Two weeks after Angel Agostino renewed her small insurance policy with Ron Tepperman, Inc., a base- ment fire caused her apartment to burn down and she lost everything. I got insurance because I thought the roof would leak, Agostino expla…

When it comes to decision-making in your building, attending meetings in person is always best. But should the need arise, shareholders and unit owners are permitted to vote in board elections and other matters of corporate governance by pr…

Being elected to serve on the board of your co-op or condo can be viewed as a great honor or a dreadful burden. Those who look for the positive in any new situation will focus on the fact that their neighbors have confidence in their lea…

Co-op and condo boards, together with their professional managers, are responsible for their properties' financial well-being. Every financially-challenged property faces the same perils: an inability to meet ongoing expenses, the consequen…

You've found your dream home at last. However, you don't have those hundreds of thousands stashed away to pay for your new co-op or condo in cash. What do you do? Like most new home buyers, you apply for a mortgage. But as an individual y…

You probably don't think about your building's boiler very often. As long as it provides heat and hot water, it's pretty much out-of-sight, out-of-mind. And when the boiler does need repair, you probably depend on your management company …

Maintaining authority over sales by estates has become a difficult challenge for co-op boards of directors. It is essential for co-ops to be reasonably assured that future maintenance payments will be made and that they will be able to c…

Every day in New York City interior renovation work is taking place that is illegal to a greater or lesser degree. Just because the work looks good, does not mean that it meets Building Code requirements or that it's what the board of di…

If two people have a hard time agreeing on what movie to see, it would seem impossible that the residents of even the smallest co-op or condo building would be able to agree on a color scheme for the new lobby. But that's no excuse for…

How do you take a small kitchen, make it three times as large and make sure that it fits in with the rest of the apartment? Interior designer Gail Green would say very carefully. And that is exactly what she did for one family's kitche…