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2 months ago | 
habitatmag.com | Paula Chin
At some point, every co-op and condo board confronts the question of imposing an assessment to pay for capital repairs. Assessments come in all sizes and they're rarely popular with shareholders or unit-owners, but here's a four-part primer that will ease the inevitable pain. 1. Overcoming resistance. There will always be shareholders and unit-owners who balk at paying an assessment, and some will try to block it.
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2 months ago | 
habitatmag.com | Paula Chin
Compliance with local laws is a crucial part of every co-op and condo board’s duty to maintain building safety and avoid costly fines and penalties. But with the tsunami of city regulations, rules and inspections constantly pouring in, it can be challenging to stay on top of it all. The good news: competent management companies are rising to the challenge.
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2 months ago | 
habitatmag.com | Paula Chin
History is destiny, some say. Nowhere is this adage truer than in today's hard insurance market, where co-op and condo boards are finding that a history of major insurance claims often leads to rising premiums, shrinking coverages and, in some cases, an inability to renew existing policies or find a new insurance carrier willing to underwrite such a risky building. But there are ways to soften the hard realities of today's insurance market.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
habitatmag.com | Paula Chin
Just as co-op and condo boards were scrambling to meet the looming deadline to file reports required by the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), a Texas court has issued a nationwide injunction against enforcement of the law, finding that the government was unable to provide “any tenable theory that the CTA falls within Congress’s power,” and is therefore likely to be found unconstitutional. Boards, attorneys and management companies can breathe a sigh of relief — at least for the moment.
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Jan 24, 2024 | 
emmys.com | Paula Chin
Bill Markham has been wowed by wildlife throughout his twenty-seven years making nature documentaries (Night on Earth, Animal), but as series producer of A Real Bug's Life, he discovered that small is beautiful, too.
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Jan 4, 2024 | 
emmys.com | Paula Chin
Robert Roldan's dance moves have appeared on such shows as Glee and Dancing With the Stars Robert Roldan Dances His Way to Stardom From high school to Hollywood, the talented dancer has big plans and even bigger dreams. Dancing With the Stars contributing choreographer Robert Roldan has his mom to thank for finding his métier. She had been urging the diehard jock to try a dance class for years, and at age thirteen he finally did.
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Nov 30, 2023 | 
emmys.com | Paula Chin
When Daniel Golding was approached to be series producer and director of the PBS docuseries Native America, the opportunity was, in a word, perfect. A member of the Quechan Indian Nation, Golding had just finished Chasing Voices, a documentary about the last speakers of Native America's dying languages, which he has made his mission to preserve. "We need to tell the backstories of how our traditions are being lost and how people are working to preserve them," he says. "Things need to be done.
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Sep 7, 2023 | 
habitatmag.com | Paula Chin
Co-op and condo boards in New York City are under the gun. Beginning in 2024, Local Law 97 will require buildings larger than 25,000 square feet to reduce their carbon emissions under specified caps or face stiff fines. The caps get more stringent and the fines get more severe in 2030. But many boards are wondering how they're going to pay for the retrofits that will bring them in compliance with the law.
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Aug 24, 2023 | 
habitatmag.com | Paula Chin
Today’s so-called hard insurance market is the result of a perfect storm. Record personal injury claims have driven up the cost of liability insurance. Umbrella policies for excess liability protection are shrinking, with fewer carriers offering less coverage at higher prices. Property insurance premiums are soaring due to increased labor and material costs. And reinsurance carriers, the companies who insure the insurers, are also raising their rates.
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Aug 3, 2023 | 
habitatmag.com | Paula Chin
In 2005, a shareholder at an Upper East Side co-op renovated his apartment after signing an alteration agreement in which he took responsibility for any damages that might result from the alterations. The agreement carried an additional requirement: if the apartment was ever sold, the new purchaser had to agree to assume responsibility for these alterations, even though he or she hadn’t made them. Fast forward a number of years.
