Q  I live in a very small building community in suburban Chicago and our condo board has turned over our building to a manager who is running the condo as he sees fit without any input from the board or from residents. He seems to be runni…

The experience of co-op and condo board members can often feel like a juggling act. There are varied interests in the community that want different things. There's legal counsel, financial advisers, and managers who try to offer the best pr…

Residents of a condominium, cooperative or homeowner's association that literally takes care of itself, from the grounds to the pool to the electrical systems, really have it made in the shade.  But those building communities really do not…

In the Chicagoland area, the process of purchasing a condo can make for quite the odyssey. Oh yes…matching budget requirements, securing mortgages, and inspecting reams of paperwork all amount to a rather stressful and tedious adventure. Fo…

When you live in a multifamily building, however, peace and quiet can be hard to come by. From the guy upstairs who gargles loudly at precisely 6:47 a.m. every morning to the neighbor with the yapping Chihuahua—at some point the soundtrack …

It happens in business, government, and industry every day: employees learn the rules of a new job, and very shortly thereafter, they start taking shortcuts to circumvent them. Rarely is this done with malicious intent. More often, it is si…

It’s a fact of life: with big purchases come big reams of paperwork. For co-op shareholders and condominium unit owners, that can mean hundreds of pages of documents outlining everything from the financial status of their residential commun…

Q I am in the process of looking for and buying a refurbished condo. The developer wants me to waive the implied warranty of habitability. I don’t think I should. Is this a normal practice and procedure? I am told that this building I’…

Q We’ve noticed some irregularities lately in the way that our board conducts its business. Namely, we have some concerns about the financial viability of our association. Do the individual condo association board members and the board…

Renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright built a home and studio here, Ernest Hemingway learned to write the great American novel here and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan mused about swinging from tree limb to tree limb, all in the village of Oa…