NEW YORK CITY

Say your co-op is having some large equipment installed. Who bears the risk on contract? The engineer who designed the specs, or the contractor who is installing the equipment? If something goes wrong, you'd figure that it's the contractor's job to fix it, or that you'd be covered under the manufacturer's warranty. Yet that may not always be the case.

What happens if you're told that neither company assumes the risk if equipment is installed incorrectly or doesn't perform per spec and that you need to pay someone else to try again? It doesn't sound right to Scott Greenspun. A partner at the law firm Braverman Greenspun, he notes: "If the equipment is installed incorrectly, your recourse is against the contractor. If the equipment does not perform to specifications, your recourse is against the manufacturer and possibly against the contractor."

Marathon Energy's power and gas affiliate has been ranked 16th in the 2015 Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the Metro NYC area. The listing of companies is based on annual revenue growth over three years of operation. The affiliate, Marathon Power, recorded a three-year growth rate of 2674%, ranking the company 147th in the United States, and ninth in the energy industry nationwide. Marathon has also launched Marathon Fuels, dedicated to wholesale fuels sales. To view the complete list, click here.

When a balcony is enclosed, the process can be as simple as nailing screens to a wooden frame or as elaborate as knocking down part of the outer wall to extend an extant room. Even the simpler of these two types can present safety issues.

"People do install screen enclosures on their balconies," says engineer Eric Cowley, principal at Cowley Engineering, "and the Department of Buildings (DOB) requires people to get permits for screens and divider walls" so that they're compliant with wind loads. And for good reason. 

Ever seen an enclosed balcony? "A balcony enclosure can be one of two things," says attorney Abbey Goldstein, a partner at Goldstein & Greenlaw. "One is you put up a simple plastic or other covering around it so when you go out you don't have to deal with wind and the elements. It could be screened — some people call that a 'Florida room' or sunroom. And the other is people making them into actual rooms. They'll knock down the walls and enclose [the area, so it becomes] an extension [of] the apartment."

Many co-op and condo owners in high-rises have such enclosed balconies and boards are now facing new questions. Among them: How do they fit in with required façade inspections? What are their legal status? What do they do to your building's floor area ratio (FAR), a measure of your building's maximum allowable use?

Here's the first of a six-part series that breaks down what you need to know:

The construction crane is, once again, the unofficial bird of New York City. As the latest building boom gains steam — with a flurry of new construction on empty lots, demolition of existing buildings to make way for new ones, plus additions to existing buildings — more and more co-op and condo boards are forced to deal with construction projects next door. 

The construction of a new nine-story luxury condominium building next to a five-story, 19th-century tenement in Manhattan provides a concise case study of what boards need to do and what they need to avoid — as well as the kinds of surprises they should expect — when an adjacent lot becomes a construction site.

Burying your head in the sand is not an option.

The potential buyer's reported income is spiky, uneven. The board members have been told by the co-op's attorney to make choices based on the money he puts on the table, not on the charm he exudes with his Scottish accent. So what should they do?

My suggestion: think like a broker. You should try to make a deal — not squelch one.

Do some of your fellow board members have "unofficial" meetings without certain members, where they decide things in advance of the regular meeting? Do they get together in secret and arrange to vote as a bloc? Is this legal? Is this proper? And what can you do about such "rogue" board members?

Not much, it turns out. Their secret meetings, according to attorneys, are perfectly legal. But not everything they do may be.

With condos rising in places like Rego Park and Flushing, we wondered how Manhattan condo sales are doing. CityRealty takes a look in its Monthly Market Report, which highlights the period from July 1 to July 31. It founds that the average sale price for Manhattan condos dipped slightly to $2.4 million. The average price for an apartment, taking into account both condo and co-op sales, was $1.8 million, unchanged month-to-month. There were 1,076 apartment sales, dipping from 1,150 sales in the prior month. Must have been those brutal heat waves. 

Are you using too much water? And how would you even know?

One way to find out is through the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its free leak detection and water usage software. In case you haven't logged into the DEP website lately, its customer service portal offers software for a program that monitors water usage and aberrations and also offers several billing options (either monthly or quarterly billing, and either a bill via snail mail or eBilling). 

I want to put a satellite dish on my balcony. It's unobtrusive, but will it be a problem?

Although many buildings take issue with the installation of satellite dishes, the fact is the Federal Communications Commission adopted the Over-the-Air-Reception Device rules (commonly known as OTARD), which protect a property owner's or tenant's right to "install, maintain, or use an antenna to receive video programming from direct broadcast satellites, broadband radio services, and television broadcast stations." The dish must conform to size standards and must be installed on property that the resident owns or of which he or she has "exclusive use or control." Accordingly, we would encourage a co-op or condo board to comply with these rules and grant permission within its guidelines.

Jay Silverberg is president of Zenith Properties.