The drop in crime in New York in the last 40 years has been nothing short of miraculous. In the 1970s, the city’s obvious danger was notorious. Muggings were commonplace. Subway cars rolled along the tracks tagged in graffiti and ugly fluo…

Cristina Torre kept her eyes on the kid, as he dropped right into the old mitts. On June 19, 2013, the daughter of Yankees legend Joe Torre caught a 1-year-old baby boy when he fell from the awning of a Brooklyn storefront. Dillin Miller h…

In New York, buying a co-op or a condo goes something like this: Your realtor takes you to see your dream home. You put in an offer—along with a bunch of other people. After a ferocious bidding war, your offer is finally accepted. You subm…

Q When is a Place of Assembly Permit required for the private common areas (for example a roof, lobby or basement) of a cooperative building? Particularly when those areas are used for many shareholders and residents to assemble for annua…

Most New York residents—and certainly most New York attorneys are aware of the Warranty of Habitability. Few may know that its origins are statutory, and fewer still care that it contradicts common law, but most would be surprised by the t…

As the autumn leaves change and begin to fall, our thoughts invariably turn to the completion of the hurricane season and the arrival of winter. We are also reminded on an almost daily basis of the lasting results of Hurricane Sandy, or as…

Jackson Heights, Queens is home to residents from more than 70 countries speaking more than 40 languages. A truly international community, it is a community in every sense of the word. It’s not unusual to see a Peruvian shop owner dining s…

There are lots of ways for homebuyers to find properties for sale, but regardless of whether one finds their prospective dream house online, sees a “For Sale” sign in a building, or gets a hot tip word-of-mouth, at some point buyer and pro…

Winston Churchill once said that “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference,” and that couldn’t be more apt for those who live in multifamily buildings. Co-op board members and managing agents sometimes complain that res…

If you own a co-op or a condo, it goes without saying that you want to make sure you get all the tax credits and abatements available to you. One of the most important of those is the New York State School Tax Relief Exemption—more commonl…