MANHATTAN

Are New York City elevator inspectors being arbitrary in finding violations, or is something even more troublesome going on?

"My super will say, 'The [elevator]inspector was here today,' and we go through the process with our service company to get costs on fixing the violations and deciding how to do this most cost-effectively," says Grant Varga, a longtime board member at the 13-story prewar co-op 12 West 67th Street, near Central Park. "Then, a couple of months later, a different inspector will come here and we get more violations. Why didn't the first inspector catch what the second one called violations?" he asks.

Veteran managing agent Gerard J. Picaso, president of Gerard J.Picaso Inc., who is unaffiliated with Varga's building, has had the same experience. "You do the work, and then another inspector says, 'Here's a bunch of other stuff that's wrong.' You go, 'Wait a minute. We just fixed a bunch of things.' But another guy looks at it from a different angle and you're back to doing more work."

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. Lots of board news this week, as a condo board in Tribeca files a lawsuit to keep a Crunch gym out of its building, and the co-op board of Co-op City fails to have its residents pass a five-year cable-TV lock-in with Cablevision. Experts answer whether a co-op board can force out a registered sex offender, and whether a building might gain air rights anew after selling them years ago. Plus, co-op prices go down, condo prices go up, and Drew Barrymore buys an apartment.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, condo-owners at the landmarked American Tract Society Building a.k.a. 150 Nassau Street, swill be welcoming a Denny's restaurant, after all. Well, maybe "welcoming" is too strong a word. In Brighton Beach, the ultra-green condo at 67 Brighton 1st Lane may or may not still be called Bright N' Green, but it's back in the news. Upcoming Late Night host Seth Meyers buys in Greenwich Village. And condo owners at The Lennox say its construction was bollocksed. Plus: Tips on spotting a friendly / liberal co-op board.

I live in an unusual condominium. Consisting of two gut-renovated buildings in Manhattanville, also called Central Harlem or West Central Harlem, the 50-unit property is in the city Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) portfolio of affordable housing. It is designed for median-income residents. And, although we're a condo, HPD rules require the units to be owner- occupied.

Eleanor Selling, an anthropologist by training and former trade-desk manager at J.P. Morgan Chase, has been part of the renovation committee at 5 Riverside Drive in Manhattan since 2011. The former board president recently sat down with Habitat Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Carol J. Ott, to discuss leadership qualities and lessons learned on the job.

The largest condominium in New York went smoke-free, boards crawled their way toward formal gun and privacy policies, buildings NIMBY'd restaurants and board prez Joan Rivers won a court battle. And, of course, some things remained constant, like the ubiquitous push-pull between residents and boards. All this and more helped make up the year in co-op and condo news … and we've got the quotes to prove it!

Homeowners rose in tax revolt again in 2012, yet politicians still failed to act to solve inequities hurting co-ops and condominiums. A board may have helped drive a resident to suicide. No-smoking rules, digitized offering plans and automated water-meter readers all made the news. And good boards and bad have their say and their day in some of the year's most interesting utterances.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, a Battery Park condo board wants two pit bulls that terrorized a Yorkie removed, while a banker jumps out a window when his Fifth Avenue co-op board wants his poodles ousted. Oh, and also because he's facing a huge tax bill. And speaking of ousted, a rental-building owner is the latest to use a private detective to evict an illegal hotelier. Plus, for condo and co-op boards, we've news of a disaster-grant bill two Congressmen will introduce tomorrow, a report on luxury co-ops and condos being undertaxed and a West Village condo with a truly creative idea — making your lobby smell upscale!

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, half of Albany is up in arms and the other half is sticking its hand out over 421a tax abatements for luxury condominiums. Meanwhile, the attorney general slaps the wrist of a developer banned from selling any condos at all. Plus, a big change at Co-op City and a big sale in Greenwich Village, as Mary-Louise Parker (right) sells her Washington Square co-op. Plus: Advice for your co-op board admissions interview.

UPDATED March 22, 2013 — Following an interagency raid by investigations who took files and computers from five local heating-oil business, two lawsuits have been filed by real-estate concerns charging that the companies have been selling oil diluted with waste product. Authorities and the plaintiffs claim such tainted fuel oil has been delivered for years to both commercial and residential buildings.