Teri Karush Rogers

Q. My divorce was recently finalized and I'm ready to buy an apartment.  I've heard that co-op boards are not very friendly to divorced buyers. What exactly does that mean? What can I do about it? 

A.  Discrimination based on family status is illegal, says real estate attorney Jeffrey Reich of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz, so your divorce itself is not the problem.

Q. Our teenage daughter threw a party in our apartment (without our permission while we were away) and some of her friends apparently got out of hand.

Now the co-op board is saying we owe $6,500 in damages to some plantings on the building's roof deck. That seems like a lot of money for some plants, and it wasn't even my daughter who was involved--it was her friends.

Also, the board has banned my daughter from using the roof deck until she turns 18. What are our rights?

Q. I live in a 480-unit co-op complex where the ex-super was voted as a board member. Afterwards three property managers in a row quit and now his wife is the new property manager, which the board approved without putting it to the shareholders even though she was an assistant in the office. 

Q. An Italian restaurant opened up in the ground floor of my building early this summer. Now my apartment is filled with the smell of garlic all night long. Even my clothes and hair smell like garlic.   

I've called my management company several times; they say they're looking into it but they are beyond unresponsive on most things so I am not very hopeful. 

What are my rights? Can I get out of my lease because my apartment stinks?