Q. Our condo building’s roof is in poor shape, and has not been well maintained the past few years. It’s also old, and simply reaching the end of its useful life. Recently, a few major roof leaks have caused damage in the units directly b…
Transparency is touted as a cornerstone of good board governance. Shareholders and unit owners want—and have the right—to see what goes on behind the curtain at board meetings and better understand why certain decisions are made. Residents …
Each and every multifamily community is different, with unique needs, expectations, and challenges. If you’re a regular reader of this publication, you’ve heard that refrain many times, across a broad range of contexts—including board gover…
Q. I live in a small HOA, and our same board has been in place for over a decade. We hold annual elections as per our governing documents, but we can’t get anyone else in the building to serve, and none of us can step down because our gov…
As electric vehicles (EVs) have become more popular, more and more reports of fires and explosions caused by the lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that power them have made the news from coast to coast. Any fire in a multifamily setting is inc…
Securing residents’ property and personal safety has always been of primary concern for shared interest communities, be they high-rises, townhomes, or suburban HOAs. A generation ago, security technology was pretty much limited to human gua…
Despite their sizable influence, and the fact that their members are residents of the communities they govern, condominium and co-op boards are often misunderstood. What can they do? What can’t they do? Can they approve a request from one r…
Q. As we all know, the cost of everything including services and materials related to maintaining an association property has risen dramatically over the last couple of years. Clearly, our association budget and monthly fees should be su…
Q. Many owners in our association have questions about what happens at our monthly board meetings. Our board refuses to release any meeting minutes to the owners, and even told me that they do not record who voted for what in the meeting …
While climate change may have reduced the frequency of multi-foot snowfalls in the New York metro, when we do get dumped on, the precipitation tends to be heavier and icier than the fluffy drifts of decades past. With that shift comes conce…