Q I own an apartment in a building that was constructed in 1889. The floors in the apartment slope as the building has settled over the years. Recently, the bathroom floor has cracked and is showing signs of sinking. I’m afraid the suppor…
Q There is a question in my building as to whether or not a new homeowner is responsible for paying an assessment that was extended by the HOA board before the transaction was completed. The previous homeowner paid the two-year assessment…
Q Our condominium board of managers is planning to replace all the terraces in our condo, claiming they are common elements. Is that correct, or is each terrace the property of the unit owner? Should all the unit owners be assessed or onl…
Q Our president resigned before the board appointed officer positions, but he showed up at the meeting in which a new officer was appointed to the board. Now the board wants to fill the seat that the president resigned from, with some…
Q Our co-op has not had an election for the board since 2004. Many shareholders rent their units and are concerned that the sponsor has two seats on the board and owns/runs the management company and rental office from here. The problem i…
If only I had had an extra $100,000 25 years ago. (OK—an extra $100,000, today would be good too.) But that’s what I kept thinking as I sat chatting with Oliver Allen, a retired journalist and author who is now a regular contributor to h…
They don’t call it “the bottom line” for nothing. When all is said and done, pretty much everything in business (okay, pretty much everything, period) comes down to money. In most business situations, a chief executive officer or a compa…
Along with big-ticket items like boilers, HVAC systems, and the like, residential buildings also have to purchase lots of little, everyday things like cleaning supplies, light bulbs, and paper products to keep up with day-to-day maintena…
When the author of this story bought her home, she sat in disbelief when the lawyers handed her the last paper to sign—the one that confirmed she signed all the other papers! The confusion wasn’t surprising; the home-buying process …
Boston, Massachusetts may seem worlds away from New York City, but the story of one embattled condo building there represents a dire cautionary tale for boards and managers everywhere. A couple of years ago, the residents of Boston’s H…