NEW YORK CITY

A new city law requires all residential owners to regularly replace their carbon monoxide alarms, and the first deadline for doing so is approaching in October. Boards, co-op shareholders, and condo unit-owners should make sure they understand the new law and know when alarms need to be replaced in their units.

Installation. Passed in December and effective as of April 25, Local Law 75 of 2011 requires building owners to provide their tenants with carbon monoxide alarms. The law amends a 2004 law that initially required owners to install these alarms by November of that year.

Replacement. The new law also adds a provision that existing carbon monoxide alarms must be replaced at the end of their useful lives (as defined by the manufacturer), or by October of this year, whichever is later. With the lifespans of these devices averaging five years, depending on the type, many buildings that had them installed back in 2004 will be due for a replacement this fall.

"A balanced budget" is the key phrase all condo and co-op boards must embrace when putting their fiscal house in order. "You should always have a balanced budget," notes David Goodman, director of management at Tudor Realty, "and if that means setting up extra storage lockers, charging for bike storage, or increasing maintenance, you have to do it."

Traditionally, a lack of reliable data documenting savings from efficiency improvements hampered efforts to convince owners, managers, and residents that such an investment makes financial sense. Even no, in Habitat's 30th year, a lack of reliable data is still impeding these efforts.

Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, in conjunction with Living Cities, recently issued a report (Recognizing the Benefits of Energy Efficiency in Multifamily Underwriting) that analyzed documented energy savings in over 230 properties. Surprisingly, this study is the first of its kind and represents the largest database of before-and-after energy consumption in apartment buildings, all of which are rentals and virtually all of which are affordable housing.

The study lays the foundation for continuing analysis of energy improvements. The data confirm that energy savings are achievable but also reveal some anomalies that may make financing based on projected savings unlikely, at least until more information is accumulated and analyzed.

In work, school and co-op and condo boards, we are thrust into positions where the concept of "getting along" is required of us. In many ways, a cooperative housing board or condominium association is like a microcosm of every other type of "forced community." You are going to get all kinds of personality types meshed together to work towards the common good. Unfortunately, some of these personalities do not always get along.

All too often, when co-op / condo boards and other buildings owners decide to go green, the first thing they want to do is install solar panels. But it doesn't matter how many solar panels are on a roof if the electricity they generate is wasted somewhere else in a building. Which makes more sense? Spending thousands of dollars on solar panels to keep lights on 24 hours a day, or having a green super implement strategies for efficient lighting and lighting controls?

Following public hearings from April 23 to 27, the New York City Water Board today approved the seven percent rate increase in water rates that it had earlier proposed, in addition to raising fees for certain services.

The increase, while the smallest in seven years, is the city's 16th annual hike for metered and unmetered water rates. The new rates for commercial and residential properties including co-ops and condominiums go into effect July 1.

Other changes included a rise in the Service Call Fee for an inspection at the request of a customer where the complaint is found to be outside the Water Board's jurisdiction. This jumped from $75 to a maximum of $450.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection is responsible for proposing water rates, while the Water Board is responsible for establishing the rate following the proposal and subsequent public hearings.

"The 7 percent rate increase proposed for Fiscal Year 2013 is a 25 percent reduction from the 9.3 percent rate increase projected at this time last year," DEP Commissioner Carter Strickland said in a statement.

"When an agency is proud that you only have to raise your rates by seven percent, then we know we have a problem," Assemblymember Phil Goldfeder said at the Queens public hearing on April 26.

The Water Board has posted the DEP's proposed Water And Wastewater Rate Schedule that the Board approved.

From their inception, housing co-ops have had procedures for screening — and interviewing — prospective shareholders, to ensure that they would be able to meet their financial obligations to the cooperative and that they understood and would meet their responsibilities to the community: to be good neighbors and to take part in the running of their cooperative. Provided that the co-op board doesn't discriminate against protected categories, it has the right to reject a prospective purchaser. This process helps populate a cooperative with individuals committed to participation and cooperation.

UPDATED 4:04 p.m. — A New York City bill requiring that landlords, including co-op boards and condo associations, disclose their anti-smoking policies to residents and prospective renters and buyers was introduced at an April 18 City Council meeting and forwarded to the Committee on Housing and Buildings for discussion.

The bill, Intro. 0833-2012, was not placed on the committee's agenda either for its meeting yesterday (April 30) nor its meeting tomorrow (May 2). Committee chairperson Erik Martin Dilan (D-Brooklyn) is the bill's chief sponsor, with five Council co-sponsors, all by request of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In December 2009, the New York City Council amended the administrative code to require owners of real property to submit a report to the city, benchmarking the energy and water efficiency of buildings. This was part of four legislative components known as the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan designed to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions from New York buildings. These laws require annual energy efficiency benchmarking that will be disclosed to the public and mandate a set of energy-efficient upgrades. The first component of these laws is known as Local Law 84 of 2009, which requires the benchmarking of buildings. This is probably the law your friend was referring to in your conversation.

An estimated more than 900 co-op shareholders and condo unit-owners gathered at a Queens forum and an adjacent movie theater's simulcast on April 12 to protest what they and politicians call an inequitable property-tax system, which taxes co-ops and condos at a far higher rate than any other residential property.