NEW YORK CITY

Every co-op seems to have at least one: the disruptive resident who never stops bombarding the board with complaints. Unfortunately, co-op boards can’t dismiss the impossible-to-placate shareholder as a whiner and a mere nuisance. Boards need to determine if all complaints are legitimate, and then act appropriately. It sometimes requires the skills of a psychiatrist, a diplomat and a cop.

But it can be done.

Leaky roofs, mold, unpaid back taxes. These are just a few of the things that win laurels as a “Worst Landlord” in New York City.

Of the 196 Manhattan buildings to rate an ignominious place on Public Advocate Letitia James’s “Worst Landlord” list, 33 are Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) co-ops, DNAinfo reports.

The city’s department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which created the HDFC program as a way for low-income New Yorkers to become home owners, is considering steps to improve the mismanaged properties. HPD is working with a non-profit to provide financial management training for boards and shareholders.

Critics of the program say residents don’t receive adequate training and support. Many of the mismanaged co-ops also owe millions in back taxes to the city.

The HDFC co-op at 448 St. Nicholas Avenue had 213 violations for such things as a leaky roof and mold, which shareholders reported by calling 311.

“None of these buildings are supposed to be on this list,” said Elisia Vasquez, a housing advocate. “The fact that they are calling 311 on themselves is appalling because at the end of the day these co-ops are supposed to sustain themselves, but instead they’re giving themselves all these violations.”

Your co-op needs a cash infusion – either to replenish an anemic reserve fund, replace the roof, or do major facade work. What’s the best way to raise the money?

Co-op boards that decide to refinance their underlying mortgage usually run into an unpleasant fact of life: a prepayment penalty that could make a re-fi unwise, or even impossible. If so, it might be time to go to Plans B, C, D, even E.

In our wired age, access to an apartment building’s cable box – with its links to telephone, television and Internet service – is a crucial matter. If your building’s box is inside an apartment, your board is in a sticky position of needing to ensure that repair crews have access to the box for the benefit of all residents, while also protecting the resident of the apartment against damage, vandalism, theft or any other mishap that could lead to hard feelings and ugly lawsuits.

It’s a high-wire act. Make sure you don’t slip and fall.

It sounds like a twist on a novel by the late Irish writer Maeve Binchy: a woman in Dublin and a woman in New York City agree to swap apartments for a year. And suddenly the resident in Apartment 4-C of your building has flaming red hair, a thick brogue, and a tendency to belt show tunes late into the night. If your building doesn’t have a provision forbidding or regulating apartment swapping, you’re stuck with the obstreperous Irishwoman for the coming year.

That’s why smart co-op boards have rules governing guests – as opposed to sub-letters. Some limit visits to 30 days, or require an occupant of the apartment to be present during a guest’s stay, notes the Ask Real Estate column in the New York Times. In some buildings, according to real estate lawyer Lawrence Chaifetz, shareholders are required to get written permission from the board for guests to stay alone or for longer than 30 days.

If your building doesn’t have a policy in place, you’re leaving yourself open to surprises like the red-headed apartment swapper from Dublin. Real estate lawyer Dean M. Roberts advises shareholders in such buildings to “simply play dumb” if they want to swap their apartment. “If you ask permission, you’re going to get a ‘no,’” Roberts says. “It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.”

Smart boards require permission so they aren’t asked to forgive.

Assessments have been the traditional vehicle for condominiums to raise money for repairs and capital improvements. However, assessments have a couple of drawbacks. First, they usually take a fair amount of time to collect since most unit-owners don’t have a lot of idle cash available. Second, most assessments place the entire financial burden of capital improvements on current unit-owners instead of spreading it over the useful lives of those improvements.

Borrowing tends to be a much more equitable way to fund such expenditures because the interest cost and principal repayment occurs over an extended period of time, more in line with the likely lifespan of the building components being repaired or replaced.

Maybe a combination of the two would be best for your building.

During January, Habitat Weekly will advise boards on how to deal with a quartet of natural-born killers. This week: carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide can kill. It's a nasty, insidious killer, too, sending you into slumberland before it takes you down.

Carbon monoxide, or CO, is produced through "incomplete combustion," which occurs when a flame doesn't have room to breathe. Odorless, colorless, and tasteless, CO exists in devices that burn fossil fuels, such as oil burners, furnaces, water heaters, fireplaces, and parked cars. If you develop headaches or dizziness, or become tired, and nauseous you may have CO poisoning. The best remedy is to open all windows, get out of the house, and call the fire department.

But the best way to deal with it is to stop it in its tracks.

It’s one of the worst feelings a co-op or condo board member will ever experience: You have good reason to believe that a fellow board member is taking kickbacks from a vendor or contractor. Before you start pointing fingers – or going to the authorities, or filing a lawsuit – keep in mind that there are right ways and wrong ways to tackle this devilishly ticklish situation.

Other than tattoos, nothing is forever. The long list of perishables includes last year’s fashions, Downton Abbey and your co-op’s bylaws.

Experienced real estate lawyers advise boards to update their bylaws at least once every 10 years – in order to keep abreast of the ever-evolving Business Corporation Law, which governs co-ops. Periodic bylaw updates will improve the quality of life in your building and, in the bargain, protect you from lawsuits. Best of all, it’s not terribly time-consuming or expensive.

Here’s a sticky one: a member of your co-op board is a real estate lawyer who has agreed to represent a fellow shareholder in the sale of his apartment in the building.

“These responsibilities conflict,” Marc Luxemburg, a real estate lawyer with the firm Gallet Dreyer & Berkey, tells Ask Real Estate in the New York Times.

Suppose the board decided to reject a potential buyer, a situation that would clearly go against the interest of the lawyer’s client. The lawyer would have to recuse himself from participating on behalf of either side – the seller or the board – if a dispute were to arise, says Luxemburg. And since this is New York City real estate, disputes are a virtual certainty.

As a rule, lawyers who sit on boards should not represent buyers or sellers in the building, Luxemburg advises. At the very least, it gives the impression that the lawyer is using his position to further his career.