The Porter House Condominium Board seems to be a classic example of waiting to see what happens because we don’t want to incur the cost right now.  Without professional management and seasoned counsel to advise them how to protect unit owners (which is a part of the board’s fiduciary duty by the way) boards wait too long to act and then end up spending more money to undue what they could have avoided had they acted as required.

Porter House is now tangled up in a multi-party lawsuit against a neighbor who build a building arguably in violation of an easement for light and air, and for restricted elevations.  Trouble is, the building was built.  The Board acted after the fact and now is trying to undo what was already done.  This is a tough way to solve a problem like this.  It is not clear whey the board didn’t act before the building was built, but clearly the strategy of let us wait and see is turning into a very expense course that this Board charted.

The Supreme Court in New York County just decided motions about the case and it is going to move into a discovery stage once all the parties and the new ones (the next door developer is pointing the finger at other now) join in the litigation.

Aggressive action at the inception, before or while the building was being built to enforce the easement would have been a better course.  With constructions like this, there are often access agreements for protections that the Building Department requires.  The Porter House Condominium Board seems to have dropped the proverbial ball by not taking action at that time when it had more leverage. Here’s more on the case.