Serving on a co-op board or condo association certainly has its advantages. Not only does the position give shareholders a chance to have more say in how their community is run, it helps add to their knowledge and understanding of what goe…
Even though subletting is often frowned upon by boards and sometimes forbidden outright, that doesn't stop shareholders all over the city from renting out their co-ops. Shareholders may sublet as a means of making money on an apartment tha…
With any sort of multifamily housing arrangement comes the possibility of a certain amount of conflict between the various involved parties: shareholders, board members, management, and sponsors. In theory, a key role of a board of directo…
Lots of people talk about the stress and uncertainty of the approval process in New York City's co-op and condo buildings; all that scrutiny, all that paperwork! But the endless reams of forms and files take another toll as well - on the e…
You may not realize it, but your building may be hemorrhaging money. Not in the form of disastrous lawsuits or maintenance crises like a collapsed roof or exploded boiler, but in a steady trickle coming from your method of ordering supplie…
One of the most popular attractions at The Cooperator's 17th Annual Co-op & Condo Expo this past March was the roster of seminars that ran throughout the day at the New York Hilton, drawing standing-room-only crowds to panel discussion…
In this and in future columns, I will be examining decisions of interest to co-ops and condo boards and suggesting what valuable lessons can be learned from these legal decisions. Recently, there were several interesting court decisi…
A Brooklyn condominium board learned a painful lesson recently when a jury awarded $55,000 in punitive damages to a unit owner who lived with a leaking roof for 11 years. The verdict in the case Board of Managers of Sterling Condomi…
Many co-op and condo board members know the difficulty of working to resolve arguments between residents. In mixed-use buildings, the problems may be greater. With both commercial and residential unit owners or shareholders in a building, …
The entire real estate industry - from owners and developers to contractors and architects - has been focused on the issue of mold contamination during the past year. However, no segment of industry has been more watchful than cooperative …