When an insurance issue comes up, most people will call their broker with simple instructions: “Handle it.” While this approach is not uncommon, it is becoming increasingly dangerous to “abdicate” rather than delegate. Insurance and risk…

It is an annual rite of passage for owners of co-ops and condos. Once a year or thereabouts, they gather in a common area—in my old building it was the basement, right off the washers and dryers—and vote for next year’s board. Sometimes …

Like it or not, e-mail is a permanent fixture of contemporary business communications. In real estate, board members and property managers use e-mail to discuss the most official and the most personal matters of their lives, from sched…

Common sense notwithstanding, a lot of co-op and condo owners don’t have the adequate liability and property insurance they should have. Too often they assume that their building association has insurance coverage that will automaticall…

Every month, HOA residents pay monthly fees that are in turn used to pay for a variety of association necessities. One of those necessities is insurance coverage for their buildings and grounds. This isn’t the same as homeowner’s insuran…

It seems like the everyday operating expenses of condos and HOAs just keep going up and up—fuel costs, staff salaries, physical repairs and the cost of cleaning supplies and other materials have all crept up (or shot up) in the last coup…

Workers’ compensation is insurance that provides cash benefits and/or medical care for workers who are injured or become ill as a direct result of their job. Employers—and, in the case of some co-op and condo boards, corporations th…

Q We have a number of apartments in our condo where owners have not paid maintenance for a few months. As our condo is in the process of legal action and collection can we stop their access to the apartment until the bad debt is paid? Rig…

Q We have a situation at our condo association regarding the likely possibility of changing our maintenance from a contractor to a direct hire. It has been widely speculated that our board president would be the candidate for the position…

Q For the past three years, I have lived in a condominium complex that was built approximately five years ago. The condo association is composed of five members, three of which include the builder and two others employed by the builde…