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Our informative articles give decision makers from NYC residential co-ops or condos the knowledge to govern their co-op or condo effectively. Learn about policy issues, from setting and enforcing house rules to how to debate lobby renovation. Understand the rules and conventions your conduct as a board member is subject to. Keep up with the laws and expectations your building must comply with.
When Suing a Co-op Board, Should You Sue Individual Members? Here's When
Nov. 29, 2011 — Do individual board members of a co-op or condo face personal liability in deciding not to approve a shareholder or unit-owner's proposed apartment alteration? Not generally — but there are certain circumstances. Read More »
Condo Apartment in Foreclosure Limbo. Get the Unhelpful Bank on Your Side.
Nov. 25, 2011 — A condo apartment in foreclosure proceedings sits vacant while a bank twiddles its thumbs. Your building is losing money, but the bank doesn't care — unless your board explains why it's in the bank's interest to get a "rent receiver." Read More »
From the Editor: What Do You Do When You THINK Your Co-op Has Bed Bugs?
A monthly column by HABITAT's editorial director.
Sept. 29, 2011 — My mother did not suffer fools gladly and, when something seemed wrong, she didn't mince words. "That's stupid," she would say in her pronounced Greek accent. "Really stupid."
I wonder what she would have made of the recent goings-on at a small, self-managed Manhattan co-op. From what I have learned, the board president came home to find a long-winded message on his home answering machine. Read More »
The Sit-Down-and-Talk Way to Get Your Sponsor to Make Repairs
May 17, 2012 — You're in a newly built condominium, and the sponsor has left you with the gift that keeps on giving: building defects. But instead of suing, you can do what one Queens condo board did: Try the talking cure first. Read More »
Rent-Regulated Apartment Dilemma: When Co-op Boards MUST Act
Oct. 28, 2011 — Usually, when there's a problem with one of the co-op's rent-regulated apartments, the board of 61 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn leans on the landlord — the building's conversion sponsor — to take responsibility. But sometimes the situation has a way of forcing the board to get involved. Read More »
Why Residents Won't Run for the Board — And Why That's So Dangerous
April 27, 2012 — What happens when not enough people volunteer to serve on a co-op board or condo board? Is your building doomed? An attorney and community-association authority gets down to the root causes, and why it's critical that boards address these issues in order to keep your co-op or condo from stagnating — and to keep it in your hands. Read More »
When a Shareholder Is About to Default, Should the Co-op Buy the Apartment?
Dec. 27, 2011 — A reader asks: One of our shareholders wants our co-op to purchase his shares, saying he can no longer pay maintenance and has been unable to sell his apartment. Is there any reason our co-op board should not do this? Read More »
Hidden Fees from Property Managers! How to Spot Them — And Avoid Them
Oct. 25, 2011 — Hey, what a great price! Your co-op / condo board has been looking to hire a new management company, and the one they've chosen sounds perfect. They like the agent, the company has a good reputation and the quoted annual rate is well within your building's budget — and six months later, the building's several thousand dollars in the hole and there's a special assessment coming.
What happened? Turns out the company's great rate was just a baseline. You've been paying extra for everything from postage to city filings. Some companies even charge you for maintaining your building's checking account! You may not realize it, but there are different philosophies among management companies — not always made clear — between all-inclusive pricing and à la carte. So how do you protect yourself? Read More »
So You Want To Be a Board Member? Sure! It's No Harder Than Giving Birth!
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April 26, 2012 — Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be on your condo or co-op board of directors? Do you really know what your board does and how it goes about running your co-op? How can you prepare yourself if you decide to run? As a four-year veteran member and now president at Park Terrace Gardens in Inwood, I might compare the experience to having a baby: You don't know what it's like until you actually experience it. Read More »
Back from the Future: A 30th-Anniversary Short Story, "Osgood's Dilemma"
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May 14, 2012 — In honor of HABITAT's 30th Anniversary, we present a short story from journalist and humorist Frank Lovece, whose fiction has appeared in Marvel Comics and elsewhere.
Osgood Millimeter was fuming. The time was half-past 1982 and his Checker cab was stuck in traffic — he was going to be late for his co-op board meeting again. It was times like these he idly dreamed of having one of those two-way TV/radio wristwatches like in Dick Tracy. But he knew that would never happen during his lifetime, and he was only 40.
The radio was playing, its music pushing up against the wall of heat in the non-air-conditioned cab. Osgood thought if he had to listen to "Eye of the Tiger" from Rocky III one more time he'd scream. As if on cue, the song's headache-inducing guitar thumps stopped, and static filled the tinny radio speaker.
And then, suddenly, he was beside himself.
Literally. Read More »
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