2010 June
Focus on... Law & Legislation

The late 1990s saw a surge of nationwide smoking restrictions put into effect. State by state, legislation banning smoking in various settings was proposed and passed into law. With varying amounts of resistance and controversy, workpl…

 As the legislature in Albany and the New York City Council are in full swing,  legislation of every type is being proposed, debated, and considered. As one  might expect, the budget is front and center in these recessionary times, but  ho…

It will come as no surprise to anyone that between the cars, industry, residents’ power needs, and other energy use, New York City has a pretty mammoth carbon footprint. According to a recent carbon inventory of the city, nearly 80 perc…

Lawsuits are an unfortunate, expensive fact of life these days—chances are that at some point in your lifetime you’ll be involved in one to at least some degree. In you live in a co-op or condo community, legal issues arise between board…

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…

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…

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…

 For people interested in historic architecture and a family-friendly atmosphere,  the neighborhood commonly called Carnegie Hill is one of the most desired  locales in Manhattan.    Carnegie Hill effectively forms a village within …

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…

 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…

Charging Fee For Lockers Q What happens if there were storage lockers in our building that were either given free to the shareholders or they were ‘sold’ for a set fee of $500? Once a shareholder left, the storage unit reverted b…

Q I am a non-resident owner in a 10-unit co-op in Manhattan. I have been renting out my unit for the past 7 years. Recently, while I was away from the country on work, my son inadvertently rented my apartment to a tenant without firs…

Q I’ve had a long existing leak in my full bathroom since the shareholders above me moved in. It so happens that the shareholders’ son runs a bath for as long as two hours at a time, blasting the water at full force. Over time this h…

Q A front desk position in my building is about to become available. Our board wants to hire the son of our current janitor. I am not in favor of hiring relatives and our bylaws state that in such an instance, the board must noti…