Every co-op, condo, and HOA has rules and regulations that residents and their guests must abide by. For the most part, they’re usually pretty straightforward: no smoking in common areas, limits on pets, no hockey-playing in the hallways. T…
Whether you live in a condo, co-op, or HOA, board elections are a complicated process, especially when it comes to voting and counting ballots. Yet electing (or re-electing) a board is probably one of the most important exercises the reside…
The power of a co-op board to approve or reject sales, as well as co-op applicants, is pretty much unlimited -- as long as the decision is made within the limits of applicable law. Boards require extensive information and documentation -- k…
Living in a co-op or condo community is a social arrangement as well as a business and residential one. You are part of a community, and that community should feel ‘organic.’ It is also perhaps the purest form of representative democracy.…
If you're on the board of a small, tight-knit building were everyone knows their neighbors, it may be tempting to make decisions on the fly, or conduct building business in a more informal, handshake-based way than a board in a larger, more…
In late January (as has been reported elsewhere ), six residents of the St. Tropez condominium located on Manhattan's Upper East Side, filed a lawsuit against two board members of the association stemming from a rooftop facade co…
One of the most unforgettable events of 2012 was the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, which, according to the National Hurricane Center, resulted in approximately 147 deaths in the U.S., the Caribbean, and Canada, and at least $50 billion in pro…
There’s an old adage that goes along the lines of, “You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your relatives.” That’s true of the people you serve with on your co-op or condo board. Board politics, like all politics, can get uncomfortab…
A democracy fares best when it is proportionally representative of its constituents. For all intents and purposes, the board of a condominium, cooperative, or homeowners’ association is a democratically-elected entity, and as such, one coul…
The key to any healthy relationship is good communication. That holds especially true for the sometimes-delicate dialogues that take place among residents, shareholders, board members, and managers in co-ops and condos of all sizes and conf…