NEW YORK CITY

"One of the things that makes a gas-out harder is [when] alterations have been done," says John Devall, the Orsid Realty manager of the 354-unit Vermeer at 77 Seventh Avenue in Chelsea. The Vermeer co-op had its gas shut off in October 2014, and has been spending months getting each line and riser tested and then turned on.

The effectiveness of biannual meetings depends on how well the board understands their purpose: discussing, not deciding. Although such get-togethers are for informational purposes only — the residents are not there to decide on anything, just to learn — it does give them an opportunity to ask questions.

In this week's Ask Real Estate column in The New York Times, Ronda Kaysen fields a question about mortgages: "Just before I went into contract on a condo, my bank denied my mortgage, citing 'investor concentration.'" Kaysen explains that while it's perfectly legal for someone to purchase several apartments in the same condominium, the problem lies with the banks. "In general," she says, "lenders will not give someone a mortgage in a building where one investor owns more than 10 percent of the apartments or where more than half the apartments are owned by various investors." We've talked about this problem before. For starters, too many investors tends to mean lots of rentals — and neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac like that. There's also the very real concern that an investor who owns many apartments may default on his or her mortgage or stop paying the common charges. That's what happened at one Bronx co-op that found itself on the brink of extinction twice. Follow their story in the next few weeks.

Last week, we examined the first thing you should do if, following a gas leak, Con Edison shuts off your co-op or condo's gas. Next comes the hard part: addressing the damage and fixing it. Seems simple enough, right? There's a ruptured pipe, so replace it. Except that sometimes the fix isn't that simple. And that's when things can start getting really, really expensive. 

Does the board have the right to use a unit-owner's terrace to make repairs to the building? Probably. Does that right continue even if delays keep a unit-owner from using the terrace after the end-date agreed to by the board? Again, probably.

In Natalie and Geoffrey Richstone v. the Board of Managers of Leighton House Condominium, the court looked to the condominium's declaration and bylaws to decide not just whether the board had the right to use the terrace, but also whether the unit-owners had to remove their wooden installations. 

Natalie and Geoffrey Richstone own apartment PH-2B at 360 East 88th Street, known as the Leighton House Condominium. The board wanted access to the apartment and the adjoining wooden terrace (the Richstones had exclusive access) to install rigging equipment to perform water tests and repairs. Although the court decision does not offer much pre-litigation background, the Richstones granted access until March 31, 2014. The rigging, however, remained in place after that date. The Richstones sued the condominium, claiming breach of contract, trespass, and nuisance and demanded that the condominium pay $10,000 per month for its use of the terrace. For its part, the condominium board counterclaimed, demanding that the court order the Richstones to remove the wood terrace. There were a series of motions by both sides (and two decisions by the court) — basically, each side wanted the court to award relief based on their claims and arguments.

Okay, so a discussion about balancing budgets may not win any Most Exciting Topic awards, but knowing how to do it can translate to good financial health for your co-op or condo building.

I Was Told There Would Be No Math

Hey, being on a board can't be all glitz and glamour! You're going to have to crunch some numbers. But don't worry! We're here to help break it down for you. So, first things first: a good budget covers the building's annual income and expenses and attempts to maintain a strong reserve fund for future capital projects. And you'll need to differentiate between "operating" and "non-operating." 

It's always been about a race to top in New York, hasn't it? When the Chrysler Building was being constructed, William Van Alen — the architect who designed it — was in a race against H. Craig Severance's building at 40 Wall Street. After Severance increased the height of his building and gave it the title of the world's tallest building, Van Alen got the green light for the Chrysler's telltale 125-foot-long spire. It beat 40 Wall Street as the tallest building in the world (not to mention the Eiffel Tower as the tallest structure). But the first man-made structure to stand taller than 1,000 feet would hold the title for only 11 months, because then rose the Empire State Building, and then… You get the picture. Fast-forward to the present, and not surprisingly, it's still a race to the top. Who will dominate New York City's iconic skyline? Lately, it's the residential giants — the luxury condo towers, such as the ones on Billionaires Row. The Real Deal sized up the "supertalls" recently: "At 1,396 feet high, 432 Park overtook Extell Development's 1,004-foot-tall One57 earlier this year. But Extell is now on track to reclaim the title. Extell's latest "supertall" building, dubbed Central Park Tower, is scheduled to top out at 1,550 feet in 2019. What's more, the tower will reportedly have a record $4.4 billion sellout." But, asks TRD, can that race really continue? Is it feasible (or wise) for these tall, skinny towers to keep rising all over the city? Maybe there will be a slowdown, but as long as there's a way, we bet developers will keep trying to reach higher.

"Chrysler Building at night" by David Shankbone. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Dan Gulick wanted to make the 5,000-square-foot roof of his building an amenity. "We already had a wood deck [and] a gazebo [up there], and residents wanted more access to the roof. We thought it would be nice to have a green lawn that you didn't share with thousands of other people." Gulick, the board president of a 142-unit co-op at 111 Third Avenue and 14th Street, was convinced the way to do that was through a green roof — a "living roof" or vegetated roof covers, with plants taking the place of bare membrane and gravel ballast. But wouldn't it be costly?

It sounds like one of those Internet "clickbait" headlines, doesn't it? Except in this case that headline is pretty accurate. In a sampling of banks large and small, Chase, Citibank, and TD Bank all refused to comment about this "foreclosure trick." What are they going to say? "Congratulations! You got us! Condo boards really can foreclose on apartments in arrears faster than we can, and thus gain leverage over us."

There's a gas leak. And in swoops Con Edison to shut the gas off and leave the dreaded red tag behind. You may be gasless for weeks, if not months. So what happens next?

Well, the first step, and probably the most important thing that your board can do, is to start communicating. It sounds so obvious. The challenge at the beginning, though, is that you don't have anything to say except the obvious: we have no gas.