As any good co-op or condo building administrator knows—either through common sense or painful experience—failing to clean up snow or ice promptly can result in injuries, acrimony, and expensive lawsuits. Any one of those is reason enoug…
Getting elected to the board of one's co-op or condo building is usually a very positive thing: it gives a person the chance to play a part in the preservation of their community, and also gives them the opportunity to leave it in bette…
Not for nothing is New York City often called “the concrete jungle.” Thousands of square miles of pavement of all descriptions cover the city, from newly-poured (and quickly graffiti'ed) cement sidewalks to cobblestones left over from t…
No doubt about it, the Big Apple is a pedestrian town: according to the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), over eight million people tread the city’s approximately 12,750 square miles of sidewalks each day. New …
Talk to enough property managers and board members, and eventually you’ll hear the phrase “owner’s mentality” mentioned in reference to co-op and condo dwellers. Usually the phrase is uttered by way of a complaint, as in, “Our residents …
When a long-time renter purchases a co-op or a condo apartment, the move is perceived as a step up. No longer are you just shelling out rent every month—you're building equity, investing in your own security. Regardless of whether your n…
Nothing worth doing is ever easy. That rule of thumb certainly applies when it comes to the creation of co-ops and condos. Whether constructing a new building or converting an existing one, it can be a tricky business. The person o…
New York State has a number of laws to protect consumers—there’s a law designed to protect people who invest in a car and end up with a lemon, for example. If a car has been in a serious accident, the seller has to disclose that inform…
In a city that is made for walking, few stop to pause and look beneath their feet at the sidewalks that lead them uptown, downtown and crosstown. But these sidewalks—all 12,000 miles of them—form the arteries at the heart of New York. …
Unlike co-ops, which are governed by the business corporation law and the common law with respect to cooperative housing corporations, condominiums are really a creature of statute. The statute that gives authority to create condominiu…