Finding the right balance of involvement between HOAs and condo boards and residents can be like maintaining a healthy relationship with a significant other—you want to be compassionate, responsive and attentive, but not too needy, nosy or…
There’s nothing worse than being a unit owner in a building and seeing someone on your board breaking a rule and seemingly getting away with it. Some board members believe that they are “above the law” so to speak, and seem to be ope…
There has been much discussion recently about the antiquated New York Labor Law 241 and its effect on the availability and cost of insurance coverages for contractors. The fear is that smaller contractors will get priced out of purchasing …
Going about the course of our busy lives we may take for granted the sense of safety and security we have when we enter our office building in the morning or our apartment building when we arrive home at night. We don’t think twice when so…
Saving money is always a top concern of any co-op or condo board, but with tough economic times and high fuel prices, saving on energy costs can be a challenge. Thanks to deregulation of the New York energy market a little over a decade ag…
In March 1947, a group of nearly 600 onlookers gathered on the sidewalk in front of the home of bachelor brothers Homer and Langley Collyer on Fifth Avenue and 128th Street in Manhattan. Residents of the neighborhood had speculated and gos…
Mom was right. Her admonition to “Turn out the lights when you leave the room!” is as valid today as it was a generation ago. And yet many co-op and condo buildings, while energy-conscious in so many ways, seem to feel it’s better to just …
When most people think of a buying and owning a co-op or condo apartment, they're picturing a unit in a mid- or high-rise building, or possibly a townhome in a suburban development. While that's certainly the most typical format for apartm…
Residential buildings are constantly under attack—not by barbarians or marauding bandits, but by a force far more subtle and insidious. The most tenacious enemy of a residential building is not fire or structural collapse—though a building…
Running a co-op, condo or HOA is a business, and like most businesses, proper budgeting is the key to financial health. Just like businesses, associations usually have two separate yet vitally important budgets. The first budget is the day…