Category: Law & Legislation

Lawsuits should be the last resort for resolving conflicts within community associations. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and other mediation avenues make it possible for community associations to avoid litigation altogether. Nevert…

From time to time, legal cases pass through the courts that have important, far-reaching implications for those of us living in or serving on the boards of our homeowners associations. These are precedent-setting cases that dictate chang…

It's a familiar covenant in most New Jersey leases. The rules and regulations allowing pets may differ from association to association but the gist is the same. If you live in a multi-unit building or community and you want to keep pets,…

When the weather is warm and the days are long, nothing says Summer like the sounds of neighborhood kids at play. There's safety to consider along with all the fun, however. While all fifty states have statutes on the books spelling…

If laws weren't made to be broken, they at least need to be amended once in a while. As a community's residents change—and the world in general changes around the community—yesterday's rules and bylaws can become outdated or no longer su…

When you're a homeowner living in an association environment, it's a good bet that at some point during your residence you are going to take issue with something that a neighbor is doing—or vice versa. Whether it be something small like …

Unlike the ordered governance of cooperative corporations and condo associations in places like New York City, New Jersey's community and homeowner associations largely govern themselves, with little oversight from the state and no standard…

Throughout its 200-year history, the New Jersey Legislature as an institution has reinvented and adapted itself to provide for the needs and concerns of its citizens and constituents. For all the impact the state legislature has on ordin…

One of the jobs of a homeowners' association is to make sure there are rules for homeowners concerning maintenance issues, that these rules are spelled out, and that these rules are followed. And the great majority of unit owners realize…

Few things are as frustrating and irksome as paying a contractor to execute a project in either a private home or a condo association's common areas and finding out after the dust has settled that the work you paid for is substandard or …