Q I recently received a memo from the board of directors of my co-op in Queens Village, stating that the building will not allow cooperators to sell their apartments below a sales price that they determine. Is this legal? —Suspicious…
Whether you own your own home or not, you can’t help but know about the subprime mortgage crisis that is sweeping across America as foreclosures are claiming people’s homes everywhere we look. Well, almost everywhere. Even in light …
The “Green Movement” has quickly gone from fad to trend to global initiative. In the U.S., corporations as well as commercial and residential property owners are being challenged to find ways to embrace ‘Green Initiatives’ in response to…
Q My family lives in a beautiful three-bedroom apartment on the first floor of an Upper West Side apartment building in Manhattan. Twelve months ago the co-op elected to begin a re-pointing project on the exterior of our building that w…
Q I live in a 140-unit co-op building. The building was built in 1961 and was converted in 1985 under a non-eviction plan. The former sponsor still owns about 20 percent of all the units. These units are either rent-controlled or rent-…
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…
Q I have been a shareholder in my Brooklyn co-op since 1986, and am facing a problem that has come up since my husband’s death almost 18 months ago. My husband was an active participant on our board of directors—past president, vice pre…
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…
Sellers have one overriding goal that is clear to everyone: to achieve the highest possible price for their property. However there is risk and it is this risk that must be minimized to maximize the probability of return. Market risk:…
In today’s booming real estate market everyone is looking to turn a profit. Should co-op shareholders be any different? Everyone wants a piece of the pie but at what cost? Subletting cooperative apartments can be very simple if you follow t…