Lawsuits are an unfortunate, often expensive fact of life these days, and co-op and condo communities are not immune from seeing the inside of a courtroom, or at least a lawyer's office suite. An issue that arises between a resident and …
A good property manager is like a hip dad. He or she may not say things like, "Hey pal, whatcha say we go toss around the ol' pigskin?" but like a hip dad, a property manager needs to have a certain set of specific traits and other, harder-…
Whenever a problem arises, board members often have a knee-jerk reaction to call their managing agent immediately. In many cases, this is appropriate. But although it might be part of their job to communicate with the board, managing age…
In a number of states throughout the U.S., including Florida, Nevada and the District of Columbia, property managers are required by law to be licensed. This is not the case in New York, although a debate over the necessity of licensing …
If your planner or BlackBerry is full of to-do lists and scheduling conflicts, if you're often running up against deadlines and your cell phone rings constantly, you've got a lot in common with a New York property manager. Property …
Q I am living in a condo whereby I am enduring loud noise by two rude neighbors. I had to hire my own private lawyer. The condo board has their own lawyer and their lawyer responded to my lawyer. I recently received a bill from the cond…
Q How do we start a reserve fund? Where does the money come from? What can we or can’t we use the money for? Must we get approval from shareholders/owners in order to spend the reserve fund? —Building Board Member A “…
Q How many years can a person serve on a board? Is there a way to limit the number of years someone may serve? —Curious Board Member A “In the majority of residential cooperative and condominium buildings there…
Q In years past, unit owners were given copies of the minutes of the annual meeting. A new management company was engaged and this practice stopped. Now, when I have requested the minutes of the annual meeting, I have been told that …
Q I live in a condominium and we just had our annual election. Each year, new people run for the board, but the existing board members solicit proxies in order to remain on the board. As a result, five “old-timers” seem to make all the …