The good news is, after a fallow period in the depths of the recession, the construction industry in New York City is starting to come back. However, with that activity comes the potential for disputes and property damage, especially w…
It’s not necessarily to the degree of the Hatfields vs. the McCoys, the famous mountain clan involved in a decades-long blood feud, but living side-by-side in a co-op or a condo can, needless to say, get pretty heated on occasion. …
Congratulations, you’ve been elected to serve on your building’s board. You managed to convince the rest of the building that you know enough about building systems or law or economics or even people-pleasing to make them vote for you a…
No one likes it when a neighbor has an ongoing renovation project that lasts for months on end, especially when the renovations may cause damage to your own apartment. Luckily, most buildings have a mechanism in place to fix this: the …
In the best of circumstances, qualifying an applicant for a co-op or condominium purchase can be a challenging process. Market conditions play a part in a board's consideration of applicants, and recent fluctuations have changed the wa…
During the Second World War, the United States and its allies invested a fortune in research to understand why so many people in the Axis nations seemed willing to believe the unbelievable, do the undoable, and follow leaders who seemed…
The last few years have been stressful and uncertain for many in the real estate game—developers have had to adjust projections and expectations for certain projects. Likewise, sellers and brokers have had to acclimate to a market that,…
Tell someone at a cocktail party that you are on a co-op board and the most likely response is “What a thankless task!” It seems every New Yorker has a co-op board horror story—and many of them probably contain more than a grain of truth…
New York City law will phase out the burning of Number 6 fuel oil in the near future. Should you wait until the last minute until making the switch to cleaner fuel oil in your own building? Does it make sense to do it now, or …
Election season typically starts around Labor Day, when we start to be bombarded with reminders to cast our ballots to choose who we want to be in charge of our city, town, state and country. It ends on Election Day in November, when th…