2017 November
Focus on... Building & Systems Maintenance/Expo

Whether because of convenience, the desire for autonomy, or a tight budget, some condo and HOA communities opt not to retain an outside management company or an agent to handle their respective day-to-day administrative and maintenance need…

Everyone loves the turning of the seasons, what with leaves changing, snow falling, pools opening, and the like. But Mother Nature has little concern for the comfort of humans, so fluctuating temperatures bring the need for residential heat…

Can you imagine living in a co-op or condo that doesn’t have a laundry room? These days, having on-site laundry facilities for residents isn’t an amenity – it’s a necessity, and keeping yours functional and well-maintained is just as import…

Take an architectural tour of just about any major U.S. city, and you’ll get a sense of how trends and tastes in building materials have changed over time.  Limestone, brownstone, brick, and terracotta were the earthy materials of choice du…

As anyone with a smartphone, tablet, or laptop knows, technology makes life easier in countless ways. The management of co-op and condo properties is no different, with new digital tools emerging all the time to streamline, facilitate and i…

In last year’s presidential election, Donald Trump lost New York City, resoundingly. According to final election results, he received 461,174 votes across the five boroughs, or 18.4 percent, compared with 1,969,920 ballots cast for Hillary …

Being a board member, manager, or maintenance staff member for a building or HOA obviously comes with numerous responsibilities. Chief among those is being ready and able to deal with risks, issues, and hazards that pose potential threats t…

On Thursday, November 2nd, thousands of board members, managers, building owners and co-op, condo, and HOA residents will gather at the Jacob K. Javits Center at 655 West 34th Street in Manhattan, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for the inaugu…

One of the most difficult issues for board members and residents of co-ops, condominiums, and HOAs is that of arrearages. The problem poses practical, procedural and ethical issues, and can ultimately lead to legal repercussions. There are …

For many reasons, common-interest communities such as co-ops, condominiums, and HOAs prefer that the people living in the community’s units be the actual owners of those units – rather than renters, or subtenants, or relatives of the owners…

Maintaining a residential cooperative or condo association does not come cheap. Shareholders and unit owners contribute regular maintenance payments, to be sure, but that only covers so much. What happens in the event of a rainy day? Well, …

When we think of a co-op, condo, or HOA, it’s easy to picture a towering high-rise, or a suburban development that sprawls across acres and acres, and is home to hundreds, maybe even thousands of residents. While those communities certainly…

If you think about it, a multifamily building isn’t that much different than the human body. Both house important complex operating systems and organ-like pieces of vital equipment; both take in fuel and produce waste; and both require regu…

Though it has been in effect in New York City since 2009, questions about the City’s benchmarking law have re-entered the public conversation since the law was revised last year to include an additional 10,000 mid-size buildings. If you are…

In residential properties, lighting – both its quality and its efficiency – is often as important as the fixtures in which bulbs themselves are placed. This applies particularly to LED light bulbs, since they’re directly tied to monthly ene…

Q. I live in a manufactured home co-op, and earlier this year we switched property management companies. At first, they lost a check – which I guess can happen. Then a few months later, a group of us received demands for rent and were ser…

Q. We have an apartment/shares in a Brooklyn co-op. In 2016 we experienced two leaks in our shower room (which is in the bathroom, but separate from the bathtub). With the first leak, the building plumber broke part of our shower wall, re…