On July 1st, about 10,000 New York City buildings must start phasing out their use of high-polluting fuel oil. Under the city's “Clean Heat” mandate (a part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s Greener, Greater Buildings Plan New York initiat…
Sooner or later, every resident living in a condo or co-op community will have to deal with the inconvenience of living through a major capital improvement project—a roof replacement, an elevator rehab, serious exterior work, or somethi…
It's almost a mantra: the more you know, the better off you are—certainly when it comes to doing the job of a cooperative, condominium or HOA board member. No matter how enthused and engaged a new board appointee may be, they don't come…
Think about this: according to the United States Department of Labor, each year nearly 2 million American workers report having been victims of workplace violence. Fraud committed by employees cost American companies approximately $20 …
It’s not necessarily to the degree of the Hatfields vs. the McCoys, the famous mountain clan involved in a decades-long blood feud, but living side-by-side in a co-op or a condo can, needless to say, get pretty heated on occasion. …
Whether it is redesigning light fixtures in a common space or replacing a roof, repair jobs and capital improvement projects are like death and taxes, they are inevitable. Whereas a building administrator or a managing agent most often …
Managing a cooperative or condominium apartment building in New York would be a piece of cake… if weren’t for all those people. “The bricks and mortar is easy,” says Margie Russell, managing director of the New York Association…
If the board of directors is the Barnum & Bailey of the cooperative or condominium, the manager is the ringmaster. The board finances the show and books the talent, but all eyes are on the manager. “Everything falls on you,” sa…
According to U.S. Small Business Administration statistics, over half of all small businesses begun in the last decade have been home-based—that's more than 24 million in real numbers—with a new home-based business being launched every 1…
Renting out their unit has long been a strategy for condo owners (and some co-op shareholders) who—usually because of an extended absence, or as an extra revenue stream—wish to retain ownership of an apartment that they’re not living in …