NEW YORK CITY

If you've lived in a cooperative or condominium during the past 15 years and the proper forms were filled out, chances are you've been getting a tax abatement on your apartment. The Cooperative and Condominium Tax Abatement Program is responsible for that, giving tax abatements to Residential Class 2 properties — that is, condos or co-ops with more than three units. Any apartment in a Class 2 building is eligible, except units receiving any other type of abatement; sponsor units; units that are used for non-residential purposes; and units owned by someone who owns three or more units in the same building.

The abatement was the result of state legislation, first passed into law in 1998 and renewed regularly ever since. It was originally enacted as a temporary measure to compensate for the discrepancy between the taxes on single-family homes and the much higher taxes on co-op and condo apartments in multi-unit buildings. This fall, there was some delay in renewing the law, but the legislators eventually came through, extending it to June 30, 2015.

A good thing, right? Well, yes and no.

Have you ever dealt with a bullying or disruptive condo or co-op board member? This director can arise almost unsuspectingly, wreaking havoc on board meetings and threatening the effective and efficient business of your board. If left untamed, rogue board members can be damaging and destructive to a cooperative or a condominium association. How do you identify then and what can you do about them?

As a business researcher / strategist and former condo board member I have been active for years in my 500-plus-unit co-op, serving on finance and elevator committees and as research consultant to committees and board presidents on issues we all face as shareholders. I want to raise an issue of concern to many of our shareholders and to others in our form of housing: the disproportionate power wielded by holders of unsold shares, and the unequal application of the New York State Business Corporation Law, depending on when a co-op's bylaws became effective.

Although the New York State Condominium Act requires a secretary to keep a "record" of  the actions of the board, and the State's Business Corporation Law (BCL) requires that "minutes" be kept, practically speaking, most attorneys say there's not a dime's worth of difference between the two requirements. While the BCL statutorily doesn't apply to condos, case law over the years has, practically speaking, placed condominiums under the BCL umbrella.

Worried about guns in your building? Steve Rosenstein is. As board treasurer of a Brooklyn co-op, he maintains and updates the purchase application for unit sales in his building.

"After [the shootings at] Sandy Hook, I started thinking about adding a question or two about gun ownership to the application," he says. "I can tell you definitely that boards are starting to ask questions about guns and firearms as part of co-op admissions and habitability." With gun violence in the news, it may be time for your board to consider gun control.

Switching from No. 6 oil to No. 2 costs significantly less than going from No. 6 to gas. Why? As these two sample proposals by Kenneth Camileri, senior account manager for New York City Clean Heat, make clear, the reason is simple: There is much more work involved in changing from No. 6 to gas. That takes time, and that, of course, means more money for condominium and co-op boards.

Condominium and co-op board-meeting minutes are an important way to promote the value in your property. Although there is no legal requirement to share the minutes with the shareholders or potential buyers, most attorneys argue that you should show them because, otherwise, it looks like you're hiding something. The minutes can be reviewed by owners and potential buyers to evaluate the competency of the board, the state of the building's finances, litigation and other matters.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn yesterday announced a report recommending broad changes affecting co-ops, condos and all other New York City buildings that face the expected floods, destructive wind, blackouts and other extreme-weather results of climate change.

Among the proposals, which the mayor and speaker said they would pursue immediately, are Building Code upgrades, zoning changes and having buildings prepare emergency plans that include backup power and water. Earlier this week, the mayor additionally proposed a City registry of the most vulnerable citizens to better coordinate assistance and rescue.

"We have a shareholder in our co-op who moved out," says Manhattan co-op board president Regina Warren says, "and the shareholder now has a subtenant living in his unit. The subtenant went through all the proper co-op application channels and signed an appropriate subtenant lease. Now the subtenant wants to bring in a non-related roommate. Can the board require this new person to apply just like the original subtenant?" 

As an attorney, I recently read a report of a settlement in a lawsuit where a woman sued a property owner for damages she suffered after tripping and falling over a concrete parking barrier in a parking lot. Although the case did not involve a co-op or condominium parking lot, it easily could have. The fact is, some our condo clients have been sued by owners, residents or guests after they likewise tripped over a concrete parking barrier, claiming that it was a dangerous condition because they could not distinguish the parking barrier from the asphalt parking lot surface.