Federal Disaster Assistance for Condominium Associations and Cooperatives May be on the Horizon

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, many communities throughout the tri-state area suffered severe and catastrophic damage. Community associations, much similar to single family homeowners, turned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for financial assistance, only to be turned away. Surprisingly, federal law does not currently permit FEMA to provide financial assistance directly to […]

New Jersey and New York Condominium Associations Should Allow Mezuzahs

There have been numerous reports of condominiums making people take mezuzahs off their front door frames. These very small items are important for Jewish people and it is simply outrageous that an association would demand that this kind of object be removed. Or any similar religious ornament.     Read more……..

Broken Water Pipes in a Condominium/ Homeowners Association

Its been very cold recently here in New Jersey and this has caused a lot of condominium and home owner association problems. Broken water pipes have been a big problem. Who must pay the repair bill? Is the unit owner responsible? the Association? Does it depend where the break is located? The answer to all […]

State of Surveillance: Being Safe in Your Own Condo

There are many different factors that prospective condominium owners contemplate when looking to buy a unit. Aesthetics, price, and location are important, for sure. But perhaps the most critical factors of all are the safety of the building and the neighborhood it’s in.     Read more…….

Window Safety and Repairs: Protecting Against Stormy Weather

A lot of people don’t think twice about their homes’ windows—as long as you can see through them and get some air and natural light, what’s left to think about? But windows are structural openings after all, and without proper installation and maintenance, they can be a silent enemy of household comfort. No matter how […]

Hidden Dangers: What You Need to Know About Lead Paint & Other Hazards

In New Jersey, buying a co-op or a condo goes something like this: Your realtor takes you to see your dream home. You put in an offer—along with a bunch of other people. After a ferocious bidding war, your offer is finally accepted. You submit a bunch of very personal documents (in the case of […]

Do It Yourself…Or Not? When To Call a Pro!

This country was founded with a heavy dose of independence and a strong “Do-It-Yourself” attitude. The DIY mindset, with roots in Europe and European culture, crossed the Atlantic Ocean with the earliest immigrants and became part of the American tradition of personal and community responsibility.     Read more…….

A Breath of Fresh Air: Maintaining Vents, Ducts & Garbage Chutes

In a multifamily building with scores, possibly hundreds of people living under one roof, cooking, cleaning, dusting and breathing, it’s no surprise that the airways, chutes and garbage rooms of these buildings can get clogged and dirty over time. Waste material, debris, and allergens can build up in a building’s airways and passages, causing everything […]

Live Long and Prosper: Life Spans of Building Systems

Nothing lasts forever, and though you can’t predict the moment a piece of building equipment will break down, you can prepare for it. Even the toughest boiler, HVAC unit, or elevator will eventually tucker out and need major repairs, or just give up the ghost and have to be replaced.     Read more…….

From Good to Great: Principles for Community Association Success

Every community has its own history, personality, attributes and challenges, but all associations share common characteristics and core  principles. Good associations  preserve the character of  their communities, protect  property values and meet  the established expectations of homeowners. Great  associations also cultivate  a true sense of community,  promote active homeowner  involvement and create a  culture of […]

Dealing With the Disruptive: How to Handle Problem Residents

The vast majority of condo and HOA residents are regular folks who wouldn’t dream of disrupting life in their community by harassing their neighbors, bombarding their board and manager with endless complaints and threats, or filing lawsuits at the drop of a hat for every little thing. That being said, the unfortunate truth is that […]

Meeting Minders: A Guide to Running Better Meetings

You may love your building. You may even love your neighbors and the members of your board. But there are few people who can say that they love their monthly board meetings or annual owner or shareholder meetings.     Read more…..

High & Mighty: When Boards Go Overboard

There’s nothing worse than being a unit owner in a building and seeing someone on your board breaking a rule and seemingly getting away with it.     Read more…..

Just One Big, Happy Family…? Remedies for Dysfunctional Boards

Finding the right balance of involvement between HOAs and condo boards and residents can be like maintaining a healthy relationship with a significant other—you want to be compassionate, responsive and attentive, but not too needy, nosy or aggressive.   Read more……

Watch Your Language: Carefully Drafting Contracts Protects Associations

The vast majority of both one-time projects and long-term service contracts involving vendors and service providers and their condominium or HOA clients go smoothly and either conclude or continue without incident. However, a small percentage of jobs do jump the tracks in one way or another, and when that happens, things can get complicated.   Read […]

Coping With Arrears: When Residents Fall Behind

The foundation of any properly run condo association or co-op building rests on residents paying their monthly maintenance fees on time and in full, with no delays or delinquencies. However, in the wake of the recession, with many shareholders and owners still on shaky financial ground, some co-ops and condos are feeling the pinch of […]

So You’ve Been Sued — Now What? Handling Lawsuits

Lawsuits are usually not an association’s go-to method for dispute resolution. Expensive and time-consuming, they can quickly turn into a financial burden and may create strained relations in the community. Unfortunately, in some cases there’s no other way out. Last year a couple filed a suit against a neighbor, the association, individual board members, and […]

Can You Hear Me Now? Better Neighbors Through Soundproofing

When walls are the only separation between you and your neighbors, privacy sometimes goes out the window. People hear their next-door neighbors talking, footsteps from above or even music blaring through the walls. Sound transmission between units is one of the biggest complaints among condo dwellers. Noise can also come from ceilings, doors and windows, […]

The Irrigation Situation

One of the first things both prospective residents and visitors to a condo or HOA notice are the beautiful grounds and lush landscaping surrounding the property. Of course, a key component in maintaining all that greenery is the availability of fresh water. Because of the topography of New Jersey, access to water can vary a […]

Solar Panels in Homeowner Associations

New Jersey law provides that homeowner associations shall not adopt nor enforce rules prohibiting the installation of solar collectors in certain circumstances (see NJSA 45: 22A-48.2). For instance, owners of single family detached residences, or townhome residences, in which the owner of the unit holds title to the building as well as the ground surrounding […]

New Jersey Condominiums are Able to Limit Certain Liability Claims

On March 20, 2013, the Superior Court of New Jersey ruled in Irma Sanchez v. The Villages Association that the burden of proving the validity of a community association’s bylaws limiting its liability in personal injury cases rests with the injured plaintiff. It is beneficial for community associations, their boards, professional managers and unit owners […]

Taming Transient Turmoil: Managing Renters in Condos

As housing markets in many parts of the country—including New Jersey—have foundered, many developers have opted to convert portions of communities originally intended to be condominiums into rental properties. When a development with no owner-occupied units converts to rental, it’s not such a big deal—after all, no units sold means no unit owners are affected. […]

Tripping on Stipulations: A Condo Board Tries to Game the Bylaws … and Fails

Don’t count your bylaw amendments before they’re hatched, and watch out when attorneys suggest an end-run around homeowners trying to stick to their rights. So go, at least, the lessons in a recent case involving an Upper East Side condominium board — which lost a lawsuit against a unit-owner over the crucial, critical, monumental issue […]

A Management Checklist: Performance Review Criteria for Property Managers

How can you tell whether the on-site property manager at a condominium or homeowners association community is doing a good job? And what is a ‘good job’ anyway? Whether a manager is well-liked and whether he or she manages well may not be the same thing. How do you distinguish one from the other?  Read […]

Too Hot to Handle! Fire Safety for Multifamily Buildings

The discovery of fire is considered a major turning point in man’s evolution from cave dweller to outer space explorer. Control of fire allowed early man warmth for his habitat, a way to cook his meals, and light for his surroundings. Fire also provided a means to frighten away predators and introduced a social element […]

A Private Matter: Communities Must Balance Privacy and Security

The issue of intellectual property and an individual’s right to privacy has become a greater concern since more and more people conduct their lives online—whether for banking, social media or dating. While the aforementioned generally have security features encrypted in programming platforms, there remain justifiable concerns as to what is actually protected. This heightened sense […]

Superstorm Sandy: Federal Help Exists for Co-op and Condo Associations

In the terrible aftermath of superstorm Sandy, co-op and condo boards and residents found themselves struggling with both dire immediate needs and longer-term woes. With lobbies, basements and other common areas flooded and in need of repair and reconstruction, with electrical panels destroyed and with buildings not collecting maintenance or common charges from uninhabitable apartments, […]

Smart Buildings, Smart Boards: If Phones Can be Smart, Why Not Buildings?

If phones can be “smart,” why not buildings? With the ever-expanding array of consumer technology available today, it should come as no surprise that residential buildings are able to incorporate more and more cutting-edge technology into their communications, security, and operations systems than ever before, and to unify building operating systems so they can be […]

The Importance of Knowing Your Warranties

Warranties for products are simple to understand, most people might think. You go to the store, buy a computer or a DVD player or a TV, or even a larger appliance like a refrigerator, and you get a piece of paper describing a one-year or two-year warranty, and what’s covered. Sometimes, for some extra money, […]

Masonry Requires Regular Maintenance

What many co-op and condo associations don’t understand is that there is a fair share of maintenance that goes into brickwork. From repointing and caulking to cleaning and sanding – brick walls are an investment and if taken care of appropriately can last beautifully for generations.  Read More……

Planning for Capital Improvement Project Contingencies

Sooner or later, every resident living in a condo, HOA or co-op community will have to deal with the inconvenience of living through a major capital improvement project—a roof replacement, an elevator rehab, serious exterior work, or something of that nature.  Read More……

The Benefits of Being on the Board

Many co-op and condo owners want to get involved in their community but they soon find out that being on the board is no picnic. Soon neighbors are pestering them asking for feuds to be settled, decisions that affect all resident’s lives have to be made, and then there are the books…financial matters that have […]

When Owners Don’t Pay: HOA Boards Struggle to Make Ends Meet

Nothing remained in the New Jersey townhome after the owner, exasperated and struggling, financially picked up and left. And took everything with him. “Not only did he walk away, but he gutted his house,” says Joseph J. Balzamo, a president at Alliance Property Management LLC in Morristown. “He took the appliances, he took the electric, […]

Getting Out the Vote: Holding Fair Elections

When it comes to running board elections in a condo or co-op community, the biggest concern among those involved is making sure the elections are fair and balanced and nobody has a reason to cry foul. Elections can be heated as it is, so the voting process should run smoothly and without any hiccups.   Read […]

Fiduciary Duty: What Boards & Residents Should Know

Being elected to the board of directors of a co-op or condo comes with a great deal of power, and with that power also comes a great deal of responsibility. Whether they serve a co-op or condo community, board members, in their position of power, have a responsibility to govern and make decisions on behalf […]

Can condominium associations ban religious symbols?

The Supreme Court of New Jersey addressed this situation in A Committee For A Better Twin Rivers, v. Twin Rivers Homeowners’ Association. In the Supreme Court’s decision, authored by Justice John E. Wallace, Jr., the Court determined that even in light of New Jersey’s broad interpretation of its constitutional free speech provisions, the “nature, purposes […]

Help with Going Green: Tapping Federal and State Incentive Programs

With the green movement in full swing across the country, it is not surprising that incorporating energy saving and efficient measures has trickled into condominium development. Today, many buildings in New Jersey pride themselves for having a variety of eco-friendly features ranging from green roofs, the use of sustainable materials and recycling on-site.  Read More……

Ten Hot (and Cool) Tips

Energy efficiency has become a “buzz word” over the past couple years in New Jersey and more and more gadgets and devices have come on the market that are specifically designed to use less energy. Saving energy does a lot more than just reduce a building’s carbon footprint and toxic emissions, however—going green can save […]

Condo board chiefs often make hard choices

Imagine that you have a job that requires you to be an expert in everything from finance to construction and that trying to do your best at this job makes your closest neighbors hate you.  Now imagine that you do this for free. That’s the life of a condominium board president.  Read More……

Keeping it Above Board: Avoiding Common Conflicts of Interest

One of the trickier problems to deal with when you live in a co-op or condo is dealing with board members who sometimes let the power go to their heads. Even though they are entrusted with a great deal of responsibility in the smooth running of the building, it’s vital that board members don’t use […]

Insurance Fraud! We All Pay the Price

Last year in New Jersey, a former property manager in Freehold Township was accused of embezzling $75,000 from homeowner dues. In a separate case, a woman, her husband and mother were charged with theft from an Aberdeen condo association after misappropriating $995,000 of the association’s money from January 2005 through September 2006, and in Readington, […]

Mind the Gap: Understanding Your Insurance Responsibilities

Insurance is designed to be there for us when we need it most. Without knowing the full extent of our coverage, though, we may find ourselves with less protection than we thought. For condominium owners, it is imperative to understand exactly what liabilities and risks are covered by individual resident homeowner policies and what is […]

Rookies No More: Veterans Helping Newcomers

Remember your first day at a new school? Most likely, you didn’t know a soul, had no idea what the students were learning and you probably felt  nervous, intimidated or maybe even afraid. In most cases, this is what it’s like to be a new board member. A newcomer walks into a meeting for the […]

Understanding Finances: Reading Between the Line Items

For a crystal-clear picture of how an association is doing, there are few better lenses than the community’s budgets and financial reports. From an investment perspective, they show the shareholders, managers, tenants, owners, and board whether the property is solvent or not. If the numbers add up and the monies coming in and out balance, […]

Pay Up! The Subtle Art of Collecting Arrears

In the tough economic environment of the past few years, many condo owners have faced job losses, pay decreases or just financial uncertainty. Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to owners not paying their common charges.  Read More……

Cash-Strapped? Getting Residents Behind an Assessment

Money is a topic people are often skittish about discussing—especially when the discussion involves rising fees, or having to pay more money for something. When you’re a board member or the property manager of a condo building or residential association however, there’s no benefit to skirting financial realities just because they may be difficult or […]

Amazing Amenities: Wine Cellars, Aquariums or Maybe, a Bowling Alley?

New Jersey is known for having some of the very best urban opportunities in the world—among the best colleges and schools, museums and libraries, as well as some of the finest parks, the most interesting architecture, the most intriguing mix of diverse people, and among the very best collection of historic sites in the nation. […]