Despite the significant amount of negative publicity generated due to the use of vacation rental sites such as Airbnb and VRBO, short-term rentals continue to be a significant problem in the city of New York. New laws designed to curtail such rentals have worked to a limited extent, but have not come close to stopping this illegal activity altogether.» Read More

All too often, co-op boards become entangled in disputes with contractors and subcontractors who perform work, not on the building’s common areas, but within individual apartments for a shareholder or unit owner. Typically this happens when the shareholder or unit owner fails to pay the contractor or subcontractor who did the work, and the contractor or subcontractor then files a mechanic’s lien under New York State’s Lien Law.» Read More

A transfer fee, or “flip tax” as it is commonly called, is a revenue-producing measure utilized by many cooperative buildings.  Typically, an owner pays a flip-tax fee to the building upon the sale of his or her unit.  A flip tax allows the cooperative to generate extra income for the building, enhancing the reserve fund and alleviating annual maintenance and operations costs, without raising maintenance or imposing special assessments upon current owners.» Read More