Simply put, insurance equals protection. Insurance will help protect your investment if your building is damaged or destroyed by fire or other causes. Public liability coverage will protect you if someone is hurt in the building and sues yo…
The world of insurance, although not necessarily simple, is usually cut and dry, not the stuff of excitement. While condos and co-ops have insurance for the common areas like roofs, stairways, lobbies and often the apartments as well, th…
Insurance can be a hassle to deal with when it comes to your property, but failing to pay attention to the details of your policy could cost you money now and in the future. Knowing the specifics of your building's insurance policy, and als…
Sometimes bad things happen to good buildings. It's just a fact of life. And sometimes, bad things happen to good buildings with an unforeseeable and unavoidable frequency. That is also a fact of life. Usually, when those bad things happen,…
They torched cars and set fires throughout the park and around our building in 50 mile-per-hour winds. And, yes, the fire spread to unprotected areas. It may sound like a scene from a war zone, but that's actually a local resident's…
The property and casualty insurance market can provide a slippery slope for co-ops and condos in the New York metropolitan area. Insurance companies can be your best friend or worst enemy. Fortunately, co-ops and condos have a great deal of…
Co-op buildings routinely require contractors to provide a Certificate of Insurance before any work is started either in a building or for individual shareholders. The managing agent or the shareholder will usually provide a list to the con…
As any co-op or condo board member knows, serving on the board carries with it a responsibility to fellow residents and shareholders to make decisions in the best interest of the building. They don't leave their role as board members at the…
Board members come in all shapes and sizes—literally and figuratively. In some buildings, no one wants the hassle of working a thankless job for no compensation, and the same four people are guilted into the job every year by default. In ot…
Getting elected to a building's board can be a big job in and of itself—but the truth is that winning a seat is only the beginning. After making the decision to campaign for a seat, and then winning it, new board members can find themselves…
Serving on the board of directors for your building brings on a range of emotions: pride that you were selected to represent the best interests of your fellow shareholders; unease at the thought of the additional time commitment of meetings…
Q I live on the top floor of a co-op. Over the past three years water seeping through our parapet wall did considerable damage to one room in my apartment. Repairs were finally made. The walls and ceiling took two days to plaster and…
Q My family lives in a beautiful three-bedroom apartment on the first floor of an Upper West Side apartment building in Manhattan. Twelve months ago the co-op elected to begin a re-pointing project on the exterior of our building that w…
Q I live in a 140-unit co-op building. The building was built in 1961 and was converted in 1985 under a non-eviction plan. The former sponsor still owns about 20 percent of all the units. These units are either rent-controlled or rent-…
Q Who checks up on the board? Does the board police themselves from within, or is the managing agent checking up on their actions? If the board makes a mistake, will the shareholders be notified? In what way is a board accountable to th…
Q I’m a shareholder in a co-op in Park Slope. The board has summarily decided that we no longer require a full-time, live-in superintendent. When I served on the board several years ago, I understood that a building had to have a partic…