Generally, board directors in condos and HOAs are volunteers who live in the building and want to assist in protecting their investment. Often, however, new board members enter positions without knowing the full scope of expected responsibi…
Donald Trump makes it look so easy. “You’re fired,” he declares firmly, terminating an aspiring apprentice from the popular reality TV series, who will never be seen from again. In reality (and reality TV is not reality), the issue of ter…
While high-rise residential buildings put many people and families in very close proximity to one another, living side-by-side doesn’t automatically turn a group of people into a community—sometimes it even has the opposite effect. Lives …
Buying an apartment in New York can be a real odyssey—finding a place that fits your budget and other requirements, securing a mortgage, gathering reams of paperwork for the closing...all very stressful and tedious. But for those buying int…
With so many people leading busy, sometimes hectic lives that revolve around work, kids, social functions, and other obligations, it's often very difficult for co-op, condo, and HOA administrators to find residents willing and able to serv…
While it is common for buildings or associations of any size to have designated committees in place to help boards and management handle aesthetic, social, and other community concerns, “green” committees are a more recent trend…though, on…
Most condo/HOA boards are made up of ordinary, well-meaning folks who volunteer for the relatively thankless job of running their association. They donate their time, expertise, and effort to make their community as functional, solvent, an…
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…
Many if not most boards get along famously. There are boards that have had the same members for decades and run their communities without a hitch. We frequently get calls from readers who are troubled when they find that their board …
Tastes and styles change with the decades (and sometimes with just the seasons), and what is considered fashionable now may seem hopelessly dated in just a few years. This applies not only to clothing and interior design, but to architectu…