New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s Labor Day signing of four pieces of new legislation protecting and supporting workers gave those laws a lot of visibility. (Readers of CooperatorNews can find a summary of two of those four pieces of legisla…
Local Law 126, which mandates the periodic inspection of parking facilities for structural soundness and safety, was passed in 2021 and went into effect in January of this year. The law requires that parking structures be inspected every si…
Building owners - as well as co-op and condo boards - are facing the challenging task of complying with NYC’s array of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) laws, which are intended to measure, track, and report the energy efficiency of buildings …
Individual unit owners, co-op corporations, and condominium associations are all always seeking ways to control and lower their energy costs. In these inflationary times, and with the City’s declared intent to make New York a carbon zero en…
Local Law 97 (LL97), intended to make New York City a carbon neutral oasis by 2050, is both an ambitious and commendable attempt to bring a city born in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries into the twenty-second. It also places a substan…
Every so often a scenario comes along in the otherwise fairly predictable world of New York co-ops that has the potential to upend long-standing norms. That may be the case for Carnegie House, a ground lease co-op at the corner of West 57 …
New York City already had the largest, most extensive, most specific list of protected groups in the nation when it comes to housing discrimination. With the New York State Legislature’s passage of the Fair Chance Housing Act earlier this y…
Co-op boards once had near absolute power to reject applicants for purchase of shares for almost any reason. Over the years, the courts and New York City have narrowed that prerogative in an effort to curtail housing discrimination. Effecti…
For over 20 years now, The CooperatorEvents New York Expo has been the most useful, informative annual trade event for co-op and condo board members, property managers, apartment building owners, and anyone involved in the governance an…
With NYC’s waste collection rules now requiring organic food waste to be composted rather than tossed into the bin with other trash, many residents have questions—not least of which is, ‘What’s the point of keeping a bin of stinky decaying …
With organic composting requirements now instituted citywide, many buildings are looking to expand their own composting efforts. Along with information outreach and proper collection and storage containers, boards are turning to tech for ad…
The rising cost of living in New York City impacts nearly everybody. But it’s especially infuriating to realize that one way the city government makes up for lost revenue is by cracking down on residents and property owners. NYC collects ov…
As the COVID-19 pandemic descended upon the country at the end of last winter, notably taking hold initially and most prominently in New York City’s outer boroughs, which include some of the most diverse ZIP codes in the United States, it q…
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) estimates that 74 million Americans live in communities managed by homeowners associations, of which condos account for 35% to 40%. That’s a lot of people - many of whom may be in for a nasty shock…
After the devastating gas explosion in Harlem in 2014 that leveled a building, leaving eight people dead, and a second explosion in the East Village in 2015 that killed two and injured twenty, New York City passed Local Law 157 (LL157). Whi…
After the devastating gas explosion in Harlem in 2014 that leveled a building, leaving eight people dead, and a second explosion in the East Village in 2015 that killed two and injured twenty, New York City passed Local Law 157. While LL 15…
Whether you reside in, manage, or serve on the board of a co-op, condo, or HOA, examining your building’s energy efficiency from top to bottom, inside and out, will have enormous implications for individual and communal costs, energy conser…
In the spring of 2019, the New York City Council passed the Climate Mobilization Act—and with it, Local Law Number 97 (LL 97). LL 97 requires large existing buildings—those over 25,000 square feet—to reduce their carbon emissions 40% by 203…
Like the physical neighborhoods around them, the legislative and legal landscape surrounding New York’s co-op and condo communities is constantly evolving. While some changes are hailed as wins for boards and the residents they govern, othe…
Did you know that March 23 is World Elevator Day? Now you do. (You’re welcome.) On that date way back in 1857, the first passenger elevator was installed in the E.V. Haughwout Building—an upscale, five-story department store in Manhattan’s …