Q. I want to know if my condo association is legally registered, because the president of association refuses to show me any documents to verify that we are. Where do I have to ask to get this information? —Reside…
Q. Can we include an alternate dispute resolution (ADR) in our co-op’s application itself? Since the applicant is not a shareholder yet, is this legal? If we reject a candidate, we would like to avoid the threat of litigation and use our …
Q. As a condo association in Illinois, do we have a fiduciary duty to hire a property tax attorney in an effort to lower our assessed valuations? If successful, each owner would pay a percentage of the first year’s savings. —Seeki…
Once upon a time, you usually greeted your neighbor in the hallway of your building as you're coming or going. But lately you haven’t seen or heard a peep from her in almost two months. You wonder if she is okay. So you ask the super one…
Co-op, condo and HOA communities are a property manager’s bread and butter. Ensuring that their client buildings and associations run smoothly everyday provides managers with both purpose and pay. Therefore, it stands to reason that a dedi…
Q. I’m a resident owner in a 56-unit condo building, and share a common balcony with my next-door neighbor, divided by just a short rail. I have sensitivity to cigarette smoke, and don’t believe it’s fair that the building allows smoking …
Q. We have a board that just doesn’t get along. I am the president, and one of the other board members is a big bully. It’s really hard to deal with him, and I hear from contractors that he is nasty. He wants to run it all. No matter what…
After many years of expansion and growth nationwide, most co-op and condominium markets saw both turbulence and some overall decline in 2018. The market has turned from one favoring sellers to one more hospitable to buyers. Markets like sta…
Spring has arrived, which is good news after what has felt to many like a particularly hostile winter. In a community association or multifamily building, spring also brings a number of seasonal maintenance and sprucing-up projects that can…
Like people, buildings age. Even under the best of circumstances, weather – particularly water, in the form of rain, snow, and ice – followed by or combined with extremes in temperature can do permanent damage to facades, cornices, parapets…