Solar powered panels dotting rooftops. Recycled waste water replenishing toilets. Geothermal heat pumps for heating and cooling. Filtered fresh air into apartments. What's next? Sheep grazing in the Sheep Meadow? Not necessarily, but …
It's hard enough balancing our own personal budgets without having to worry about an entire city's bottom line. But that's exactly what New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked property owners to do last year when he sought a tax hike o…
With increasing costs for heating fuel, insurance, real estate taxes and the like taking a bite out of the operating budget of most every co-op and condo in the city, some cost saving measures can help stem the tide of rising costs. Payrol…
In the unfortunate and troubling event that you suspect incompetent - or even criminal - behavior regarding your building finances, an accountant or a certified fraud examiner can forensically investigate the issue to determine whether or …
Tax certiorari. Even the name remains obscure in Latin, perhaps in an effort to make the entire process seem difficult and hard to manage for the average real estate owner. For co-op and condo boards, however, the tax certiorari proceeding…
Navigating the finances and ensuring the fiscal stability of your cooperative corporation or condominium association has never been an easy task. Certainly, New York's residential community has been through some challenging times, and look…
In today's low interest rate environment, refinancing is the top agenda item for many cooperatives. However, while the current interest rates would seem to guarantee a "win-win" situation, a savvy board must take into account more than ju…
A taxpayer normally recognizes gain or loss realized on the sale or exchange of property. However, pursuant to Section 1031 of the tax code, there is no recognition of gain or loss on the exchange of property for like-kind property. …
Sometimes a board has no choice about when to repair or replace some building feature or piece of equipment. If the boiler goes on the fritz in January, for example, it has to be fixed - period. Other projects, like interior design and ren…
In 1998, after receiving a "bill" for zero dollars and zero cents for the prior year's school taxes, some New York State property owners wrote checks to the government in that amount. They were convinced that a clerical error had been mad…