Freelance photographer Jocelyn A. lives in a charming, post-war brick townhouse community of over 1,600 units and a $3 million annual budget. She receives a monthly newsletter with over 20 pages of everything to keep residents informed,…
What happens at a co-op or condo community’s annual meeting should be strictly business, though these gatherings also can be a place where resident shareholders and unit owners kvetch about their concerns regarding the building or commu…
Q Is there a law allowing us to conduct a meeting without a quorum reached? We need more than 50 percent of the vote and certain shareholders refuse to attend the meetings. We don’t have a co-op board and can not elect one. The old b…
It is an annual rite of passage for owners of co-ops and condos. Once a year or thereabouts, they gather in a common area—in my co-op in Astoria it was the basement, right off the washers and dryers—and vote for next year’s board. Someti…
Q Our co-op has not had an election for the board since 2004. Many shareholders rent their units and are concerned that the sponsor has two seats on the board and owns/runs the management company and rental office from here. The problem i…
Q What happens if board members consistently miss meetings, or don’t attend, messing up the voting process for a board? What recourse do we have? —Attentive Board Member A “Removal of a member of the board of…
Every year, the shareholders of co-op apartments gather together—in their building's community room, or even in the basement in the shadow of the laundry machines, on flimsy chairs that are only used once a year—to discuss their mutual inve…
Q Late last year, our board decided to make changes to our bylaws by an act of resolution; a move not authorized by our governing documents. A group of shareholders called a special meeting to oppose the changes, and they were voted on…
All communities, be they nation-states, municipalities, or co-op or condo buildings, have rules. Respect for -- and adherence to -- these rules is essential for many people to coexist peaceably in the same communal space. In the co-op …