Category: Building Operations

Holding regular meetings is one of the most essential tasks of a co-op or condo board, because that’s where the building’s policy is formed, where business decisions related to the community are made and usually where administration of …

Co-op and condo board members are generally volunteers who live in their building and give of their time and expertise to help make sure their home is well-run, and their investment protected. In a perfect world, new board members are a…

For any co-op or condo in New York, there are certain types of insurance that they cannot live without. Generally those include: property, liability, umbrella, D&O (with employment practices liability (EPL) insurance embedded in the co…

Recently, a 36-year-old New York City restoration contractor was charged with multiple counts of workers’ compensation fraud and falsifying business records. He was hired as a sub-contractor, but he allegedly submitted three fraudulent …

Mold—it’s an ugly four-letter word in more ways than one. Nobody wants to think about the fact that this fungus can be found anywhere where water leaks or drainage problems are present. Mold can cause serious damage to a co-op or condom…

For the majority of co-op or condo owners, their apartment is their largest asset. That apartment should be viewed as an investment and one that makes fiscal sense. But that approach is impossible if unit owners are missing important p…

Given recent headlines, cooperative and condominium associations could be forgiven for thinking they need to put an armed guard and razor wire around the petty cash box. A wave of fraud appears to be hitting properties from New York to…

 While news of defaults, liens, and other financial train-wrecks have dominated  the news and caused many building boards plenty of sleepless nights, co-ops  have been lucky. While a spike in defaults on maintenance payments over the  last…

 Not everybody on a co-op or condo's board is an accountant (or can even balance  their own checkbook, for that matter.) Handling the money for an entire building is a big responsibility, however, and  residents rely upon their board to ma…

Tighter lending requirements for Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-backed mortgages for condos have put financial and administrative pressure on condos all over the country at a time when many are ill prepared for any new challenges…