The presence of unfamiliar cooking aromas, 'foreign' music in the hallways, multilingual chatter in the elevators, and increasing numbers of younger newcomers collecting their mail in the lobby alongside older longtime residents—these are s…
Buying an apartment in New York can be a real odyssey—finding a place that fits your budget and other requirements, securing a mortgage, gathering reams of paperwork for the closing...all very stressful and tedious. But for those buying int…
Are you a building manager who wants to retrofit your building with energy-efficient lighting? Or maybe you're a board trying to re-do your central air conditioning system, but you don’t know if you have it in your budget? Thankfully, there…
It’s a common scene on a New York street. A woman dressed in head-to-toe black is walking down the street, chatting on her phone. A rat the size of a small cat appears from behind a garbage can and wanders right across the woman's path; her…
Co-op and condo board members are charged with the all-important responsibility to make critical policy decisions that ensure the building, the property, and their neighbors' interests are cared for and protected. It's a job that requires l…
During a recent news conference about noise pollution, Michael Horodniceanu—the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s president of capital construction—had to shout in order to be heard while speaking at a Second Avenue construction proje…
It starts innocently enough. The plumbing in your building has been giving the residents grief: toilets constantly running, inconsistent water pressure and sputtering faucets. The reserves are low and the three quotes you got from plumbing …
Every relationship starts the same way—people getting to know each other and moving into a new condo or co-op is no different. It’s actually a lot like moving into a new town; there are new neighbors, new rules and new community leaders. S…
With dozens and sometimes hundreds of people living in a community governed by neighbors, acquaintances and friends, it should be no surprise that disputes can happen in co-op and condo buildings. The possibility of disagreements among res…
Having an apathetic, uncommunicative board is a big issue in many buildings and associations, but the opposite situation—a board that oversteps its authority—can be just as problematic. When a board does something it should not do, or fail…