One universal truth on which we all can agree is that kids like to play. They love little more than getting together and having a bang-up good time. And in almost any cooperative, condominium or homeowners’ association, there is likely to b…
In the past, developers would throw a few chairs and tables into a large room and call it a common area or a recreation room and leave it at that. Today, however, there’s more to designing, maintaining and upgrading a successful common area…
In the past, when it came time to do a remodeling project, no one really ever had much of an idea as to how things would turn out. Architects and designers would come by with blueprints or swatches of color and fabric and ask you to just im…
Like any company, a multifamily residential community generates a lot of paperwork in the course of doing business, from employment records to tenant records and more. It can be an enormous amount of stuff to manage, and knowing what to kee…
Taking care of a condo, co-op or HOA’s budget and finances is a big job. Handling such large sums of money is an important responsibility, and not every unit owner or shareholder has the expertise to do the job well. Sure, most people know …
The experts who advise condo associations on insurance matters admit that the basic policies are pretty standardized and often seem to be all the same. Trustees may tend to gloss over the details and assume that anything important relative …
Before embarking on a real estate hunt, most prospective buyers craft lists. The “must have” list (square footage, operational plumbing, windows), the “would love list” (lots of natural light, Jacuzzi bathtub, doorman) and then the “probabl…
It’s cheaper for two families to pool resources and share a house than for the same two families to buy two houses. This underlying concept has been around since people starting building houses. As a report by the National Cooperative Law…
Condos and co-ops are called communities for a reason—families and individuals live side by side with one another, sometimes for years or even decades. Although residents may not exchange much more than a “hello” or “nice day” with their ne…
Instances of home-sharing have skyrocketed recently due to the rise of websites such as Airbnb.com. For a small fee, these websites connect homeowners with people who want to find a place to stay for one night at a time. Homeowners rent th…
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently issued its ruling and order in one of the most important condominium cases ever decided. In Drummer Boy Homes Association, Inc. v. Britton, the SJC held that an association can maintain mul…
Q. Our downstairs neighbor’s children always have the TV turned to an extremely loud volume. Our condominium building is older without a lot of soundproofing, and literally, everything can be heard from below. We have tried a number of ti…