Ask Real Estate is a weekly column that answers questions from across the New York region. Submit yours to realestateqa@nytimes.com.  Barricaded by a Rising Condo  A luxury condominium is under construction across from the rental building where I live. A fire station is also across the street from the construction site. A temporary structure has been erected in front of my building to accommodate fire trucks during the years-long construction period. The structure is a great inconvenience for the residents of our building. Taxis, cars and moving trucks can no longer pull up to the front of the building, and the residents are greeted with an enormous and ugly brown structure the moment we set foot outside. Traffic is diverted to a small lane next to this structure, creating unsafe conditions for drivers and pedestrians. What can be done about this?  From dangling cranes to deafening pile-driving to penthouses precariously cantilevered over tenements, the construction boom has spared few New Yorkers. In some neighborhoods, it is hard to walk more than a few blocks without traversing a telltale sidewalk bridge. In your case, just stepping outside brings the issue into sharp relief.  Your question, however, is more political than practical. You could contact the Department of Transportation, as that agency would oversee a structure that affects traffic, but that might not get you very far. To get a full answer, you might have better luck reaching out to your local community board or elected officials. If they do not already know about the structure, they could (and should) investigate. They could contact the local firehouse and the various city agencies involved to see if this temporary structure was the best decision. By calling, you would add your name to a list of residents who might have also aired grievances.  It is likely that the condo is an as-of-right development, which means that it was not subject to a public review process where the community would have had the opportunity to weigh in on practical matters like where to house fire trucks. This might explain why the structure seemingly rose out of thin air. “This happens all the time throughout the city, but when it’s as of right, everyone is taken by surprise and that’s the worst,” said Helen Rosenthal, a member of the New York City Council whose district includes the Upper West Side. “A little information goes a long way.”  Can a landlord retaliate against a market-rent tenant or a rent-stabilized tenant for joining a tenants association in a mainly rent-stabilized building? The possible retaliation would be to raise the rent drastically or not renew the lease for the market-rate tenant, or to fail to retain a preferential rent in the case of the rent-stabilized tenant who currently benefits from one.  Market-rate tenants have few protections. A landlord can decide not to renew a lease on a whim, or raise the rent when the lease comes up for renewal. Tenants often worry that complaining too loudly (or frequently) could spell a rent increase at the end of the lease term. But state law protects market-rate tenants from retaliatory eviction for some behavior, like joining a tenants group.  Submit your questions, share your stories and tell us what topics interest you most. Post a comment or email us at realestateqa@nytimes.com.  How would the law protect you if you joined a tenants association? If the landlord does not offer you a new lease when your current one expires, for example, you could use your membership as evidence in court to show that his actions are retaliatory. If you joined the association within six months of the proceeding, “the landlord must then provide a credible reason for his act,” said Jeffrey R. Metz, a Manhattan real estate lawyer. He would have to show that he wanted the tenant out for a reason other than to retaliate.  Although the law is silent about rent increases, if your rent rises drastically, you could still make the same argument under the same statute. If your case prevailed, the landlord would have to offer you a new one-year lease. If you are worried that your landlord might retaliate, hold onto any tenants association minutes that show your membership and any letters you might have written to the landlord on behalf of the association.  Stabilized tenants might have a harder time proving retaliation if a landlord stops giving them preferential rent, which is a rent that is below the maximum amount legally allowed for a unit. “The owner could simply argue that given prevailing market conditions, it could charge and get the higher legal regulated rent,” Mr. Metz said.  My mother-in-law, who lived in a limited-equity co-op for more than 30 years, died recently. My brother-in-law’s name was added to the proprietary lease about a year before her death, although he never really lived in the apartment as an adult. He is also the executor of the estate. What are the succession rights of the apartment, and can he legally sell the rights back to the co-op?  If your brother-in-law’s name is on the proprietary lease, it is likely his name is also on the stock certificate. If that is the case, then there is no succession issue: Your brother-in-law is already a shareholder. But there is a bigger issue here. If your brother-in-law does not live in the apartment, the co-op board could seek to evict him. Much like rent-stabilized apartments, limited-equity co-ops require shareholders to keep their apartment as their primary residence.  If the co-op sued for eviction and your brother-in-law could not prove that he has been living there, he would have to relinquish his shares back to the co-op. Since these types of co-ops cannot be sold for market value, he would instead get back his mother’s initial limited-equity investment, which was probably a few thousand dollars, plus amortization. His payout would probably total around $20,000 — a modest sum in today’s heady real estate market and hardly an incentive to give up the keys. And here is where the issue could make the next family gathering awkward: If another family member lived with your mother-in-law for at least two years before she died, then he or she could claim succession rights and try to take over the unit. “The real question is, who is in the apartment?” said Dean Roberts, a lawyer who specializes in limited-equity housing. “That’s where the succession issue comes into play.”  Submit your questions to realestateqa@nytimes.com  For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.  A version of this article appears in print on January 25, 2015, on page RE4 of the New York edition with the headline: Paying the Price for a Construction Boom. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
This weeks subjects include construction sheds blocking buildings; landlord retaliation for joining a tenants association; and inheritance rules for Co-ops.