NEW YORK CITY

Opinion remains divided on the likely fallout of Wednesday’s announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department that it will begin requiring the names of people who make cash purchases of luxury Manhattan real estate through shell companies, a campaign to crack down the laundering of dirty money. Some New York real estate insiders yawned at the announcement, while others shivered and one called it a “witch hunt.”

Aaron Shmulewitz, a real estate lawyer with Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldsmith, told Habitat: “The newly announced test regulations are likely to have an immediate adverse impact on Manhattan real estate, although probably not as severe as feared. While some foreign buyers who want to ‘park cash’ in luxury Manhattan apartments will be leery of doing so, sophisticated, well-advised foreign buyers will still be able to find ways around the disclosure requirements.
 
“However,” he added, “if these regulations stay in place...their long term impact will actually hurt City and State governments – and their citizens – who have grown dependent on the healthy money flow. Foreign investors who want to park cash will find other parking spots for it, in other countries. Killing a golden goose, anyone?”

Michael Graves, a broker with Douglas Elliman, tells The Read Deal that the bulk of his deals above $8 million are all-cash transactions through limited liability companies – the very deals the feds are targeting.

“The vast majority of these transactions are simply people who want to protect their identities for the safety of themselves and their family,” Graves said. “By and large, the feds will find it’s a witch hunt.”

We all have second thoughts from time to time. But if your co-op or condo board holds a formal vote on an issue and then one or more board members have a change of heart, there are right ways and wrong ways to go about changing the original vote.

Let’s suppose a board has voted, 5-2, to hire Zenith Management Co. But after the meeting, the board president, who voted with the majority, decides the board should have hired Acme Management instead. He approaches another board member who voted with the majority and persuades him to change his vote. Now the vote is 4-3 in favor of Acme Management.

In fact, nothing has changed – yet.

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

It's a busy time in your co-op. The couple in apartment 4B is knocking out a wall to open up their kitchen. Meanwhile, crews are replacing the floor tiles in all of your prewar building's hallways. And finally, your boiler is being removed. Warning bell time: your co-op or condo board should be prepared for the possibility that such demolition and renovation projects could unleash lethal asbestos, both inside apartments and in common areas. Failure to do so can lead to any number of unhappy endings, including sickness, lawsuits, even death.

If ever there was a time to be prepared, this is it.

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

Lead-based paint was outlawed by the federal government in 1978 for some very good reasons. Lead exposure can cause learning disabilities in children, violent behavior in teenagers, and mental dysfunction in the elderly. It can cause miscarriages, stillbirth and brain damage. In extreme cases it can cause death.

Lead-based paint remained in use for several years after the ban, and so it remains a legitimate source of concern for co-op and condo boards, even in buildings built after 1978.

Your underlying mortgage is coming due and your co-op board wants a new mortgage that will bring in money for a roof replacement, hallway improvements and an infusion to your depleted reserve fund. Is an interest-only mortgage right for your building?

Mortgages, like most things in co-ops, are not one size fits all.

Co-op and condo boards must take any reports of mold in their buildings seriously – and address them quickly, thoroughly and properly. Here are a few basics all boards should know:

Hampton House, located at 404 E. 79th Street in Manhattan, has a health club facility within the common elements of the condominium. The board recently revised its health club membership agreement which, among other things, required the person using the club to assume responsibility for any injury suffered while working out.

In September 2011, the building underwent an elevator upgrade, and a key fob system was installed. When John Oriogun, a unit-owner in the building, sought to obtain a key fob to the health club floor, the board told Oriogun that he had to sign the membership agreement. Oriogun sued, alleging that as a unit-owner he had the right to use the area; that the board had no right to modify the membership agreement; and that the agreement was improper because it required a full and complete waiver of liability.

A resident in an Upper East Side condo recently asked: Is our building open to prosecution for allowing a 16-year-old doorman to work a double shift on a Sunday during the school year?

The answer is yes, says the Ask Real Estate column in The New York Times, since city law does not allow anyone to quit school until 17 years old and state laws generally forbid anyone under 17 from working more than one 8-hour shift in a day.

“(Does the board) have a responsibility to this child to enforce the rules?” Walter K. Harman Jr., a Manhattan labor lawyer, said of the teenage doorman. “Morally, I say yes. Absolutely.”

In violating child labor laws, a co-op or condo board could leave itself open to getting sued, fined, or investigated by the State Department of Labor. Shareholders or unit owners could wind up having to cover legal fees and fines, leading to an assessment or an increase in monthly maintenance or common charges.

It’s every co-op and condo board’s worst nightmare: your property manager is a crook. Could anything make it worse? How about a technicality on your insurance policy that allows the insurance company to deny your claim? Believe it or not, if you don’t read the fine print or you get the wrong type of crime insurance, it could happen to you.

When people slip on ice and snow, co-op and condo boards face potential liability. They can avoid such woes by hiring an outside contractor to remove ice and snow from the property – and take on liability for any mishaps. So it makes sense to hire the work out, right? Not necessarily.