New Jerseyans face crises that arise throughout the state every day, from fires to water main breaks to building collapses, doing so with their trademark resilience. And whereas residents have long been accustomed to lousy – aand sometimes…
Legal issues, maintenance challenges and state and local code compliance requirements are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the obstacles condo and co-op boards, along with their owners and building managers, struggle to navigat…
Big or small, disasters often strike out of the blue. They catch us unaware, flatfooted and feeling helpless at their impact. This is especially true when these events hit us at home or within our shared communities. When fire, flood, hurr…
Property managers know that whether they're running a small, contained walk-up building, a multi-unit high rise, or a sprawling condo development in the suburbs, materials, capital and personnel all fall under their administrative jurisdic…
Few things illustrate the fragility of modern civilization more clearly than plumbing problems. A broken pipe, a backed-up toilet, a flooded bathroom—any one of these can quickly go from annoyance to emergency, and the longer a plumbing pr…
The rarely stated—but all too well understood—Murphy’s Law for Boilers—asserts that if your boiler quits working, it will do so on Christmas or New Year’s Eve, or at 4:45 p.m. on the coldest day of the year. With some planning, though, tha…
From the outside, the structure of a condo or co-op building may appear to be monolithic; just one big piece of brick and steel, punctuated with some glass here and there. That's an oversimplification, however. A multifamily building is pe…
It only makes good business sense that if something goes wrong and needs fixing at a condo or co-op, the board or manager is going to do some due diligence to choose the correct contractor, and this is normally done by gathering bids. Afte…
In terms of wear and tear on buildings, winter is the harshest season of the year. Snow accumulation and ice damming on roofs can be a major headache, pipes freezing and bursting could spell disaster, and just about any accumulation of wat…
New Jersey is trashy. Literally. Every day residents of the Garden State produce hundreds of tons of trash. Whether its’ paper plates, cups, napkins or E-waste such as discarded computers, office electronic equipment, entertainment systems…