Q I own a co-op apartment that I rent. I am in compliance with the proprietary lease regarding renting the apartment. When I rented the apartment, I was told by the board that there is a 75% maintenance surcharge on rentals. I never quest…
Whether you live in a Midtown high-rise or in a more spread-out outer-borough HOA, security—for both property and physical safety—is an important issue in any condo community. Who can come in, at what times, how long they can stay, and how…
From the Magna Carta to the U.S. Constitution, written documents have helped shape the way people live and interact with one another for centuries. The fundamental documents that establish co-ops and condos have that same importance in bui…
Renowned for its iconic skyline and masterfully-designed skyscrapers, New York City is also home to a number of new residential buildings that have become a part of modern-day Manhattan. Bringing life to a two-dimensional drawing of a buil…
Ask people to list the household chores they dislike most, and chances are, doing laundry will consistently rank among the top ten. The need and appreciation for clean clothes gets overshadowed by the inconvenience of constantly having to …
Working together is something we all must do in one or many ways pretty much every day. But it’s a rule of thumb that’s easy to forget, given the varying pressures of a 21st century economy and the needs of businesses to profit, and of res…
Private homeowners can do pretty much whatever they want in their own homes, as long as it’s not illegal and doesn’t put other people or private property at risk. These same rights are not always afforded to co-op owners, however, and in s…
While it's true that having apathetic leadership is an all-too-common problem in a lot of co-op and condo buildings, having a board that oversteps the boundaries of its power or invades the privacy of residents can be just as bad. Ignoranc…
You always want to feel safe in your home, but as the past few years have proven, you never know when a major calamity or weather disaster is going to strike. While most of New York City proper wasn’t hit as hard by Superstorm Sandy as som…