Legal Talk for Co-ops and Condos

Send us Fan Mail A longtime neighbor keeps leaving the stove on. There's no family to call, no one to knock on the door, and the board is losing sleep over what might happen next. Justin Buchel, partner at Schneider Buchel, describes this increasingly common situation, in which compassion and liability pull in opposite directions. He unpacks how boards navigate these tense moments and why the answer is rarely as simple as walking through the door. You'll hear why some situations that feel urg...

Send us Fan Mail When a co-op board grew frustrated with a parking garage tenant overstepping its limits, a routine notice of default seemed like the obvious fix. Instead, it triggered a lawsuit and a costly lesson in New York's unforgiving procedural rules. Drew Pakett, partner at Braverman Greenspun, walks through what happens when commercial tenants push back against default notices, why "sweetheart leases" make tenants fight harder to stay put, and how a single missing paragraph can sink ...

Send us Fan Mail When a co-op has a shareholder no one can live with, boards actually have serious legal muscle to do something about it. Steven Anderson, former partner at Becker Law and now with Kucker Marino Winiarsky & Bittens, breaks down the landmark Pullman case and how it turned "objectionable conduct" into one of the sharpest tools a co-op board can wield. Anderson explains why condo boards face a much steeper climb when trying to remove a disruptive owner, and what separates the...

Send us Fan Mail Losing a stock certificate sounds like a paperwork headache — until it threatens to derail a closing entirely. In this episode, Geoffrey Mazel, founding partner at Hankin & Mazel, talks about the unglamorous but essential mechanics of co-op share transfers. He's seen sellers arrive at the closing table without the paperwork they need, decades-old bank loans that seem to disappear into thin air, and family situations that quietly complicate who actually owns the shares. Ma...

Send us Fan Mail Falling behind on monthly fees might seem like a minor headache, but it can spiral into years of complications, mounting costs, and serious tension between neighbors. Carl Finger, principal at Finger & Finger, breaks down what actually happens behind the scenes when a resident stops paying, and why some boards handle it with ease while others watch a small problem snowball. He shares a case involving an elderly shareholder that shows just how complicated things can get wh...