“When there is a river in your parking lot where the cars and the dumpsters are floating away, it really puts the property manager to the test to see how well he or she has planned,” says David J. Levy, PCAM, veteran property manager an…
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Board members have to make them all the time, from how money should be spent on repairs to what contractors should be hired. Making decisions might seem easy, but deciding between two courses of…
At a Planning Board meeting in a small Massachusetts town, the members reached an agenda item pertaining to a rather complicated land deal that involved the purchase of hundreds of acres of lakefront property. The Planning Boa…
The sitting president of a board of directors of a homeowners association in Connecticut recently approached management with a proposition. If he awarded her boyfriend job contracts, the property manager would receive a kickba…
Q I live in a medium-sized HOA in Connecticut and we have a long-standing dispute in our community which I am hoping you can help resolve. First, our documents define the “condominium” as being composed of “the buildings, grounds …
Although there seems to be no shortage of talking heads touting the beginning of the end of the economic decline, associations (like the average consumer) are still struggling to do more with less. It just so happens that servi…
New lending guidelines from HUD mean that FHA loan requirements will be significantly tightened for condominium sales. The new requirements could have a profoundly negative effect on the ability to sell or buy a condominium unit that…
Since the board of a community association is usually composed of a collective group of unique individuals with their own perspective and opinions, no two boards are ever the same. However, there are certain overall, universal qualities…
Chris D’Errico has handled about 1,000 residential rentals in the Boston area since 2003. These days, more and more of his calls are from condominium owners. Unable to find buyers for their homes, they’re turning to renting them. “It’s up…
It’s an unfortunate fact of condominium life: Board members’ responsibilities and their personal agendas intermingle more often than they should. After all, it’s part of human nature to want the best for us or our loved ones. Fa…