NEW YORK CITY

Alan Gorelick, the former executive vice president of the Manhattan property-management firm Saparn Realty, pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing $2.6 million from approximately 30 buildings he used to manage. He was convicted in Manhattan Supreme Court of second-degree grand larceny, criminal possession of a forged instrument and scheming to defraud.

For those in landmarked districts or buildings, tales of endless paperwork and stacks of forms can stop a board from doing needed renovations. But as with all things historical, time has a habit of changing things — even in the workings of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Early last year, the LPC changed the way certain applications were submitted and reviewed, and released a document outlining the streamlined process and offering assistance with filing an application. What does this mean for condo and co-op boards?

Habitat talked about this last year in a story about how co-ops and condos all have unwritten rules about the privacy of your building's security-camera footage, key-fob data and other standard electronic measure — and how unwritten rules are dangerous and prone to abuse. It's a lesson that never gets old, as attorneys Dean Norris and Jeffrey Reich reiterate in the latest installment of BrickUnderground.com's "Ask an Expert" column: "Who's Allowed To Watch My Building's Security Camera Footage?"

How do you cope with living between your co-op board president and your co-op board treasurer without accidentally getting yourself evicted? Pretty easily, according to the pseudonymous Pamela, writing in BrickUnderground.com’s “Living Next To” column. Although the standard complaints arise — noisy dogs and, ahem, “recreational” smoke — the writer admits that living near the co-op’s authorities does have perks, like no riotous parties or unauthorized renovations on her floor. Guess the pros outweigh the cons in this situation.

A reader asks: I am on the board of a prewar co-op on the Upper West Side. We authorized a contractor to do some minor masonry repairs, which could be performed without rigging, in order to stop a leak on the 16th floor. The repairs were small enough to not require filing with the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) and amounted to less than $10,000. However, just after we started work, a DOB inspector stopped us and said we were required us to file a site-safety plan. We have been told by a site-safety company that because the work is within 20 feet of the street, we need a sidewalk shed. This is crazy! Please explain.

Noise and smoke complaints are two of the most common woes in co-ops and condos, as two put-upon shareholders lament in The New York Times' Ask Real Estate column. The first letter-writer says marijuana smoke from a hard-to-pinpoint location is worsening his wife’s asthma, while the second (scroll down to read) insists a new elevator is the cause of a constant whining and grating sound. Ronda Kaysen consults experts for both situations and offers tips on who to contact and what can be done. 

Energy consultant Tom Sahagian is Senior Program Director, Technical Services, at Enterprise Community Partners.

Frustrated and confused, Jane gave me a call.

It was a sign of desperation. Jane, her co-op's resident boiler expert, prided herself on taking excellent care of the heating system. Usually, it ran smoothly and efficiently, but lately she had been making endless trips to the basement to add up to two or three inches of water to the boiler.

Elizabeth, a communications executive, came home to her Upper West Side co-op one evening to find a note, in Spanish, from her cleaning lady: "Chinche." That word wasn't in Elizabeth's limited Spanish vocabulary, so she asked the doorman to translate and learned the bad news: She had bedbugs. From there, her building's policies took over….

Arthur Weinstein, an attorney in private practice who has successfully enacted smoking bans in New York, says that many co-ops already have restrictions in their proprietary leases against noxious odors and/or disturbing neighbors. That — combined with recent court cases that say second-hand smoke is a violation of the warranty of habitability — gives boards the right to prohibit smoking in a building.

But only, insists Weinstein, if there is a complaint.

Which qualities do responsible co-op and condo boards possess? What things can boards pursue that genuinely increase apartments' market value? What are some of the specific challenges boards faces today, and where boards can find support and information?

Rarely has anyone answered the above questions in as succinct and straightforward a manner as Martha Goupit, Halstead Management's managing director and executive vice president. In an insightful interview with Keat Foong, executive editor of Multi-Housing News, she offers the kind of plainspoken facts and wisdom that, ironically, the less-than-expert board at my very own condominium complex seems not to want to believe. If others readers out there have similarly recalcitrant boards, maybe her words will be a wakeup call: "You don't believe me? Fine. Would you believe her saying the same things?"