Unlike individual apartment owners’ insurance coverage, most co-op and condo buildings’ insurance policies are pretty standard—they include homeowners’ insurance, liability, and umbrella coverage. Usually, the common areas such as the ha…
Residential buildings are constantly under attack—not by barbarians or marauding bandits, but by a force far more subtle and insidious. The most tenacious enemy of a residential building is not fire or structural collapse—though a build…
Years ago, when I babysat for a young boy, I watched him create a multi-story building out of empty cardboard boxes. The lad then ran around his proud creation, flexing his muscles and crowing, “My house is indy-structible!” (He then pr…
Water damage can wreak havoc on any co-op or condo. When it leads to serious problems like mold and structural damage, it can be a costly problem to address. To avoid the cost and hassle of dealing with water damage after the fact, …
Leaks happen all the time. American Leak Detection, a nationwide company (unrelated to the Scooter Libby trial), claims to have discovered 1.4 million leaks last year alone—and that's just one company! Common as they are, leaks can cause qu…
Plumbing is one of those things we take for granted yet without it, we might as well be back in the Stone Age. With dozens, hundreds and sometimes thousands of people living in individual co-op and condo complexes, the importance of we…
In 1999, after her four-year-old son began coughing up blood and her husband started suffering respiratory complaints and memory loss, Melinda Ballard and her husband Ron Allison were told by their family physician to evacuate their Austin…