One of the unique aspects of life in an HOA, condo, or co-op is that in many ways, a building or association is a microcosm of the larger world outside it. It can suffer from the same factionalism and partisan bickering as any political ent…

Americans are a particularly litigious lot, believing as many of us do that we are endowed with the inalienable right to life, liberty…and the pursuit of recompense for any slight or wrong done to us, real or perceived. This tendency is unf…

Even though 2022 started off with a backlog of court proceedings and legislative sessions after months of COVID closures and related scheduling issues, a number of cases and bills of interest to the multifamily housing community have gone t…

For the first time in decades, serious inflation has reared its ugly head. Costs for nearly everything—including the goods and services needed to operate and maintain multifamily properties—are up an average of 10 percent. Some sectors, par…

Q. Many owners in our HOA have questions about what happens at the monthly board meetings. Our board refuses to release any meeting minutes to the owners. Also, the board has told me that they do not record in the minutes who voted for wh…

First-time buyers in condo associations, co-ops, and other multifamily residential communities are often surprised—and a bit confused—by the way their new building or HOA operates. Whether they are coming from a rental background or a singl…

For many, the topic of insurance can be a bit overwhelming. Even the terms we use as insurance purchasers differ substantially from the terms industry professionals use when discussing and settling claims—which can leave laymen feeling like…

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…