NEW YORK CITY

Election season is coming. Everyone you know is preparing, taking sides, discussing the issues, and maybe reassessing who their real friends are – based on who they’re supporting. It’s never an easy task to elect a new co-op board. But what if there was a way to make it a little bit easier?

Thinking about installing a canopy at your building’s front door? Beware: long ribbons of red tape await.

In a decision that’s sure to fuel the smoking debate in every co-op in the city, a state Supreme Court judge has awarded more than $120,000 in back maintenance, interest and attorney fees to a co-op shareholder who claimed that smoke from other apartments had permeated her unit and rendered it uninhabitable.

In his decision, Justice Arthur Engoron wrote: “This Court...is only saying that if you want to avail yourself of the right to rent out residences, you assume the obligation to insure that your tenants are not forced to smell and breathe carcinogenic toxins.”

The lawsuit was filed by Susan Reinhard, who bought an apartment in the Connaught Tower co-op at 300 E. 54th Street in 2006 but never occupied the apartment because it smelled of cigarette smoke. The court ruled that the co-op is liable for all maintenance from June 2007 to the present.

“It’s ground-breaking,” says attorney Robert Braverman, a partner in Braverman Greenspun, who was not involved in the case. “What the judge is saying is that landlords, including co-op boards, are going to be responsible that smoke doesn’t pass from one unit to another. I think it’s going to create a lot of discussion within the industry.”

The New York state legislature decreed that, beginning with the 2012-2013 tax year, only primary residents of co-op and condo apartments are eligible for tax abatements. The change complicated bookkeeping for individuals, boards and property managers, especially in buildings where an assessment was levied that equaled the tax abatements. Here are three simple steps that can help your building untangle the mess of primary residency, abatements, and assessments:

Your building’s monthly management report may be the single most important tool for keeping your co-op or condo on the right path. But who should be reading this crucial document?

While many boards pick one person to do the job, most experts agree that it’s better to share the load. The more eyeballs, the merrier.

Before the accountant completes the annual audit of your co-op’s or condo’s financial records, the board and the managing agent will be asked to sign a letter acknowledging that they, not the accountant, have primary responsibility for the financial statements and that to the best of their knowledge the statements are correct.

This “representation letter,” called the “rep letter,” does not change or add to the fundamental responsibilities of the board or the management company, nor does it relieve the accountant of any of his responsibilities. It simply clarifies the traditional roles that the accountant performs.

For the first time ever, New Yorkers say affordable housing is the most important problem they face, according to a new telephone poll conducted by NY1 and Baruch College. Twenty percent of respondents listed affordable housing as their top concern, followed by crime, jobs and the economy at 16 percent, and homelessness at 12 percent.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they believe they’re at risk of being priced out of their neighborhood in the next few years. Money provided little solace. More than half of the people who earn six figures – 53 percent – say it’s likely they’ll be priced out.

“Pretty much everyone thought they would be priced out of their neighborhood, everyone who’s under the age of 65,” Baruch College pollster Mickey Blum told Time Warner Cable News. “Even people who earn more than $100,000.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio has set a goal of creating or preserving 200,000 units of affordable housing in the next 10 years.

This month, Habitat Weekly is looking into a quartet of problems that bedevil co-op and condo boards. This week: disruptive residents.

It seems that every co-op and condo building has at least one: the bad apple, the shareholder or unit-owner who turns life sour for everyone else. Co-op boards have a powerful weapon in the battle against problem shareholders – eviction for objectionable conduct – but before going nuclear, boards should take three simple steps: study the problem, communicate their concerns, and document their actions.

The bylaws of many condominiums authorize the board of managers to impose fines for violations of the rules and regula­tions, and also authorize the collection of late fees for failure to pay the common charges on time. However, recent court cases have set limits on the amount of these fines and late fees, even refusing to enforce such a penalty if it is “confiscatory in nature.” Although there is no explicit law that defines the limits of what a board may charge, a board’s authority to determine the extent of the fines and late fees would seem to be governed by the Business Judgment Rule and not by a “reasonableness” standard.

Yet in the most recent decisions, courts have looked to the Criminal Usury Statute, Penal Law Section 190.40, which makes an interest charge of more than 25% per year a criminal offense.

As New York City grows ever-wealthier, long-time renters in many co-ops are feeling pinched by ever-stricter house rules. One is a rent-stabilized tenant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, who is put out by new rules that bar residents from socializing with doormen; designate hallways and outside sidewalks as “quiet areas”; and even forbid residents from feeding birds.

In the Ask Real Estate column in the New York Times, this rent-stabilized tenant wonders: Do such draconian rules apply to renters as well as shareholders?
Yours is “a very typical scenario in the evolution of New York City,” replies Andrew Scherer, director of the Impact Center for Public Interest Law at New York Law School. If you owned your apartment, you would have no choice but to follow the co-op’s rules. But as a renter, you must follow the terms of your lease, the rent stabilization law and other housing laws. The only co-op rules binding on renters are the ones that protect health and safety, or enforce laws.

But is feeding the birds worth a potential fight – and nuisance lawsuit – with the co-op board? Scherer advises: “You might want to weigh whether the friction with neighbors that would be caused by violating the rules is worth it.”