HOA President Karen demands heated building despite residents' protests, resident shows her emails to entire board meeting: 'HOA President wanted heat!'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 3, 2025 11:00 AM EST

When you live in a building that keeps all the units the same temperature, it's bound to a problem for some if not all of the residents. 

Have you ever lived in a building that does this? At least in New York, buildings must start turning on the heat for their residents. That means that if the landlord wakes up and it's a chilly, brisk day, they'll put the heat on in the building, and all the residents can close up their windows and get cozy while the radiator blasts out warm air. But apparently, this condo establishment takes things a bit further. Instead of having some kind of discretion over when the heat gets turned on, they simply have to put it on starting October 1st. But thanks to this one HOA president, they might not be doing that for much longer!

This woman managed to upset a whole group of people by demanding that the heat be put on ASAP… only for a wave of hot October days to follow. She really didn't think through the consequences of her actions! I wish we could've been flies on the wall during that board meeting full of sweaty, upset residents who don't want any more heat until November! 

Next up, read about this Mom of a 4-month-old who created 200 goodie bags for passengers aboard her 10-hour-long flight, sparking some discussion: 'It's awful that folks with babies feel compelled to apologize." 

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    'HOA President wanted heat!'

    Woman in puffy coat and fuzzy scarf pulls scarf over her mouth and nose, in background are a group of people holding coffee cups at a meeting, with woman in brown shirt looking backward and smiling
    via Mathieu Odin For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    I manage a NYC condo with central A/C that, once switched to winter mode, can't go back to cooling until spring. NYC law requires heat starting October 1st,
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    but October swings from chilly to unseasonably warm, so we usually wait for a real cold stretch before turning it on. Tenants were fine with this for years -
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    one chilly day was better than being unbearably hot for ten. Last year, the board president lost it over a slightly chilly day towards the middle
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    of October. She sent an email demanding we turn on the heating system immediately and that going forward, the heat must always be on by October 1st - -
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    she didn't care if other units would be uncomfortably warm and that she's the board president, & she should be comfortable in her unit.
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    This year, we followed her orders, on October 1st - heat on. At the annual meeting, tenants were furious. They wanted to know why a system that had
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    worked for years was suddenly "broken." The president started chewing me out forgetting her email the previous year.
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    Not wanting to deal with her nonsense, I got the green light from my boss to pull up her own email on the projector. Her exact words, her exact demands. She went pale and, for
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    the first time ever, had nothing to say. She lost her position in the election. Her replacement was very happy we called her out, and we renewed our
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    contract for five more years
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    Boo... The First Commandment of Business is "Cover Thy Ass"
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    Tha... It's always nice when proper record keeping covers your butt!
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    If NYC law requires heat from Oct 1, however, doesn't going back to the 'old way' create legal exposure for your
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    company? A better longer term outcome might be using the combination of law and consequences as an
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    illustration on why the building needs to upgrade its HVAC system so the heat output can be better controlled -
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    letting the heating system be on, but throttling the output to extremely minimal levels to avoid the overheating.
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    Just a thought for action during the renewed contract.
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    A group of 5 people holding coffee cups at a meeting, with woman in brown shirt looking backward and smiling
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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