The thought of buying a new home is a daunting one, and it can be hard to remember every detail involved in making such a decision. Joel Meskin, Esq., CIRMS, the Vice President of Community Association Insurance & Risk Management at McGowan Program Administrators in Fairview Park, OH, recognizes this and compiled a checklist for those in the market for a new condominium or HOA unit. The twenty-six items on his list fall into five broad categories – Documents, Personnel, Insurance Items, Money, and Legal Items.

Whether you are renting an apartment or buying a home…

The Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968 as a part of the Civil Rights Act, just a week after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. The law was passed with the intention of preventing discrimination against any persons buying or renting a home based on race, gender, national origin, marital status, religion, or any other protected class.

For homeowners associations, this means that the governing board must be constantly aware of the goings-on in their community and any potential violations of the Fair Housing…

Oaktree Condominiums, seven condo units part of Oaktree Condominium Association, Inc., were built between 1988 and 1990. In 2003, several units showed signs of settling. 2005 saw the Association file a lawsuit against the project’s contractor, Hallmark Building Co. This past May the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Association, ending a nearly decade long legal battle.

The issue that started it all was serious drywall cracks in one…

IHEALTHY HOMES START WITH THE VENTS

In every home, be it a single-family house or within a high-rise apartment building there are four main building level systems: heating, lighting, water and ventilation. Of these, ventilation is the most frequently overlooked, in part because it is less obvious when issues arise, even though bad odors resulting from ventilation issues are the leading cause for people to move out of their apartment. Tom Holmes of Remediation Specialists, Inc. (RSI), a building restoration contractor based in Hamilton, NJ that does work all over the tri-state area, explains some methods of preventing ventilation issues, and how best to deal with…

BREATHING CITY AIR: THE IMPORTANCE OF VENTILATION IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT

Unlike in smaller buildings where the ventilation system is in the ceiling of the bathroom or kitchen and the air is released directly to the outdoors, larger buildings like high-rise apartment complexes have central ventilation systems where the vents in each apartment suck the air up to one big fan on the roof. This introduces the risk of short-circuiting, when air might leave one apartment and go up into the apartment directly above rather than out of the building, transferring kitchen and bathroom odors. If poorly ventilated rooms have high levels of moisture…

The importance of contractors’ safety inspections is proven each time a tragedy occurs. Damaged property and equipment, injured workers and/or civilians, and even death(s) are things that can be prevented by conducting routine safety inspections. Neglecting to run such inspections can lead to the expensive necessity of re-starting a job from scratch, not to mention the fines from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). By not performing these inspections you also risk your company's reputation. One disaster can cause you to lose the job and all other potential projects at that jobsite. Prospective…