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residents change—and the world in general changes around the community—yesterday's rules and bylaws can become outdated or no longer su…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…
Owning a condo or being a member of a homeowner association is a something many New Jersey residents know a thing or two about. In 2004, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimated that 970,000 existing co-ops and condos were so…
A giant shrub trimmed to resemble a stock car? Shutters painted an eye-shattering fuschia? Eight not-so-tiny reindeer blitzing across the roof? Some people's idea of design heaven is almost certainly someone else's idea of aesthetic purg…
Anyone who has spent time serving on the board of his or her co-op or condo knows that it is a job that no one can do alone. Even if you have the most conscientious group of board members, the job is too time-consuming for a group of vol…
Community associations, whether a homeowners' association, property owners' association, cooperative, timeshare/interval association or commercial association are legal entities that are governed by bylaws and applicable statutory and gover…
It takes a lot to run a successful building—there are employees to hire, services to contract, boards to elect, new residents to review, general technical maintenance to take care of, and all the rest on that ever-present "to do" list with …