A community’s governing documents, including its bylaws and house rules, are like a country’s constitution and laws. They are—or at least they should be—‘living’ documents that like our state and national laws and constitution, occasionally…
In multifamily residential communities, where neighbors share common space, amenities, and maintenance—if not actual walls—establishing and maintaining boundaries can be a bit tricky. Physical boundaries are often breached by things like …
Striking a healthy balance between the governance and the management of a condo or co-op community can be a challenge. While it’s the board that governs, it’s management that executes…at least that’s how it’s supposed to be in theory. That …
Whether your community is a condo, HOA, or co-op, if you take on the responsibility of serving on the board, you also take on a portion of collective responsibility—and with the assumption of that responsibility comes a measure of liability…
Conflict comes hand-in-hand with living in close quarters—and condominium and cooperative living is a prime example. Most dust-ups between neighbors involve run-of-the-mill issues like noise or hallway clutter, and can be settled with a cor…
If you live in a condominium, cooperative or HOA, guess what? You’re part of a participatory mini-democracy run by an elected group of volunteers. As such, it’s to your benefit to get involved in how your community is governed in order to p…
Even among otherwise conscientious, community-minded condo, HOA, and co-op residents, the idea of running for and serving on their board often ranks somewhere between taxes and dental work on their list of things to look forward to. It conj…
Buying into a residential community like a co-op, condominium, or HOA can be a bit like selecting the political system you’d like to live under. Governance styles can range from an Athenian democracy where every member of the community is i…
Residents in condo and HOA communities are frequently quite busy. Boards generally consist of elected volunteers who nearly always have other jobs and lives outside their duties as trustees. So while a professional management company can ha…
The 347,000 planned communities in the United States—a number that includes cooperatives, condominiums, and homeowners associations—are generally governed by volunteer members of the building or community elected by their fellow unit owners…