Occupying a dense city like New York can make for strange bedfellows. Parties that wouldn't ordinarily mesh often must do so simply for the sake of space being at such a premium. And sometimes it works. For instance, The Odd Couple is a…
Conflict comes hand-in-hand with living in close quarters. Such is the nature of condominium and cooperative living. Some dust-ups between neighbors are settled with a polite conversation, or a mild nudge from the condo or co-op board. Othe…
When you live in a multifamily building, however, peace and quiet can be hard to come by. From the guy upstairs who gargles loudly at precisely 6:47 a.m. every morning to the neighbor with the yapping Chihuahua—at some point the soundtrack …
Whenever a new residential building is proposed in any New York City neighborhood, people inevitably object to the project. Their reasons are as varied as their neighborhoods, and range from concerns about gentrification and retaining the …
Q My family is a shareholder of one of eight apartments in a small Brooklyn co-op. The apartment directly above ours was sublet to a family in 1997 that signed an agreement specified by the board of directors requiring the apartment to ha…
In a recent case that will be of interest to anyone who has ever wanted to bang on the wall between his or her apartment and the one next door and shout at the neighbors to keep it down, the New York Supreme Court found insufficient ev…
Noise is a key quality-of-life problem for almost anyone living in a densely-packed urban environment. Many urban dwellers are immune to it as a result of having lived all their lives in the city—maybe you even grew up next to an elevat…
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…
Over the past few months there have been several interesting and insightful court decisions. Here are a few legal cases that provide some helpful lessons. Vassi v. Salem House Condo Bd. Lesson: Condo boards need to make…
Q I’ve had a long existing leak in my full bathroom since the shareholders above me moved in. It so happens that the shareholders’ son runs a bath for as long as two hours at a time, blasting the water at full force. Over time this h…