A condominium board occupies an odd position. It doesn't own the apartments, it can't usually choose who buys them, and in most buildings it can't stop an owner from leasing one. What it does own — and answer for entirely — is everything else: the roof, the facade, the boiler, the lobby, the elevator, the common areas, the association's finances, and the building's standing with the city.
That's a serious operating responsibility carried by volunteers, and it's what a managing agent is for.
Yak Management provides managing agent services to Brooklyn condominium associations and homeowners associations. We're a boutique, principal-led firm, which means the board deals with the people actually running the building.
Where a condo board's leverage actually is
Boards new to the role often discover their authority isn't where they expected.
A condominium board generally cannot approve or decline a purchaser the way a co-op board can, and in most buildings it cannot meaningfully restrict leasing. Unit owners hold real property with the rights that come attached.
What the board does control is significant: the declaration and bylaws, house rules, alteration approvals, any right of first refusal the declaration provides, the budget and common charges, and — critically — lien rights for unpaid common charges. Effective condo governance works those levers consistently rather than wishing for co-op powers it doesn't have.
Financial management
Common charge collection, with arrears pursued on a defined schedule rather than when someone notices. This is the single most consequential thing an agent does for a condominium: the association's collection position deteriorates with time, and a board that sees arrears monthly can act while acting is still cheap.
Disbursement to vendors, staff, insurers, and professionals. Monthly financials the board can budget from — operating results against budget, arrears by unit, reserve position, and capital spend. Budget preparation support ahead of the board's annual decisions, and clean records for the association's accountant.
Directors get portal access rather than a summary at the next meeting. See financial reporting.
Building operations
The common elements are the association's product, and they degrade quietly. We handle vendor selection and management, staff supervision where the building has staff, preventive maintenance on the mechanical systems and roofing that fail expensively, emergency response, and coordination of capital projects once the board approves them.
Alteration applications from unit owners get administered rather than rubber-stamped: insurance certificates verified, permits confirmed where the scope requires them, work hours and access rules set, and scope monitored so a kitchen renovation doesn't quietly become a common-element modification. See renovation oversight.
Compliance
The association carries the building's regulatory obligations, and they attach to the property regardless of who is tracking them: registration where applicable, the periodic inspection regime and its filings, facade and boiler and elevator requirements depending on the building, lead paint obligations in pre-1978 buildings, and violation response across HPD and DOB.
We run this on a calendar and report status to the board, because compliance failures in condominiums are almost never decisions. They're gaps. See legal and regulatory compliance.
Administration the board shouldn't be doing
Resale and refinance questionnaires, status and payoff letters, certificates of insurance, unit-owner correspondence, meeting notices and materials, minutes, and the annual meeting and election. This is high-volume, deadline-sensitive, low-discretion work, and it is exactly the category that burns out volunteer directors and delays unit owners' closings when it's handled slowly.
Keeping the roles straight
In buildings where we manage both the association and individual owners' rented units, those are separate engagements with separate clients and we say so to everyone involved. The association's agent works for the board on the common elements. A unit owner's manager works for that owner on their tenancy. Confusing the two is how an agent ends up serving neither well — see condo rental management for the unit-owner side.
Where we don't go
We're managing agents, not the association's attorney, accountant, or engineer. Declaration and bylaw interpretation, collection litigation, audits and tax filings, reserve studies, and structural judgments belong with those professionals. We bring them organized information and execute the board's decisions afterward.
If your association or HOA board is evaluating managing agents, contact us or schedule a consultation.