Is a condominium -- or any type of common interest community -- a democracy? Do the shareholders in a co-op have the right to access the documents and information their boards use to make decisions? Can they demand to see those documents? T…
Co-op buildings, as we know, are governed by boards of directors elected by the shareholders of the co-op. Candidates often campaign for a seat on the board, not unlike politicians campaigning for public office. But is a co-op a democracy? …
Q. Why are co-op board minutes so sparse that others who read them—shareholders, lawyers, brokers—have no real idea what goes on at meetings? This is because minutes are routinely ‘sanitized’ to leave out any troublesome issues, any comme…
In a recent piece for the New York Law Journal , attorneys from Manhattan-based law firm Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer delve into the issue of privacy as it pertains to the personal information of shareholders and unit owners - and…
A few years ago, I was on the phone with a homeowner. He was irate with how his community’s money was being spent. He was unhappy with the budget increase. It was a call I took regularly from any one of my homeowners (and more often than no…
Editor's note: This article is Part 2 of a two-part series from the authors examining some of the many legal questions and considerations raised by the global pandemic for co-op, condo, and HOA boards, as well as landlords and building owne…
The motivation for volunteering to be an uncompensated (and sometimes underappreciated) co-op or condo board member is usually a sense of civic duty combined with the desire to protect one’s own investment and quality of life. This means th…
Most buildings will have to undergo some kind of exterior or facade-related work at some point in their useful lives - it's inevitable. But sometimes those projects can be noisy, dusty, and disruptive to not just the building being worked o…
Back in September, Governor Cuomo signed into law a bill passed by the New York State legislature meant to make public knowledge the actual owners of one-to-four family homes purchased under the guise of LLC’s, limited liability corporation…
Q. I distribute copies of letters to our board president and all board members under their apartment doors in order to ensure that they all get one – and I don’t trust the chairwoman to distribute them. The board secretary does not wish t…