Russell Krafft & Gruber, LLP

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Associations and Unit Owners frequently disagree over who is responsible to pay for repairs to certain items.  Sometimes it is easy to figure out.  The Association needs to pay for repairs to the community swimming pool, and the Unit Owner needs to fix the stove.  Whenever the item to be repaired gets close to the boundary of the Unit, however, the answer to this question becomes more difficult.  I came across an interesting case, Winchester …
Every year, the stroke of midnight on December 31 brings with it a host of resolutions and the promise of changes for the new year.  In light of this, NBC News ended 2018 with an article highlighting some interesting new laws taking effect across the country in 2019.  One city will see a change in what to expect from take-out orders, and one state will have a much more difficult choice of what beer…
I recently attended a SCORE luncheon where the presenter commented that we live in a “VUCA” world. VUCA meaning volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. I’m typically not a huge fan of such corporate-speak, but in this instance I thought it was a perfect distillation of the daily challenges we all face personally and professionally. There’s no better time than early January to consider your goals for the year. If you’re still debating your top New…
Back in July, Matt Landis updated us on several of the stories confirming Lancaster’s technology sector continued to thrive in 2018. As we close out the year, let’s look at a few more that made the news in our area during the second half of the year! Think self-driving cars are still an early-stage thing for empty highways out west? Think again. PennDOT has approved the testing of self-driving vehicles here in Lancaster.…
Word ALIMONY composed of wooden letters.
With the implementation of the changes to the Federal Tax Code proffered by the Trump Administration, alimony payments post-December 31, 2018 will look a little different. Actually, a lot of different. In fact, the tax ramifications are gone. Pre-December 31, 2018, alimony payments were taxable income to the recipient and deductible by the Payor. These tax ramifications were often vital tools in negotiating settlements in divorce matters where tax consequences were important to the parties…
Christmas is typically filled with tradition. Maybe you head to the Christmas Eve service followed by dinner at grandmas. Or maybe it’s Christmas Eve with the In-laws and Christmas day with your parents.  But if you share custody of your kids, traditions may be difficult to maintain and could possibly even have to change. A typical custody schedule issued by the Court includes a holiday schedule laying out with which parent the kids will spend…
The Internal Revenue Service has announced the 2019 optional standard mileage rates which are used to compute the deductible costs of operating a vehicle for business, charitable, medical or moving expense purposes. Beginning on January 1, 2019, the standard mileage rate for use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck is 58 cents per mile driven for business use (up from 54.5 cents in 2018), 20 cents per mile driven for medical or moving…
Soon community associations will have to deal with snow and ice, and the problems that come with it. In this article I want to discuss salt and other deicers.  Many unit owners are certain that one type of salt will ruin their sidewalks.  Other units owners believe that any kind of ice melt will harm concrete.  Associations get complaints about ice in the winter, and then about spalling sidewalks in the spring.  Which deicers are…
Where I am from, fireworks are an important part of nearly every type of celebration. Fourth of July? Light up some firecrackers. New Year’s Eve? Shoot off some bottle rockets. Random Tuesday? Torch a Roman candle. Like many of my former neighbors in Northeastern Pennsylvania, pyro-technicians throughout the Commonwealth were thrilled last year when the Pennsylvania state legislature passed Act 43, which repealed the former Fireworks Law and expanded permissible fireworks sales, even though…
… no matter how much they want to. Many planned community and condominium declarations have a confession of judgment paragraph.  These are usually towards the back and written in all caps (just like my father-in-law sending an email).  They seem to permit associations to bypass all of the demand letters and District Justice courtrooms, and just enter a judgment against the Unit Owner.  But what looks good on paper doesn’t always work in practice.  Pennsylvania…