The annual meeting of owners or shareholders in multifamily housing associations and cooperatives is a legally mandated opportunity for a community to convene, learn, share, and exercise their essential duty—to vote. The lead-up to the elec…
In Part 1 of “Multifamily Energy Savings Solutions,” we introduced some relatively simple products and processes that individual owners or shareholders can adopt to reduce energy consumption and emissions and to save on their energy costs. …
Even though the world has been contending with COVID-19 and its consequences for nine months and counting, the routines and practices we’ve adopted to prevent its spread and minimize personal risk of infection are still evolving. With new d…
Q. I own a condo in a nice community, but I plan to move next spring because I can’t deal with this situation. The unit below mine is owned by a young woman who often smokes cannabis with her boyfriend. She says she has proof that she is…
When making the choice to purchase a condo or a co-op apartment, many buyers choose a condominium so as to reduce the board’s involvement in the decisions they will make regarding their home. Condo boards’ authority over certain decisions a…
While residents of condos, co-ops, and HOAs do their part to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by staying in their homes as much as they can, they rely on the supers, porters, valets, doorpeople, janitorial workers, handymen and -women, securi…
Social distancing, lockdowns, quarantine, remote work, distance learning—these once unfamiliar terms have changed the way we live our everyday lives in the time of a global pandemic. In a society where a handshake is the social gesture that…
It’s a common bit for comedians and TV sitcoms: making fun of the ‘condo police’—those neighbors who take it upon themselves to enforce the rules set up by your condominium association or co-op corporation to regulate community living. They…
Q. I pay HOA fees for landscaping. Not all areas of the development are the same—some streets just have ornamental trees and a minimal amount of leaves falling. My block is swamped with leaves on the ground that begin falling in September…
It’s a question we’re asked all the time: “Can we use reserves to cover an operating fund shortfall?” Under normal circumstances, our standard response would be an emphatic “No!”—because reserves are for major repair and replacement project…