Q. Can you tell me if it is legal for a co-op board to turn down the sale of a unit because they think the selling price is too low? The appraisal from a well-known real estate appraiser was much lower than the contract price. However, th…
Until you factor in the people who make up the community and culture within it, a building is only a structural space. Residents, owners, maintenance workers, vendors, superintendents and porters all contribute to this culture, but few elem…
When co-op and condo residents agree to serve as board members, some don’t understand the full implications of their service. Governing even a small building or association requires making decisions that can involve hundreds of thousands of…
Home sales rarely if ever happen sight-unseen, and condominium and cooperative units are no exception. When purchasing a lived-in space from its previous owner, a buyer may expect to receive certain pertinent information that could impact t…
On a base level, character traits reflect whether a person is ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Likewise, a board is comprised of a group of individuals who collectively become one ‘character’ charged with steering their community in the right direction. De…
Chances are if you’re a resident in a co-op, condo, or HOA community, you’re familiar with your property’s board of directors (or trustees, or managers, depending on what part of the country you live in). Boards are usually made up of volun…
Despite the fact that most people would agree that discrimination is a bad thing, discrimination persists, which suggests either that existing laws against it are sometimes ignored, or that the legal definition of ‘discrimination’ isn’t alw…
Are condominiums, co-ops and HOAs cohesive communities? Is community part and parcel of what the purchaser is seeking when they buy into a co-op, condo or HOA? The concept of ‘community cohesiveness’ could be defined as a community in which…
Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat, oh my! Today, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t use some form of social media to communicate with friends, family, and colleagues. Whether they are posting updates on their daily life, sha…
On January 9, shortly before the end of his second and final term, President Barack Obama sent a directive to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), ordering a reduction in FHA mortgage insurance premiums by a quarter of…