Every 11 seconds a burglary is committed in the United States, according to the Department of Justice's most recent annual Unified Crime Reports. Even Mayor Giuliani, who is perpetually promoting the decrease in crime in New York, is not …
Being elected to serve on the board of your co-op or condo can be viewed as a great honor or a dreadful burden. Those who look for the positive in any new situation will focus on the fact that their neighbors have confidence in their lea…
Co-op and condo boards, together with their professional managers, are responsible for their properties' financial well-being. Every financially-challenged property faces the same perils: an inability to meet ongoing expenses, the consequen…
You probably don't think about your building's boiler very often. As long as it provides heat and hot water, it's pretty much out-of-sight, out-of-mind. And when the boiler does need repair, you probably depend on your management company …
Every day in New York City interior renovation work is taking place that is illegal to a greater or lesser degree. Just because the work looks good, does not mean that it meets Building Code requirements or that it's what the board of di…
If two people have a hard time agreeing on what movie to see, it would seem impossible that the residents of even the smallest co-op or condo building would be able to agree on a color scheme for the new lobby. But that's no excuse for…
How do you take a small kitchen, make it three times as large and make sure that it fits in with the rest of the apartment? Interior designer Gail Green would say very carefully. And that is exactly what she did for one family's kitche…
The co-op and condo universe can be divided into two types of properties: The vast majority that engage a professional management firm and those that choose to go it alone. All properties need the services that good full-service managemen…
What can a board do if its building is faced with extensive capital work while recovering from the real estate slump of the early 1990s? Assessments are unpopular and reserves are low. There's a desire to have construction operations com…
In Spring, 1996 New York State made it legal for small-volume users in the metropolitan area to purchase natural gas from sources other than the major utility companies such as Consolidated Edison (Con Ed) and Brooklyn Union Gas (BUG). Ho…