I am a woman who owns a single-family suburban home, but I came about the process of home ownership the traditional way. First, I rented an apartment during college and my early working years. Then I met my then-future husband, we got marri…
Let's say the guy down the street is a sucker for all things medieval. On weekends, he dresses up in armor and whacks other armored men with clubs. Sometimes he even jousts. You get the idea. Now let's say this same fellow wants his…
Just like your condo association or homeowner association has to pay its taxes, it also has to pay for its insurance coverage. But managing risk coverage for an entire community is a little more complicated than insuring your family car.…
One of the most confusing aspects of owning a condo or co-op is understanding the ins-and-outs of your community's insurance coverage. The fine print of an association's insurance policy is often complicated, but for association boards, …
It's like setting your luggage on the conveyer at the airline check-in counter. Somehow your bags end up in your hands after the flight. It's just that we never quite know what happens in between letting our bag go and finding it again t…
With ownership of property comes great responsibility—and a certain amount of risk. One of the most important aspects of property ownership is ensuring that in the event of loss, damage or accident, your investment is protected. In essen…
Hurricane Imminent roared towards the New Jersey coast, its 120 mile-per-hour winds devastating the homes along the 80 miles of barrier islands. The Category 3 storm left a million homeless and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in d…
Prices of most co-ops and condominiums in the New York metropolitan area—which nowadays extends as far west as eastern Pennsylvania and as far south as the lower Jersey shore—have reached stratospheric proportions. In once-blighted urban…
In most cases, New Jersey's community and homeowner associations largely govern themselves, with little oversight from the state and no standardized procedures or best practices. But recently there has been some movement from the powers …
Like snowflakes, no two homeowner associations are exactly alike. New Jersey's laws governing HOAs allow for a good deal of leeway in how a condo, co-op or town home community decides to run things. One of these areas is in the care and …