“What goes up, comes down” – unless you’re talking about insurance premiums to which that law of physics doesn’t seem to apply.  There may be some exceptions, but you are unlikely to find many condo association boards popping champagne corks after opening their premium renewal notices.  Increases are averaging from 12 percent to 60 percent nationally. Even properties with pristine claims histories are feeling the pain.

Simple math explains the double whammy driving this trend.  Climate change is increasing the number and intensity of weather-related natural disasters, resulting in more insurance claims for the property damage they cause (whammy one).  The rising cost of just about everything (whammy two) is dramatically increasing repair and replacement costs. It’s costing insurers a lot more to provide property insurance and they are responding by increasing what they charge for it.

When a condominium board or an individual unit owner discovers a construction defect that should have been caught before the building was ever occupied, the instinct is understandable: Someone should have seen this coming, and the town's building inspector was standing right there with the plans and the authority to stop the project.

Clients often come to counsel already convinced that the town shares the blame, sometimes more of the blame than the contractor who actually built the defective condition, and they want to know why their attorney is not filing suit against the city or town as well. This is often the point where an attorney has to deliver news the client does not want to hear. In Massachusetts, a condominium board or unit owner generally cannot recover from a municipality for failing to catch a construction defect during permitting or inspection, no matter how obviously inadequate that inspection turns out to have been in hindsight.

We are working on the association’s annual budget and it is clear that our anticipated expenses are going to exceed anticipated revenues. Some board members have suggested that deferring some scheduled but nonessential maintenance projects would reduce expenses by enough to close this gap without increasing monthly dues. Are there other alternatives we should consider?

It took ten years of hard work by Richard Brooks and CAI and the Framingham Condominium Coalition to convince The Town of Framingham to provide free trash pickup to condominiums in 2002.

Earlier this year the City of Framingham wanted to take it away.

However, on August 18th, the city reversed its position and decided it wouldn’t change the service for fiscal 2027 and condominiums would continue to receive trash pickup from the city.

Thanks to the hard work of some condominium board members and concerned unit owners, who flooded the city with letter and phone calls, FAIRNESS and EQUITY prevailed.

MEEB was involved in the ten year fight that resulted in trash pickup in 2002 and once again, MEEB worked pro bono on this issue to help restore trash pickup in Framingham.

Amazon, Walmart and other retailers have said they will be relying increasingly on drones to deliver packages to consumers. Our board has many concerns about this plan, primary among them the damage falling packages (and falling drones) might do to property and residents, complaints about the noise drones will make, and ‘invasion of privacy’ complaints from residents who think the drones are spying on them. We’d like to avoid those problems if possible. Can the board prohibit drone deliveries in our community?

Are community associations required to protect residents from the criminal acts of third parties? This question usually arises after press reports of a crime committed in a condominium community for which the association is being sued. Until fairly recently, the generally accepted answer was – no.  While boards might be required in some circumstances to address the criminal acts, or potential criminal acts of residents – for example, when one resident threatens to harm others – they had no obligation to protect residents from burglaries, assaults, rapes or other crimes committed by third parties who had no relationship with the association.

Last March, we were delighted to announce, and our clients were delighted to hear, that  “CTA Reporting is Dead to Us,” after the Treasury Department decided that only foreign companies would be required to file the beneficial ownership information required by the Corporate Transparency Act. Preliminary rules had required all U.S business entities, including community associations and board members, to file the CTA reports.

We have more good news to report now.  The interim CTA exemptions announced last year have been made permanent, pending publication of the final rule in the Federal Register.  No more reporting personal information for board members and no more fear mongering from firms charging a fortune for filing those CTA reports!   

An owner who doesn’t smoke is fighting with a neighbor who does. The non-smoking owner says the second hand smoke seeping into his unit is a health hazard and has threatened to sue the board if we don’t “do something about it.” The smoking owner says he has a right to smoke in his unit and has threatened to sue if we do anything to interfere with that right. What should the board do?

Cyber fraud targeting condos and property management companies is no longer theoretical, it’s the stark reality of today’s world of electronic communications. A recent incident involving a management company illustrates how quickly a seemingly ordinary transaction can become a financial nightmare, and how easily liability disputes can follow.

Ask board members about their property insurance coverage and you’ll probably get a knowing if somewhat pained look. Questions about fidelity insurance, on the other hand, are more likely to produce a blank stare, because many board members either don’t know what it is or assume they don’t need it. Fidelity insurance covers losses resulting from theft, fraud or other criminal acts. Fortunately, these losses for condominium associations are relatively rare – but they aren’t unknown. The recent collapse of a large Massachusetts condominium management company accused of stealing several million dollars from the more than 200 associations it managed provides a recent case in point, illustrating why all condo associations need this essential insurance coverage.