At the heart of every shared interest community is the person who makes it run. That person is known by many names: superintendent (or just ‘super’), building engineer, resident manager, community manager. Their duties and responsibilities…
It takes a small army of professionals—everyone from on-site handymen to licensed professional tradespeople and engineers—to maintain multifamily buildings, both large and small. The question is, who does what, and when? Everyone likes to s…
The hard work of on-site employees - supers, resident managers, doormen, concierges, and handymen - is the fuel that New York’s apartment buildings run on. To a great extent, these employees are represented by Service Employees Internationa…
Q. I live in a condo in Westchester. We have a super who has been here for 20 years and he doesn’t do a thing except empty garbage and maybe vacuum the hallway. When the board members ask him to do something, he frequently refuses—yet he …
Q. Our super was hired six months ago. He’s a hard worker and all the tenants like him. But the president of the board fired him three days before his six-month probation period was up. The tenants requested a special meeting to find out …
When everyday problems arise in a multifamily building or community association, residents frequently turn to their friendly neighborhood jack-of-all-trades: the superintendent (Depending on where you live, you might call him or her your bu…
Q. I have lived in a 72-unit co-op in Brooklyn since 2004. When I was interviewed by the board, I was told the co-op has live-in super who is not allowed to have an additional outside job. This was an important appeal to me, as I felt day…
If you think about it, a multifamily building isn’t that much different than the human body. Both house important complex operating systems and organ-like pieces of vital equipment; both take in fuel and produce waste; and both require regu…
As just about every mother tells her child, it’s important to share with others. The same can be true when it comes to condos and homeowners associations — especially for smaller buildings that may be doing everything they can to control co…
Your co-op or your condo unit may be your home, but to many others, your building is a workplace. Whether they’re managing a small, tight-knit walk-up building in Manhattan, or a sprawling co-op development in Queens or Staten Island, pro…