THE BRONX

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. There's no other news more important this week than New York State legislators and Governor Andrew Cuomo letting the co-op / condo tax abatement expire. This, in a state where every other form of residential property gets an annual cap on tax increases. But there's a sliver of a silver lining — read the second article below and contact your representatives.

Also this week, New York City condos go on the warpath to collect arrears — read about some of the tactics now becoming commonplace. Plus, what's with all those condo boards acting like co-op boards, requiring hundreds of pages of buyers' financial data? A broker breaks it down. And did you know boards can't stop residents from operating day-care centers in their apartments?

The Edgewater Park Owners Cooperative, in the Throgs Neck section of The Bronx, consists of 675 single-family, unattached homes. The Fair Housing Justice Center has sued that co-op alleging that it violated fair housing laws by selectively enforcing a requirement that prospective purchasers obtain three references from existing co-op shareholders.

Talk about your fish tales: A New York City co-op board is taking a shareholder to court over his running a commercial fish farm out of his home.

"The guy is breeding tilapia in his apartment," says Errol Brett, the attorney for Windsor Apartments, at 4705 Henry Hudson Parkway in Riverdale, The Bronx. "We are a pet-friendly cooperative, but I think he's going too far with these huge tanks."

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week: When co-op / condo sales prices go down,  property taxes still go up because market prices don't count in the computation. Now Albany says they should count — also to make property taxes go up. New York City Councilwoman Letitia James and others are trying to break this damned-if-you-do / damned-if-you-don't cycle. 

Plus, while Co-op City's management fights a court order to accommodate a wheelchair resident, Co-op City's board votes to accommodate him. Maybe Co-op City needs new management — especially since manager RiverBay Corp. just got the place fined $85,000 over another disability denial. What do they have against disabled people, anyway? They cost too much? We've the latest on income-restrict apartments, how to stage for a sale and two sales records set, and how'd you like to do David Duchovny's co-op admissions interview?

The 48-unit high-rise HDFC co-op at 1715 Nelson Avenue in The Bronx has a new amenity to offer its residents: Nine custom-built steel storage units from Bargold Storage Systems. Under Bargold's rental plan, the company absorbs the full cost of installation (estimated at $3,000 per unit) and then rents out the units to tenants itself, sharing a 25 percent commission with the co-op.

... the Sheffield condominium's male prostitute is getting evicted, but not for, like, a month, and there's visiting-dog trouble at a Riverdale co-op. For co-op and condo boards, we have another case of going out of your way to make life hell for older residents, and an expert says a co-op board president can let his cousin sublet longer than other shareholders can.

... a Brooklyn co-op ponders the cost of repairs now that its building has been landmarked and a buyer gets blindsided by a seller not honoring a deal — wait till you read why. And a real-estate attorney explains how co-op boards may just have saved New York City real estate.