Unless it’s a property you have owned long term, or in poor shape/vacant with potential upside I don’t see why anyone would bother with the 3,4,5% cap rates I see for sale here.
And no RGB (or looting) for that matter.
IronBalls | 5 years and 2 months ago
You think the NYC Rent Guidelines Board giving andlords of rent stabilized apartments the third zero percent annual rent increase in the last six years is going to help them afford repairs?
resident2 | 5 years and 3 months ago
stevecym: You ask what happens if a landlord shuts down the elevator because they cannot afford to repair/replace it? The first thing that happens is the tenants get a rent reduction for reduction of services. Landlords cannot get increases for supplying better services, but tenants still get rent reductions for reduced services even if it is for safety reasons! If there are enough handicapped tenants that literally cannot get down the stairs the City will hire private contractors to make “Elastoplast” repairs at 3-4 times mark up prices that do not get inspected by the City and charge it to the Landlord …. eventually the City will “foreclose” or third party appropriate the building to take it from the struggling Landlord & turn it over under a very dubious HPD program and assign (give) it to a favored Landlord.
The Brooklyn Borough Presidents office has been fighting against this program because it often hastens up racist gentrification when given to some of the “favored” Landlords in Neighborhoods such as Crown Heights & Bed Sty for example.
Meanwhile the City is one of the worst Landlords in the City and cannot / do not maintain their own buildings that are supposed to house the largest amount of low income tenants even though they get huge Federal & State subsides to do so, pay no RE Taxes and other expenses that private landlords have to pay.
The recent ridiculous restrictions on Private Landlords does absolutely nothing to help good, hardworking low income tenants and discourages investment in low income housing. When I refer to “low income” I am not talking about the over inflated ideas of “low income” in new development buildings that get huge RE Tax abatements, while the real struggling Landlords of the real low income, pay some of the highest rates of RE Taxes in the CITY!
IronBalls | 5 years and 3 months ago
@no-permitz Moving trucks everywhere. Folks are leaving NYC for good. $2m townhouses will be worth half or less this time next year. Very little is actually renting and the stuff that’s renting is down at least 15-20%. You haven’t seen sales prices tank yet, but you will. It’s takes a little time.
IronBalls | 5 years and 3 months ago
@ stevecym, individual apartments may be rent controlled, but few buildings are all rent controlled, though many are all rent stabilized. It depends on the unit history. If the owner didn’t repair a broken elevator for whatever reason, tenants would call 311 and the DOB would give the building violations. If the landlord still refused to repair, the DOB might fix the elevator, but would do so at a cost much higher than most private owners would pay. The cost would be billed by the DOF on the property owner’s tax bill. If the owner still refused to pay, the DOF would put a lien on the property which could eventually lead to foreclosure. A smart landlord would find someway to bandaid the elevator.
ejalbk | 5 years and 3 months ago
Back in the 1960s when the situation was about as bleak as it is now, small landlords used to organize protest marches in the City Hall area that were well attended by fellow landlords that were in dire financial shape. That needs to happen again. Any de Blasio statues that can be torn down?
stevecym | 5 years and 3 months ago
@ resident2 & iron balls, as a matter of discussion and curiosity, what would happen if an owner of a rent controlled building could no longer get a service contract and could not afford to repair the antiquated equipment and just shit the elevators down? suppose the money was really not there?
IronBalls | 5 years and 3 months ago
Yeah, NYC landlord here. Now that there’s no way to recoup captial investments, or to renovate and legally charge more, the name of the landlord game in NYC is doing everything as cheaply as you can. It’s the only way to squeeze out a profit. I’m worried that NYC is going to totally collapse. The human outflow right now from the city is bound to put massive negative pressure on real estate prices and rents. We may be looking at some very bad times. Sorry, no advice on elevator repairs.
resident2 | 5 years and 3 months ago
ejalbk : No the rent guidelines board does NOT take into account that most “older” buildings, that get the same rent increases as new 421A or J51 (NEW Buildings or Rehabbed Buildings) Rent Stabilized increases have elevators and other structural & mechanical systems that are upwards of 70/80 years old in many cases.
It used to be that Landlords could put in a new elevator & get a Major Capital Improvement increase spread over all the tenants with minimal /maximum amounts on some tenants, older tenants got Senior Citizen Rent Increase exemptions, but the Landlords could get the increase added when there was a vacancy. Based on that the Landlord could see a way of financing the expenditure. That has changed. Landlords can no longer get an increase for putting money into the building!
The whole system is screwed because it does not help good tenants or good Landlords. But Politicians look like they are doing something.
stevecym | 5 years and 3 months ago
@ejalbk: just like the governor or mayor or whomever influences the rent guidelines board will serve the jail time if someone gets killed because a landlord could not afford an elevator service and decided to do a repair himself.