2012 September
Focus on... Energy & The Environment

 Mark your calendars! The date for The South Florida Cooperator’s first annual South Florida Condo, HOA, & Co-op Expo, is fast approaching. This year’s innaugural event will be held at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County  Convention…

The 14th Street Townhomes, a 36-unit Pompano Beach condominium built in 1991, doesn’t have a vast expanse of grass. It occupies less than five acres of land, yet in 2008 it began saving 5,000 to 10,000 gallons of drinking water a year b…

 Going green doesn’t have anything to do with choosing a natural paint color for your kitchen, or  planting a new bed of romaine lettuce in your community garden. But the phrase  can have many different meanings and can be done across a br…

We as a culture produce a lot of trash—and not just in the form of reality television shows, late night infomercials, and bad romance novels. We put the debris from our meals, our projects, our newly acquired goods and wares, and just a…

 Energy efficiency has become a “buzz word” over the past couple years in South Florida and more and more gadgets and  devices have come on the market that are specifically designed to use less  energy. Saving energy does a lot more than j…

 Almost every community is made up of people from a broad array of ethnic and  sociological backgrounds living in close proximity to each other. Managing a  co-op or condo that’s home to different people from different backgrounds can pose…

In December 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the United States was in a recession that had started back in December 2007. The official announcement was old news for most Americans. Most financially…

As the housing market in many parts of the country has floundered, many developers have taken creative approaches to stanch the outward flow of cash. In many markets, this means opting to convert portions of developments originally int…

 With sunny skies, warm temperatures and an ideal location along the Atlantic  Coast, adjacent to the Intracoastal Waterway, tourists are flocking to Boynton  Beach by the droves.  Tourists aren’t the only group heading along the At…

Q I am trying to purchase a condo but the board is holding up the process based on my financial status. I don't know what the problem is because I have an excellent credit history and no lawsuits against me. I will even have enough mon…

Q Valuable paintings will be hung in our newly renovated lobby, which is a common  area of our condo. Suppose they are stolen or damaged? The owner who has loaned  them has personal insurance, but since the paintings are in our common are…