Condos and homeowner associations have made headlines over the years for passing all kinds of overreaching and downright silly rules and regulations—everything from forbidding the flying of the American flag to having prohibitions about han…
There is always work to be done on a building, whether it’s a simple lobby repair or a major capital improvement, and finding the right contractor for the job takes some work. If the vetting process is not done properly, the results could b…
Exteriors of buildings aren’t always smooth brick walls. There are all sorts of indentations and protrusions, from terraces to stonework, to cornices. There are also items that are not part of the building, but are affixed to it, like scaff…
Building amenities such as elevator systems are often taken for granted. But, elevators are for more than just avoiding a workout and creating awkward silences between neighbors; they accommodate residents unable to climb stairs and are cri…
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, produce waste, and both require regular…
Q “We live in a condominium development of 130 units. One investor own 48 of these units. He’s taken two seats on the board since 1986. No one votes for him, I suspect he always votes for himself and gets on the board. Can this be possibl…
In a recent case decided on August 12, 2015, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that an association is not immune from liability for personal injuries sustained on a sidewalk which is privately owned by the community association. This ruli…
Dozens of writers, actors, actresses and music personalities were born in the hardscrabble neighborhoods of Newark—New Jersey’s largest city, and the nation’s 67th most populous municipality. Mystery novelist Harlan Coben and fiction write…
As long as there have been residential buildings, there has been maintenance personnel—be that a superintendent, a chief engineer, or a collection of reliable individuals. They're charged with the all-important task of ensuring that operati…
While ice damming on roofs is nothing new, the record-breaking snowfall of the 2014-15 winter was especially devastating in terms of ice dams. An ice dam is a ridge of ice that forms at the edge of a roof and prevents melting snow from drai…