As you can imagine, our office has been inundated with calls and emails concerning proper protocol should a resident or a tenant in a building either contract or be exposed to someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus. This raises…
Any time you have hundreds or even thousands of people living in close quarters – in a multifamily co-op or condo building, say – certain challenges inevitably will arise. One of the bigger ones is how to maintain the flow of fresh, hygieni…
Planning for a rainy day is pretty easy. Have an extra umbrella handy or a waterproof coat, and you’re probably fine. Planning for the rainiest day ever, on the other hand, is significantly more daunting. Especially if during that day there…
Multifamily residential buildings provide both privacy and community. Privacy, because a recluse in New York City can have almost anything delivered to his door and thus never have to leave the sanctuary of his apartment; and community, bec…
Whether we’re talking day-to-day safety or emergency planning, most multifamily buildings and HOAs have something on the books to address both standard operating procedures and things like alerts and evacuations. And that’s great if you’re …
Q. Our building is discriminating against children. The board has just purchased very expensive lobby furniture ($6,000 per chair) with a white rug. It has now passed a rule that children must not play in the lobby. If they are “caught” p…
Q. I’d like to get the opinions of legal experts regarding boards that use the surveillance system to spy on residents they dislike, attempting to “catch” them at some behavior which may be against the building rules. So is it legal to sp…
Q. Our association stated that in compliance with the Radburn Bill, all votes must be read aloud giving the unit number and the vote. Is this mandatory now? —Wishing to Remain Silent A. “The Radburn Bill doe…
Community associations are microcosms of democracy, run by an elected board of volunteers trusted to make good decisions on behalf of the community as a whole. Boards make the call on every large and small issue for their constituency. So i…
Removing a disruptive, abusive, non-paying, or otherwise problematic tenant from a rental building is relatively easy. Doing the same thing in a co-op is also possible, though substantially harder. But removing a condo owner from the premis…