NEW YORK CITY

New Yorkers live, quite literally, stacked on top of each other, and smells are a common nuisance of urban life, with smoking, cooking and pet odors the most frequent olfactory offenders. Boards need to address all odor complaints quickly, to keep them from wafting from the co-op to the courtroom.

In a move that could help avert heat wave-induced power outages and blackouts, Consolidated Edison Inc. has chosen IBM to build a platform that will allow New York City customers to monitor and control their power demand in real time.

The platform is part of ConEd’s $1.3 billion plan to install millions of smart meters for customers in its service territory that will track their power and gas use, Bloomberg Business reports. When up and running, the program will offer consumers access to demand data every 15 minutes, faster than other services of its kind, which now take several hours or even a day, according to ConEd.

Customers receiving their power demand in real time can more easily participate in programs that pay them for cutting use in critical situations when the grid needs it most, such as a heat wave.

“We see it as a game changer for the residents of New York City,” says Tom Magee, general manager of ConEd’s advanced metering team. “We are in a new phase.”

If you’re like most co-op and condo board members, your eyes glaze over at the sight of the monthly report from your managing agent. Big mistake. That report may be the most important document you’ve never read.

Ignore it at your peril.

The owner of a Union Square condominium was having his apartment renovated when the contractor’s men accidentally scratched the elevator door with a ladder. The contractor admitted responsibility for the damage, but the building’s property manager told the contractor not to pay the building any money – because the building was taking $600 out of the unit-owner’s damage deposit to cover the repair. Did the manager do the right thing?
 
A condo has a relationship with unit-owners, not with the contractors or subcontractors they hire, says the Ask Real Estate column in the New York Times. So if the building is damaged by a contractor, the board will seek compensation from the unit-owner who hired the contractor. Smart boards require unit-owners to sign an agreement before renovation work begins.
 
“These agreements make crystal clear that the condominium owner and not the contractor is liable for any damage to building property, which includes the elevator,” says real estate attorney Adam Leitman Bailey.
 
Most buildings also require contractors to take out an insurance policy that names the condominium and the unit-owner as additional insureds. It’s also possible to file a suit against the contractor in Small Claims Court for up to $5,000.

When more than 45 percent of the people in your community are over the age of 60, then you’re living in what social scientists call a “Naturally Occurring Retirement Community,” or NORC. Your building may not be there yet, but now is the time to start preparing for a future that will inevitably be grayer as the population ages. One strategy is for your board to partner with private organizations.

No city can have too many billionaires. So the world of high-end New York City real estate is understandably aflutter that new federal rules are scaring away buyers of super-luxe Manhattan condos.

Beginning on March 1, the U.S. Treasury Department is requiring that title companies disclose the true names of people who pay more than $3 million in cash for Manhattan condos, and more than $1 million in Miami. Such purchases were traditionally made by faceless Limited Liability Companies, or LLCs, which fed governmental fears that rich international buyers were laundering ill-gotten gains in high-dollar American real estate.

Shivers are already being felt along West 57th Street, Billionaires’ Row, according to Curbed. “Additional regulation is the last thing we need to hurt potential business that really creates jobs for American workers,” says Gary Barnett, president of Extell, a prime developer on Billionaires’ Row. “This is another layer of difficulty that is going to potentially hurt further development.”

There is good news for all those poor rich people: the federal disclosure rule runs only until August 27. Which led Jonathan Miller, president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, to make a prediction: “A wealthy individual isn’t going to risk ending up on a list somewhere. They can wait six months.”

During February, Habitat Weekly is advising boards on how to deal with a quartet of vexing complaints that bedevil every building. This week: noise.

Noise complaints are the migraine of the headaches besetting co-op and condo boards. They come without warning, they tend to be brutal, and there’s no simple cure. Worst of all, they can come from almost any source – stereos, TVs, musical instruments, renovation work, appliances, parties, children, footfalls, even the noise people make when they make love.

Boards need to address them. Forcefully.

Today we take our third and final look at some of the most frequently asked questions about house rules.

How strict should a board be about enforcing house rules?

Yesterday, today and tomorrow, we’re answering some of the most frequently asked questions about that misunderstood topic, house rules. If properly written – and firmly, fairly enforced – house rules can turn your building from a living hell into a bit of heaven. Rules on noise, smoking, pets, enforcement techniques and many other issues are some of the most important – and controversial – documents in any co-op or condo.

Here are two more FAQs:

Today’s New York Post carries a story about a unit owner in a luxury Upper East Side condo who has sued his upstairs neighbors for allowing their kids to play floor hockey in the hallway, sometimes as early at 6:30 in the morning. The games produce “sounds of jumping up and down...banging, thumping, running, heavy footsteps and commotion.” As for sleeping past 7 a.m. on weekends? “Forget it,” the lawsuit says.

What we have here is a failure of the upstairs resident to obey the house rules – and a failure by the board to enforce those rules.