The real estate market since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on all buyers, but aspiring first-time buyers may have struggled most of all. For much of 2020 and 2021, the housing market faced a challenging combination of h…

As the effects of climate change intensify, apartment communities are faced with new and newly stringent requirements on many fronts in an effort to slow the tide. These range from converting from fossil fuels to more efficient types of ren…

Q. I’m a member of my building’s board. At a recent board meeting, the owner of our management company told the board that I fired the plumbing company. The owner of the plumbing company then asked for my name and phone number, and the ma…

Q. I currently live in a Mitchell-Lama co-op I purchased for $15,000 27 years ago. The building is going private. My question is: will I have to pay more money for my apartment to own it outright?                   —Worried About What’s …

Q. One of our condo units that the owner was renting out to a tenant is now in foreclosure. But before the unit went into foreclosure, the owner (who has been missing in action) was behind on the common charges and the condo board was tak…

Q. My co-op board just voted to require all shareholders to buy homeowners insurance. I’d like to find out if that’s a common thing, but I don’t know who to ask. Thanks!                                             —Is This Right? A. “…

Q. Can a unit owner demand to see a copy of the monthly list of unit owners’ payments of the monthly HOA?         —Owner Seeking Access to Docs A. “Yes,” says attorney Aaron Shmulewitz of the New York City firm of Belkin Burden Goldma…

Q. I need to know if the president of the board (co-op) is allowed to collect proxies from other residents? The president stands in the parking lot and asks everyone if she can have their proxy. Then the night of the meeting to vote for b…

Q.   We have a president of our co-op board that has been president for almost 30 years because he collects proxies from the shareholders who will not attend the yearly meeting and uses them to either reelect himself or others that side wi…

While many condominium associations and co-op corporations hire professional property managers or management firms to handle the routine (and not-so-routine) tasks involved in running a multifamily building or HOA, a significant number take…