NEW YORK CITY

No one like to imagine fraud or theft from a co-op or condo board director, property manager or vendor. But it happens, so make sure board members understand these basic protections.

A READER ASKS: Our co-op board has gotten some criticism lately about being too small and insular. Shareholders are starting to complain that we're not inclusive enough, and now some directors are using that as an opportunity to point out that they are a bit overworked. How many members do we need? Who should serve on the board? And how can we organize the board so that it represents all shareholders, works efficiently and preserves the knowledge obtained by existing board members?

Denise Savino-Erichsen, president of the multifamily-building laundry-room company Automatic Industries, has been named this year's Woman-Owned Business Champion by the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

"I am honored to receive such recognition by the Queens Chamber," Savino-Erichsen said in a statement, joking that "I must come 'clean': Automatic Industries is a family affair. My father, our CEO and founder, had a great vision and formed a wonderful foundation. We also have a talented and dedicated team that enables us to maintain our success." 

Also honored were Daniel Zausner, chief operating office of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, given the Community Partner Awards; Edward Farrell, president of Resorts World Casino New York City, with the Regional Economic-Impact Award; Kevin Alexander, executive director of the Rockaway Development and Revitalization Corporation, with the Not-for-Profit Champion; and Marissa Shorenstein, president of AT&T New York, who was inducted into the Queens Chamber's Hall of Fame.

Property managers and board members are often surprised to learn that converting your co-op or condo's heating plant from oil to gas can require changes to the chimney. Most chimneys were built for oil heat, not gas. If this is the case with your building, then by law it will need a chimney liner to accommodate the new heating plant before you initiate gas service.

You might think that in a city where space for gardens and greenery is like the Holy Grail, greenhouses would add a lot of value to a co-op or condo unit. And you'd be right, so long as those greenhouses are waterproofed, installed properly, registered with Department of Buildings and issued permits as permanent structures.

But The New York Times reports that many of them don’t pass muster. To complicate matters further, the DOB next year plans to amend the Facade Inspection Safety Program (FISP), also known as Local Law 11, so that any "additional heated or cooled space made by a permanent balcony or terrace enclosure will be considered noncompliant if it doesn't have a permit."

Buildings won't necessarily be penalized for noncompliant balcony or terrace enclosures — co-op boards will be given the chance to either make offending enclosures legal or get rid of them altogether. But it still means having to wade through a lot of paperwork and angry greenhouse-owning shareholders and unit-owners — particularly in cases where the enclosures have to come down.

A reader asks: Our co-op is undertaking an exterior repair program, which includes Local Law 11/98 repairs and roof replacement. Our engineering firm informed us that as part of the project, we are required to have "special inspections" conducted on structural steel, concrete masonry walls, brick veneers and other construction elements. Fellow board members and I don't recall having to do special inspections on previous repair work at the building. Are these inspection requirements new? What do they entail?

There are a number of steps that a co-op or condo board can take to protect itself from a bad contractor, and which a board would be wise to follow when hiring anyone to do work on the property. Here are four primary steps you can take to minimize your downside when a disgruntled incompetent files a contractors' lien against you. 

A READER ASKS: Board members are becoming concerned about the resale value of the units in our building. We have some unused common space, and a few shareholders have presented the idea of incorporating a garden or some landscaping. We're not sure it's worth it. What can we expect if we do decide to take on such a project?

Lots of articles offer advice on how to prepare for your co-op board admission interview: what to wear, how to act, whether to bring the dog and kids. In the ever-expanding annals of this service subgenre, BrickUnderground.com offers a handy list of standard questions and, even better, the well-thought-out reasoning for why you want to answer them in certain ways. Of course, board members reading this will know you're doing that — but you know they know you're doing that, and they may not you know they're doing that. But even if they do know, you know they know you know they know you're doing that. And you know what? If you've gone to the trouble to learn this and do that, they'll probably respect you for knowing all this.

They arrive at all hours of the day and night with duffel bags and rolling suitcases, asking for the keys to Apartment X, which are in an envelope at the desk. You suspect the apartment is being used as a transient hotel, but the condo unit-owner or co-op shareholder claims the visitors are just out-of-town friends and relatives. So what can a condo or co-op board do? It's not as though there's a law against hospitality or having a wide social circle, so you figure your hands are tied. Or are they?