There’s an old joke about business partners on the outs. The punchline is something like, “my lawyer is bigger than your lawyer!” Punchlines aside, though, who can you sue, when, and for what? In our litigious society, the short answer is n…
Among the more mundane—yet vitally important—amenities in nearly every multifamily community is its mailbox and package delivery system. With the massive increase in deliveries in the Amazon Era, and especially post-pandemic, the design and…
When someone buys a private single-family home, it’s clear who the king or queen of the castle is: the homeowner. When it comes to condominiums and co-op apartments, however, the relationship between resident and property is a little more c…
When my grandfather came to New York City from Hungary in 1924 he lived in a rooming house on East 78th Street on the then not-very-fashionable Upper East Side of Manhattan. When temperatures soared in the summer, the family slept on the fi…
According to the Foundation for Community Association Research’s Community Association Fact Book 2023, 30% of the U.S. population currently resides in a condominium community, housing cooperative, or homeowners association, with numbers of …
Bill McBride notes in his CalculatedRisk newsletter that U.S. Census Bureau data that privately-owned housing starts reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,360,000 in April, a 5.7% increase from March’s revised estimate of 1,28…
‘John’ (not his real name, in consideration of his and his neighbors’ privacy) has lived in co-op buildings for over 40 years, and in his particular co-op - a well-tended, 100% sold, mid-size building in Manhattan - for over two decades. Th…
Whether you’re a manager or a board member, running a co-op, condo, or HOA has never been an easy job. There’s always a capital project to fund, a contractor to hire, a dispute to resolve, a leak to repair … the list can feel endless. Tha…
One of the most widely felt effects of New York City’s multiple efforts to fight climate change is the shift away from oil- and gas-fired heating plants to electric. These efforts have been, and continue to be, largely successful. One of th…
Local Law 97 (LL97), part of New York City’s drive to achieve a zero carbon footprint by 2050, looms large for both the city’s landlords and the boards of shared-interest communities. The cost of compliance is high, and the process complica…