LONG ISLAND

The 99-unit co-op at 4 Maple Drive in Great Neck Plaza, a village in the town of North Hempstead, N.Y., doesn't have its own parking garage. No problem! There's a municipal lot next door! And since village residents in multiple-dwelling buildings can buy a residential parking permit for just $90 a quarter, it seemed a pretty good deal — at least until, as the residents made clear at a village board of trustees meeting recently, the garage became "the scene of car thefts, teenagers smoking marijuana, having sex, taking sexually explicit photos while on a resident’s car, drinking, public urination and other obscene acts," according to The Island Now. Tires are being stolen and the super's truck was vandalized. And since the local police don't patrol there much, the residents want security cameras. But there's a problem! The village mayor says there's no money for cameras and a security company to monitor them. Sooo ... nightly party at the garage, kids! Be sure to bring your tire irons and jacks!

Sept. 21, 2009 — We don't usually write laundry-industry trade stories, but we're invoking the kids-with-cancer exception. That's the one that says that if a company with some connection to your usual beat does something to help kids with cancer, you write about it.

The company in this case is the Hercules Corp. of Hicksville, N.Y., a longtime laundry-room service provider for co-ops, condos and others. Founded 50 years ago this year, Hercules last week donated 12 new industrial-strength front-load washers and nine similarly commercial-grade dryers to the New York City Ronald McDonald House, a major pediatric oncology facility and a provider of low-cost accommodations to the families of gravely ill children being treated in the many nearby hospitals.

May a board impose fines and other penalties when homeowners fail to cure a violation, even though the owners claim they are being prevented from doing so by another owner?

That was the question in Tucciarone v. The Hamlet on Olde Oyster Bay Homeowners Association.

One of the most difficult situations a board of directors faces is the transition of a community from sponsor control to homeowner control. One of my boards, The Seasons at East Meadow, has just completed the first year of resident control. My board had its first election of all homeowner seats in June 2013. With the help of management, the board members faced the job of organizing a 400-unit community, including its clubhouse and pools, security patrols, landscaping and snow contractors and site employees. It also had to deal with the numerous open items left by the ex-sponsor.

Regardless of what type of emergency for which you're preparing, the hallmarks of your plan should be communication, organization and clarity. If everyone knows what his or her role is in an emergency — including the property manager, board members, shareholders, and building staff — then executing that plan becomes much simpler.

When superstorm Sandy hit, co-op and condo owners and many others trying to evacuate and later return home found endless lines at the few gas stations that hadn't completely run out of fuel. Even some emergency vehicles faced gasoline shortages. In response, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has just launched two initiatives under the heading Fuel NY. It includes the nation's first State Strategic Gasoline Reserve and the requirement that about 1,000 gas stations in New York City, Long Island, Westchester County and Rockland County have backup-power generators. The reserve — nearly three million gallons of fuel stored at Northville Industries' terminal in Suffolk County — will be sold to distributors at market prices to provide it to emergency responders, government customers and retail gasoline outlets during emergencies.

If your board isn't up on the two Fs — flooding and federal insurance — you may be inviting trouble. Here's what you need to know, both in terms of having a flood-insurance policy and in how to collect enough from it to afford repairs and restoration.

Floodwaters are rising, and so are concerns about safety. While Governor Andrew Cuomo builds breakwater parks and otherwise sets aside land to protect Nw York City's coastline, co-op and condo boards are taking their own steps to protect themselves. 

“I think you have to be proactive,” I. Ira Litt, former co-op board president of One Kensington Gate, in Great Neck, Long Island, says of flooding, whether from natural disaster or simply a heavy rain. “If it happens once, it’s too much.”

When times get tough and the choice of paying your mortgage or paying your condo's common charges looms, the bank usually wins. But that doesn't mean a condo board is just going to stand still as arrears build up, so expect your board to take action. How, you wonder? By taking away the very thing that enticed you to buy in the first place: your amenities.

Some condo boards are struggling to pay their association’s bills, and are turning to legal machinations to get lagging apartment owners to pay their monthly common charges on time, or even at all. But one Long Island condominium is using a new strategy to collect from deadbeats: filing a lien against the unit, and then foreclosing on the lien.