Take a moment and imagine your family or circle of friends: each person with his or her unique personality, attitude, experience and background. In a co-op building or condo association, hundreds of people live together, sharing common …
The 2011-12 legislative session is on in Albany as this article is being written, and bills of all kinds are being considered—including some with implications for co-op and condo owners and administrators across the state. Housing is al…
While for many laypeople cooperatives and condominiums are essentially interchangeable, from the legal point of view they are radically different institutions. Much of this difference can be attributed to history. Co-ops have …
For some New Yorkers planning their daily errands and activities can be as logistically difficult as mountain climbing. These New Yorkers are, of course, those with disabilities, the elderly or anyone whose mobility has been compromise…
Many times, cooperatives and condominiums have commercial retail spaces connected to or below their building. These are immensely valuable as a result of the income generated by these stores and restaurants. Ergo, the importance of a ne…
One of the biggest issues in the real estate industry over the past year has been the speculation that government-sponsored mortgage programs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be ending. For the past 70 years, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac …
In today’s legislative world, housing is a big item. Rent-payers, condo owners, co-op shareholders, and developers all have their particular interests—and they don’t necessarily mesh. In the meantime, the ongoing recession threatens all …
As a construction attorney I can say that it is rare that a change is made in the law which revolutionizes the design industry. Up until now, the laws in the State of New York only allowed architectural and engineering firms to be owned…
The sad reality is that when a hurricane, flood or fire strikes, often the greatest damage is not caused by the crisis itself, but rather by poor decision making by boards in the aftermath of the event. In the aftermath of a d…
Many co-ops in New York lease, rather than own, the land beneath their apartment building. For the board of a leasehold co-op, navigating a contested land valuation, in which the amount of the co-op’s ground rent is determined through a…