As gasoline prices rise with increasing summer demand, building administrators' attention has turned sharply to the cost of energy, and ways to trim fat from their overall energy budgets. Yet for the nation’s nearly 60 million…
As the directors of a cooperative corporation, co-op board members have a number of duties to their shareholders, chief among them to preserve and improve their investment and to maintain and/or improve shareholders’ standard of living …
Co-op and condo boards are made up of resident volunteers who want to serve their building communities and have a hand in its governance. While some board members actually make their living as attorneys and have a working knowledge of …
With homeownership comes great responsibility. For co-op and condo residents, part of that responsibility means sorting through the seemingly mile-high stacks of documents handed to you before, during and after the purchase process beg…
Although the budget and tax cuts occupy the public agenda in these recessionary times, housing is still as big an issue as ever. Many housing-related bills, including those specifically related to co-ops and condos, have been introduced…
All for one and one for all. We always knew that buying a unit in a condominium project meant that the value of our property depended in good part on the likeminded conscientiousness of our neighbors. Where owners live, vote and fund th…
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg presented a Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 Executive Budget and an updated four-year financial plan for New York City that calls for $62.9 billion in spending. While the mayor’s attempt to balance the city’s budget res…
In a high-cost, high-density real estate landscape like New York City, when disputes arise in a multifamily building, tensions can escalate from annoyance to litigation very quickly. In rental buildings, problems can range from lack of…
In the 1950s and 60s, airlines hired comely young women to work the aisles and tend to passenger requests—stewardesses, they were called. And while the word was the feminine form of steward, the combination of the title, the outfit, and…
Lawsuits, by their very nature, are acrimonious affairs. They can be messy, they’re time-consuming, and even when they’re relatively uncomplicated, they’re expensive. For a lower- or median-income co-op or condo resident, getting sued or…