It takes many vital components working in unison to enable a residential multifamily building to function effectively: a management team to help things run smoothly, committed, engaged board members who volunteer their time, and residents w…
Q. How can a shareholder be protected from a board’s abuse of authority when implementing excessive fines on the community of shareholders? Some of the fines being imposed by the board are not defined in our bylaws or house rules. On occ…
Q. We recently had to vote to remove our board president from his position, because he was taking small amounts of funds on a regular basis. He said it was all ‘petty cash reimbursements,’ but he never told the board or treasurer about ma…
Board responsiveness and transparency are critical components in the good governance of co-op, condo and HOA communities. It’s the responsibility of the board and its members to act on behalf of the community - a legal obligation known as f…
The 347,000 planned communities in the United States—a number that includes cooperatives, condominiums, and homeowners associations—are generally governed by volunteer members of the building or community elected by their fellow unit owners…
Q. What can be done when the president of the condo corporation verbally harasses the building’s superintendent? —Seeking to Stop the Abuse A. “Since condominiums are not corporations (although the boards of managers…
The words communication and community share a common root. It comes as no surprise, then, that the success of communities depends on effective communication between board members, managers, and residents. In multifamily residential communit…
Q. I’ve been a board member for five years. I got elected as treasurer and we had a board president that’s been president for several years doing all the board’s duties and got reelected again. I was assuming that I was supposed to recov…
When one buys a private single-family home, it’s clear who the king or queen of the castle is: the homeowner. When it comes to condominiums and cooperative apartments, however, the relationship between owner and property is a little more co…
Q. Our co-op’s recent annual meeting and board elections were disgraceful— resulting, in my opinion, in a very dangerous precedent. There were four available openings, and only four shareholders offered their candidacy. So providing we ha…