Thirty years of owners helping owners.

With 2,500 members, CHIP has some very small owners and some very large owners, but its membership by and large, as well as its focus, is on the problems of the moderate-sized, professional housing operators. These are typically people who own between five and twenty buildings and operate real estate as their principal profession.

CHIP was founded in 1966 by a group of owners who were facing similar plights, meeting in courthouse halls and through their attorneys to discuss their problems and help each other. At that time, the only volunteer owner's group was the long-since folded Metropolitan Fair Rent Committee. But those who founded CHIP believed it represented only the largest owners and was not sufficiently concerned with their problems.

"The real guiding lights were Sheldon Katz and his brother the late Leon Katz," recalls Dan Margulies, now the group's executive director. "They started with the acronym because they were going to `chip' away at rent control, and then figured out they could spell out Community Housing Preservation Program."

They chipped away very successfully, and the duo, along with founder William Moses - now CHIP's chairman emeritus - practically lived in Albany while the legislature actually passed vacancy decontrol in 1971.

Then Malcolm Wilson became governor when Nelson Rockefeller resigned and Wilson was advised to restore rent regulation to win the New York City vote. "He did and he didn't," quips Margulies. "He restored it, but he didn't get the New York City vote."

So in 1974, the state legislature passed the Emergency Tenant Protection Act that reregulated everything and began rent stabilization. "But essentially, it was a cynical political move to get the vote," explains Margulies, a veteran of Albany's political mysteries. "CHIP has continued to fight the fight."

Although CHIP does not have the resources of the Rent Stabilization Association (RSA) to hire full-time counselors or professional lobbyists - which Margulies insists are essential to the industry - they do have the ability to compliment those efforts with the personal touch. "We go personally to meet with legislators from our own districts and tell them our experiences," says Margulies.

They also have a small but active group of members who volunteer to go to meetings with the state legislators and ask to come to board meetings, Margulies adds.

Along with the benefit of Margulies' accessibility and rental lore, CHIP attracts those owners who want to get directly involved in lobbying efforts and are willing to help other owners, just as its founders did nearly 30 years ago.

"We are still very much an organization of owners helping owners, n insists Margulies who is the only professional staffer, along with a secretary.

R. Bonnie Haber, president of RBH Management, who is also CHIP's current president, believes that staying involved has helped her manage her buildings. "I've attended meetings with legislators and learned about issues quite a long time before they come out in public," she notes.

CHIP Vice President Rubin Pikus, who heads Milbrook Properties, is one of the larger owners of what he calls "middle market" property. He joined CHIP in the mid-1980s when he was disgusted with rising water and sewer charges and property taxes.

"I went to a board meeting and said I wanted to stop paying taxes," he reminisces. "They said, `You can't do that, but let's talk about it.' It stimulated a hot conversation and I realized these people were interested and they were doing things. But they were doing it behind the scenes. "

All board meetings are open to members and if they keep coming, they usually get elected to the board. "These are all owners," says Margulies. While there is an advisory board that includes other CHIP supporters, those active owners that can't make it to every board meeting and some attorneys, the board of directors itself is strictly made up of owners.

Because of the volume of his business, Pikus found there was always something CHIP could use to apply data or credibility to a city problem. "And I was willing to talk about it," he adds. Pikus still talks, speaking to legislators and before other real estate groups and even at RSA seminars. "We participate in many of the city panels and are a part of every voting and lobbying issue," he notes.

Joseph Strasburg, president of the umbrella-like and largest rental owners' group RSA, agrees that CHIP is helpful to all owners when it comes to issues of legislation.

"It is important that when we come and testify before legislative bodies they don't just hear from the Joe Strasburgs of the world, but they see the Dan Margulies of the world and the Bonnie Habers of the world," Strasburg explains. "They bring a different perspective to the debate, since they are representative of a small universe of ownership. They complement our endeavors as well. The more CHIPs there are in existence, the better is it for all of us in the housing industry."

In nine years with CHIP, Margulies has helped CHIP remain a pick axe in the fight for decent middle market housing that does not leave its owners or the city bankrupt.

Coming up with unique suggestions and being able to swiftly critique opposition arguments has also made Margulies a valuable commodity in the continuing debate against rent controls.

Ed Tristram, president of the City Club, says "Dan is a member of the City Club Housing Committee and is one of the most articulate people I've ever met. He has a civilized way of approaching the viewpoints of people who differ from him and that furthers a debate that is so important to this city."

Margulies had been a public affairs consultant for the years prior to joining CHIP. Before that he worked for the state legislature, eventually ending up as an assistant director of a state commission on efficiency in government. He also worked as program director for the governmental operations committee.

Now residing in an Upper West Side co-op - where he is treasurer - with his wife and two children, Margulies also sees the links between co-op ownership and owners of apartment buildings. Both rely on other people's payments to ensure the survival of the building. And unfortunately, more co-ops have taken on the direct ownership of rent stabilized and rent controlled units.

So the original tenants who bought co-ops now find themselves in the unlikely position of being owners of other people's apartments and having to navigate the very system they once celebrated and defended.

"We do get calls from co-ops boards, shareholders and managing agents who we try to assist," says Margulies. "The issues of dealing with the regulated tenants, lead paint, water meters, hardship applications and such are ones that usually come up from co-ops.

Mary Ann Rothman, executive director of the Council of New York Cooperatives, says of CHIP, "They are very ably represented by Dan Margulies, who knows something on any issue that anyone brings to him."

Margulies manages to stay on top of every arcane regulation an owner is likely to face, along with those they are saved from facing through his dialogues with multitudinous officials and positions on city task forces. As the ultimate ProblemBuster, he is the source of a vast treasure trove of minutia that is of grave concern to rental apartment house owners.

"There is a consensus that Dan is the most knowledgeable guy in the industry," agrees Gerald Pindus, president of TedPin Realty and one of CHIP's executive board members. "Any time you pick up the phone, Dan always takes the time to give you the answer. His only fault is knowing so much and giving you more information than you need. He's the guru of the real estate industry."

But Margulies credits his board members and the other owners for much of work. "When members call me with a question about building management or how a particular regulation may be dealt with, I relay to them the anecdotal responses of other members or put them in touch with board members who have experienced the same problem," he explains. "So they get the answer from an owner rather than a staff counselor or attorney."

While some CHIP members just send in their dues checks once a year, read the newsletters and make use of the special publications such as those on Housing Court forms and estate planning, Margulies says other members call almost weekly with management questions. And he and the other owners respond to them all.

Once an owner called Margulies with a perplexing problem. He couldn't get heat above the second floor of his building and neither his plumber nor a city inspector could figure out why. Margulies called one of the board members at the time, Bruce Wittenberg, who called back from his car phone and was coincidentally driving by the building.

"He stopped in and spent a half-hour in the boiler room and figured out the return line went through the building next door and was filling it with water," recalls Margulies. "We don't always provide on-site service, but we can usually help over the phone."

CHIP is about to start a fund-raising campaign to begin a series of advertisements in portions of upstate New York to educate voters and their representatives.

"The legislators may not rush to take up vacancy decontrol, but may realize the deposit of rent in court is important and a healthy real estate industry in New York City means less of a tax burden for the rest of the state," explains Pikus. "We're convinced this is a state-wide issue and the battle will be fought and won in Albany."

According to Pikus, the current CHIP agenda targets the rent regulations. Unfortunately, the recently enacted luxury decontrols do not benefit most CHIP owners, who often cannot collect current rent guidelines increases because rents are already above the market in areas outside the center of Manhattan.

The lobbying efforts are also focusing on the downsizing of DHCR, as well as concerns about water metering and lead paint abatement.

Adds Haber: "We feel like we have a window of opportunity with the new administrations of both Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Governor George Pataki. It's a great opportunity for us to make things happen. We can really get out and do something."