In a rental building, the landlord has certain rights under certain circumstances to remove a tenant from his property before the expiration of their lease. In a private home setting, the only real path to removing an owner is through forec…
As both a writer about and resident of high-rise residential buildings, I followed the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium with a hawk’s eye. I read about the people who perished and the loved ones left to carry on;…
Q. I am the president of a condo board. An owner asked to join the board, and we simply let her—she was never formally voted onto the board. Since then, she has been so awful, self-centered, and abusive that one board member resigned. W…
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…
There’s a riddle in a popular children’s book that asks, ‘What’s the largest room in the world?’ After much consideration and many incorrect guesses, one of the characters in the book has the answer: “Why, the largest room in the world is r…
Even before the pandemic and social unrest of the last few years, interpersonal conflict and outright hostility often surfaced in the co-op and condo environment, leaving boards and managers having to deal with both legitimate grievances an…
It’s that time of year again. Birds are chirping; trees are blooming; property managers and co-op and condo boards are addressing their task lists for the change of seasons. Whether it’s a Dorchester duplex or a harbor highrise, a dense cit…
Q. An owner in our condominium has asked the board for permission to install an electric vehicle charging station in his garage unit. This would require some infrastructure changes to the electrical system for the association. What sort o…
Ever since the end of World War II—and the widespread prosperity that brought about a historic baby boom, a healthy middle class, and suburban sprawl—a vibrant, manicured lawn has been synonymous with the American domestic ideal. Even for t…
One of the enduring facts of home ownership is that maintaining your abode is never really done. There’s always something that needs to be upgraded or updated. That is doubly true in multifamily communities. Whether you’re in an urban high…