NEW YORK CITY

A READER ASKS: A shareholder in our co-op, fearing for her security, is refusing to give us duplicates of her keys. My fellow board members and I have tried reasoning with her, explaining that we need to be able to access her apartment in an emergency. We are getting nowhere, and the board president is getting fed up. He's considering evicting her for breaching her proprietary lease. Is there any way that we can reach a realistic compromise that satisfies the board and assuages the shareholder's concern for her safety without this getting ugly?

When it comes to apartment renovations, virtually every board and managing agent has a horror story. Remember that time a leaky Jacuzzi was installed directly over a neighbor's bedroom? What about the time a wall was removed even though it contained the wiring for every intercom in the building? Or the time a work crew showed up at a landmarked building and started tearing down walls without either Department of Buildings permits or Landmarks Preservation Commission permission…. 

The estate of Florence Weinbaum had to sell Weinbaum's co-op apartment at 260 West End Avenue. It contracted with a third party and, as is typical in co-ops, the sale was conditioned on the board's approval. The board waited until after the estate and the unit's purchaser had signed the contract to promulgate house rules directly addressed to this unit and the buyer refused to close. 

In 1947, the unit — which was located on the "mezzanine" level and accessibly via the lobby — was leased to Weinbaum's father, a doctor, as a professional office. When the building converted to cooperative ownership in 1980, Dr. and Mrs. Weinbaum purchased the shares and he continued to use the unit as his medical office until his retirement in 1981.

A group of real estate executives recently sat with Gotham magazine to dish some dirt about New York City real estate — and what they had to say is worthy of some serious eyebrow-raising. According to the group, co-ops should be added to the endangered species list. "If you look at the resale as well as new-sell price data on condominiums, they are rising 30 percent over co-ops," said Nikki Field, senior vice president at Sotheby’s International. More scathing was Kirk Henckels, vice chairman of Stribling & Associates, who said: "Poor co-ops! They are stylistically and locationally unpopular; the structure of the deal is unpopular — they don’t have a thing going for them at this point." One piece of advice they offered? Convert co-ops into condos. Don't count the New York co-op out just yet, though. The group focused almost exclusively on a luxury market, but co-ops aren't about the 1 percent. They aren't country clubs; rather, they are communities — a major point the group seems to have missed. Consider also that sellers are going to prefer condos to co-ops; they are easier to sell because there's no board approval process, for starters. For all the stats they seemed to pull out of the air, the group also overlooked a pretty important one. In an economic downturn, co-ops endure. That annoying board approval dismissed as snobbery and "scrutiny [of finances]" puts co-ops on much firmer financial footing than condos, where unit-owners have a greater chance of foreclosing. 

Condominiums continue to use the lion's share of the 421a tax exemption, with very few co-ops participating in the program that along with the popular J-51 exemption is set to expire in June, panelists said Wednesday in a housing symposium. Participants also revealed proposals for affordable homes and predicted the fates of "poor doors" and a new, related wrinkle, "poor fences."

The holidays are here again, and the most wonderful time of the year brings with it the annual rite of holiday tipping. 'Tis the season to show your appreciation to your co-op or condo's building staff.

Here, we guide you through the process, particularly determining how much to give and figuring out any tax consequences.

It's back to the drawing board for Rivergate Apartments' plan to build a retail building on top of a playground in Joseph Slifka Park. DNAinfo.com reports that the City Planning Commission will not give its approval until the developer reaches a compromise with residents. The original plan, which Rivergate owner UDR presented last month to members of Community Board 6, called for a 4,000-square-foot retail building as well as a renovation of the remaining green space, according to DNAinfo. New dog run and artificial turf field notwithstanding, some folks want the building to be smaller, while others don't want retail encroaching on what amounts to their backyard. The bottom line is that residents want a say in the final design, and it looks like they will make their voices heard at a public meeting with UDR on Jan. 7, 2015. New year, new proposal. 

Ask any middle-class or working class New Yorker, and they'll tell you that limited-equity Mitchell-Lama co-ops such as Manhattan's Penn South, The Bronx's Co-op City and Brooklyn's Cadman Towers are miracles that allow them to keep living and working in an increasingly expensive city. But the problem, as BrickUnderground.com writes, is that there are only 45,400 Mitchell-Lama co-op and rental apartments left, in 98 buildings, down from the 105,000 apartments in 269 buildings constructed under the program beginning in 1955. So when we hear that New York State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein (D - 34th District) proposed in December that $750 million be funneled into revitalizing the program over five years, well, a lot of people raised their glasses in toast to State Senator MacNeil Mitchell and Assemblyman Alfred Lama for creating the program in the first place. Of course, we being middle- or working-class, we're toasting with an inexpensive sparkling wine rather than Champagne. But what the hey ... l'chaim! Oh, and write your representatives to encourage them.

Looks like a few residents of 45 East 66th Street had a rotten weekend, including one of its more famous ones: Rudolph W. Giuliani. Despite his objections, even the former New York City mayor couldn't stop the Landmarks Preservation Commission from greenlighting an application to construct a new penthouse on top of the existing 11th-floor penthouse at the tony building with the Gothic terracotta façade, reports Curbed. Also against the proposal are Christabel Gough of the Society for the Architecture of the City and Community Board 8. But it looks like the commission was satisfied with the plans it reviewed, which according to Curbed, would match in color and barely be "visible from most vantage points on the street." So it looks like soon Giuliani will next be complaining about construction work at the landmarked building.

A READER ASKS: I am a member at my co-op's board. One of the tenants called us to let us know she found mold in her apartment. We are already discussing the steps to take to eliminate the mold; but I am concerned that we aren't moving fast enough. Instead, we seem to be getting caught up in a debate about who pays for what even though the tenant hasn't broached the subject of who's responsible for footing the bill. I'm concerned that if we wait too long, the tenant will get sick and take us to court. My fellow board members think I'm worrying over a whole lot of nothing. Can you advise us on the steps we should be taking so we can avoid a worst-case scenario?