Perhaps Benjamin Franklin said it best: “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” And taxes aren’t just a certainty for co-op and condo buildings—they’re a complicated part of keeping a building co…

Forget Barbie dolls and dress up clothes—when Janet Leon was a little girl, she probably would’ve preferred to have a mini tool belt and set of screwdrivers. Growing up, she says she fondly remembers shadowing her father, a machinist, ar…

Even the best-run buildings have their bad days, and minor (sometimes not-so-minor) emergencies.  In times like these, it’s vital to have a capable, experienced manager at the helm who can handle problems efficiently and minimize their d…

One of the most important things that a co-op or condo must take into consideration when hiring a contractor for a maintenance or construction project is whether the service providers the building are bringing in to do the work are prope…

Co-op and condo buildings don’t run themselves. Their owners and shareholders rely on board members to make important decisions about the buildings they live in, and board members count on their management companies to provide them with …

In a perfect world, the relationship between a management company and the co-op or condo it serves would be harmonious, with few—if any—bumps in the road. But this is New York City, and if that vital relationship sours, your board could …

For most boards, the fees charged by their management firms are just a fact of doing business. Aside from signing the initial contract, most board members probably do not give much thought to how those fees were initially determined, bey…

Many years ago, when I was living on the Upper West Side, a neighbor of mine was notified over his scratchy intercom system that a UPS carrier had a package for him. Without hesitation, he buzzed in the deliveryman and opened his fron…

A few years ago, a commercial aired that featured a hip-looking fellow plugging away at his laptop—checking his e-mail, surfing the Web, downloading music.  What was different about this guy was that he was on the roof of a skyscraper, a…

On October 22, several hundred hurricane evacuees descended on Brooklyn’s New York City College of Technology. The school had been temporarily converted into an evacuation center, where refugees were screened before being sent to shelter…