March 15, 2010 — Having exterior renovations done at your co-op or condo apartment building? Better break out the adding machine and start adding some little-known new costs to your budget — because in the wake of fatal construction-crane accidents in New York City, more stringent enforcement of building codes means you'll be paying even bigger bucks for your big jobs. How much? Enough to raise the cost of an $860,000 waterproofing to nearly $1 million. Read More »

NYC: March 15, 2010 — Recent news of note for co-op and condo boards. Trump Village Co-op (at left) sends Rover roving; boards keep spouses and domestic partners from owning; and a new edition of Sylvia Shapiro's The New York Co-Op Bible is a'borning. Plus: Read about New York co-ops from a Canadian point of view — in an article that oddly name-checks Miley Cyrus in its headline and nowhere else!

Get all the latest co-op and condo news in Habitat's weekly Monday News Roundup. Also included: Permanent archival links. If a link goes dead, you'll still be able to read the backup at WebCitation.org. Read More »

March 10, 2010 — Co-op board members and condo association directors tend to encounter the same few shareholder/unit-owner issues over and over: The same misunderstandings and complaints crop up in each new generation of buyers. "I see them in all kinds of developments and among all kinds of owners," says attorney Janet Oulousian Aronson, a specialist in community-association law and a member of the New England chapter of the Community Associations Institute. And though it can sometimes feel hopeless, sometimes all it takes is explaining to residents, in a nice way, the basic facts of co-op and condo life.

But what do you say? How should you phrase it? Keeping emotion out of your conversations with co-op / condo owners, while not sounding uncaring and like you're just spouting talking points, isn't always easy, especially with your more contentious residents. That's why Aronson's five tips for what to say and how to say it can come in handy. A soft answer turneth away wrath — and Ruth and Ralph and most any other resident with one of these typical areas of complaint. Read More »

March 14, 2010 — New York State's proposed 2010 budget includes a new tax on anyone buying a co-op apartment. Just how much will this new "cooperative loan tax" affect people buying a co-op this year? If passed into law, it'll add anywhere $1,000 to over $5,000 to your costs for a typical co-op loan. And that's just the start of it.... Read More »

March 12, 2010 — Your first thought, upon looking at this Earth-friendly, electric-powered love-child of a golf cart and a pickup truck, may be, "Sure, my co-op or condo could use something like for hauling tree branches or air conditioners or what have you from building to building in my Brooklyn or Queens cooperative or condominium complex." (We're assuming you think in complete, detailed sentences that include Internet search terms.) "But," you may go on, "what about Manhattan co-ops and condos that, for the most part, are individual city buildings and not part of self-contained complexes?"

The answer surprised even us: Even on city streets, your building staff may still be able to use this week's spotlighted New Product for trips to the hardware store or plumbing-supply shop. How? Because it falls into the category of LSV — Low-Speed Vehicle — which, with exceptions, New York State allows. Read More »