Category: Law & Legislation

Once an estate planning operative for only the rich and famous, trusts are commonly used today to facilitate estate planning for everyone. While empty-nesters downsize and seek out residences that are more maintenance free—such as co-o…

It is a fairly common situation: The managing agent of a 30-unit condo calls the building’s legal counsel and asks whether the building is required to hire or retain a resident superintendent. Sometimes the building wants to rent or se…

Spring is here, and with it comes a lot of renovation—especially of homes, weekend homes and co-ops. With all that work comes inevitable disputes between homeowners and their architects, interior designers and contractors. For many yea…

Flush into his second term as the city’s chief executive, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposes a $52.7 billion budget plan for 2007 and updated his four-year financial plan for New York City in an attempt to keep the city’s finances on …

Imagine this scenario... you are in charge of a residential property, as either a board member or a managing agent. One of your residents has just advised you that the lock on the front door of the building has been known to malfunctio…

Each year, our representatives in the New York State Legislature propose, debate, and ultimately pass or reject scores of laws and pieces of legislation. This issue of The Cooperator is devoted to the legal and legislative issue…

While most residential buildings in the city are either purely rental or purely co-op/condo, there are many co-op and condo buildings that are home to rental tenants. This usually is the result of the building converting from rental to…

When it comes to something as valuable as the place we call home, almost any dispute has the potential to turn into a legal crisis—and that goes double for New Yorkers. For tenants and landlords, these issues usually arise over problem…

It may sound like an oxymoron, but in the world of co-ops there is such a thing as “bad income.” The federal tax code requires that cooperative buildings receive at least 80 percent of their income from their shareholders—usually in th…

This is a transitional time for the New York City Council. This year, there is a new City Council Speaker in the person of Christine Quinn, a Democrat from District 3 on Manhattan’s Lower West Side who, since becoming speaker, has anno…