NEW YORK CITY

We often hear of boards enforcing a variety of rules restricting pets, leasing, guests, commercial vehicles and more. Many times these restrictions are proper and the board is within its rights to enforce them. However, sometimes it is discovered that a long-standing restriction doesn't really exist. How does it happen that some boards are enforcing phantom rules?

Q. My condominium in Brooklyn has two unit-owners who don't pay their monthly charges. One seems to be having financial problems, but we're not sure about the other. Our property manager told us that we need to file a lien against the units, but I heard from somebody else that this could be very expensive and we still might not get paid. We are not a big condo, so we don't want to waste money, but we also can't afford to have some unit-owners who are not paying. What should we do?

Every day, hundreds of bills intended for the city's condos and co-ops arrive at the back offices of property management firms. Delivered in unassuming envelopes, they request payment for goods and services as varied as the buildings themselves. From the price of a new light bulb to a plumber's fee to the staggering cost of a new roof, the demands that the bills set forth must all be met to keep the wheels turning. Yet while management firms employ a complex processing system to ensure that vendors are paid correctly, the room for error is vast.

In fall 2013, New York City intends to begin making public how well — or not — buildings scored on the recently mandated energy benchmarking required by Local Law 84 of 2009. Not only will buyers, sellers and, really, any interested party be able to see how you stack up, but Fannie Mae, the federal agency that provides a secondary market for underlying financing, will also be studying the energy performance data. One can easily imagine a time, in the not too distant future, when your energy performance will play a significant role in your ability to obtain financing.

Homeowners rose in tax revolt again in 2012, yet politicians still failed to act to solve inequities hurting co-ops and condominiums. A board may have helped drive a resident to suicide. No-smoking rules, digitized offering plans and automated water-meter readers all made the news. And good boards and bad have their say and their day in some of the year's most interesting utterances.

You already have a privacy policy at your co-op or condo, whether you know it or not. The board president knows who's allowed to access security video. So do the managing agent and the super. More or less. I mean, it's not exact or anything. They just sort of know.

And that's dangerous — because as building professionals and others discussed in Part 1 of this story, unwritten de facto policies by their very nature are prone to misremembering, misinterpretation and on-the-fly changes. Writing down the unwritten rules helps avoid such problems and provides clarity and fairness. But how do you create a written privacy policy? Turns out, it's not so hard.

UPDATED March 22, 2013 — Following an interagency raid by investigations who took files and computers from five local heating-oil business, two lawsuits have been filed by real-estate concerns charging that the companies have been selling oil diluted with waste product. Authorities and the plaintiffs claim such tainted fuel oil has been delivered for years to both commercial and residential buildings.

Along with taxes and, for co-ops, the underlying mortgage, energy costs are possibly the single biggest non-discretionary budget item. You have to heat your cooperative or condominium in cold weather, keep the lights on in common areas and power everything from smoke alarms to garage gates to swimming-pool filters. There aren't a lot of corners you can cut here — but that doesn't mean there's no way to save money. Our latest Teachable Moments column offers some tested, real-world strategies by three longtime property managers who have found it doesn't take a lot of energy to save on energy.

In most co-op and condo buildings, supers, porters, doormen and other staff members receive two different sources of extra income at the holidays: a year-end bonus from the board and cash tips from individual residents. What should a board and staff expect of residents when it comes to tipping staff?

Primarily that different residents' financial situations differ. 

The process of terminating the super begins with what is colloquially described as "writing him up." This can take a relatively short or relatively long time. "Documenting incidents is key," says Nadir Maoui, vice president of a 150-plus-unit co-op in Sunnyside, Queens, that recently fired its superintendent. The board spent almost two years preparing a list of offenses. "We went from [oral] warnings to write-ups with the union, and we went as far as suspension," Maoui explains. "If you go for union arbitration with no [prior] warning [to the super] whatsoever, the first thing they'll ask is to give him a chance. You have to show you gave him warnings and can't deal with him anymore. Otherwise, it's your word against the super's."