February 21, 2005 signaled the commencement of the sixth cycle of New York City's façade inspection laws: Local Laws 10 (1980) and 11 (1998), now referred to collectively as Local Law 11. It has been a full quarter-century since New …

In a city as densely populated as New York City, government agencies such as the Department of Sanitation of New York (DSNY) have their work cut out for them when it comes to strategically managing the 365-day-a-year task of picking up the …

In Atlanta, Georgia, it's illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp. In Pueblo, Colorado, it is illegal to let a dandelion grow within city limits. In Alabama, it is illegal to wear a fake mustache that causes laughter in …

The past year has seen a lot of changes in the codes governing New York City's buildings, both inside and out. Rules covering lead paint, carbon monoxide detection, and construction permits have been introduced or revised, and it's up to bo…

When you're on the board of a co-op or condo building, sometimes it can feel like you need a law degree to understand all of the paperwork that gets thrown at you. Depending on where you live, there are bylaws and proprietary leases and hou…

As the legislative session in Albany winds down, with the Legislature passing the budget on time for the first time in two decades and the City Council continuing with its business, now is a good time to take a look at some of the housing-r…

A03813 -- Automatic Application Approval --Requires applications to purchase condominiums or cooperatives to be acted upon within sixty days. Failure to do so would result in an automatic approval. 02/04/2005 referred to Housing 04/0…

Co-op and condo buildings can often seem like their own little self-contained worlds, with drama, politics, and debates aplenty. Given that, it's understandable why shareholder/owners might think the people who run their building—the boa…

Using the services of a trained professional and making sure you have the input of your constituents - in this case the residents of your co-op or condo building - are two elements of a project that are sometimes hard to reconcile, particul…

For the past couple of decades, interest in the environment and "greening" of residential buildings has been creeping into our daily lexicon; nowadays, the theories have become practice, and renewable or "green" power is now more accessibl…