Community Associations

No matter whether you are a first time home buyer or veteran repeat purchaser chances are you have been mentally preparing for the deluge of paper that accompanies this major purchase. The sheer magnitude of documents is understandably overwhelming. Document after document is slid across the shiny, polished conference table… Continue reading →

New Jersey courts that have considered the application of the business judgment rule have concluded that the scope of judicial review of condominium association decisions is limited to a two-pronged test: (1) whether an association’s action was authorized by statute or its own bylaws and, if so, (2) whether the action was fraudulent, self-dealing or unconscionable. Thanasoulis, supra, 110 N.J. at 655; see also Chin v. Coventry Square Condo, 270 N.J. Super. 323, 328-29, (App. Div. 1994); Siller, supra, 93 N.J. at 382; Papalexiou v. Tower West Condo, 167 N.J. Super. 516, 527 (Ch. Div. 1979). Continue reading →

In late November, Pennsylvania House Bill 2172 became law. As a result of this new law, and effective January 22, 2011, the jurisdictional limit of Pennsylvania’s magisterial district courts was increased from $8,000 to $12,000 in civil cases. Also as a result of this new law, effective January 22, 2011, the Philadelphia’s Municipal Court jurisdictional limit was increased from $10,000 to $12,000. Interest and costs are not to be calculated when considering the jurisdictional limits. Continue reading →

People commonly think of home ownership in the form of owning a single family house situated on its own parcel of land. However, increasingly, condominiums, and to a lesser extent, co-operatives, are providing alternative forms of home ownership. What are these forms of ownership and what is the difference between them? Continue reading →

Very often common interest community associations and their boards believe that the benefits and/or protections afforded by what is commonly known as “Title 39”, and the protections of New Jersey’s Municipal Services Act, are available to communities only to the extent those communities’ roads are public (i.e., dedicated to the municipality). Continue reading →

Statute §3407 of the Pennsylvania Condominium Act (the “Act”) provides that a contract for the resale of a common interest community unit by someone other than the developer is unenforceable unless the unit owner furnishes certain information and documents. Continue reading →

Generally speaking, all binding decisions of a common interest community and/or homeowners association must be made at governing board meetings open to attendance by all owners. Continue reading →