Editor's Note: To help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in your building or association, procedures and supplies should be in place to encourage proper personal hygiene, as well as routine cleaning and disinfection of high-risk locations. This guidance is provided by the New York State Department of Health so that owners, operators and other individuals can incorporate these procedures into th…

Any time you have hundreds or even thousands of people living in close quarters – in a multifamily co-op or condo building, say – certain challenges inevitably will arise. One of the bigger ones is how to maintain the flow of fresh, hygienic air into the building and provide for the out-venting of stale air, fumes, and odors.  Poor air quality is at best a nuisance and at worst a bona fide health…

Since their insurgence over the last dozen years, Airbnb, Homeaway/VRBO and other home-sharing sites using a similar model have provided travelers all across the globe with alternative – often more affordable – accommodation to hotels, motels, inns, and B&Bs. The home-sharing model certainly has been an economic boon to budget-seeking travelers, locales with weak tourism, and property owners who u…

Over the past few years, millennials (generally regarded as those born between 1981 and 1996) have become the largest and most important demographic group for marketing products and services – including homes. What separates millennials from older buyers – even those not much older than themselves – is their comfort with using technology and online resources to a much greater extent, and their pri…

Community associations are microcosms of democracy, run by an elected board of volunteers trusted to make good decisions on behalf of the community as a whole. Boards make the call on every large and small issue for their constituency. So it’s not only imperative that these members are carefully vetted and selected, but that during transitions of power from one board to the next, members with more…

Removing a disruptive, abusive, non-paying, or otherwise problematic tenant from a rental building is relatively easy. Doing the same thing in a co-op is also possible, though substantially harder. But removing a condo owner from the premises (and effectively wiping out his or her equity position as a member of the condominium association) is very difficult indeed, and subject to very narrow legal…