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Law & Legislation
Local Law 11
February 21, 2005 signaled the commencement of the sixth cycle of New York City's façade inspection laws: Local Laws 10 (1980) and 11 (1998), now referred to collectively as Local Law 11. Read More
Blue York
In Atlanta, Georgia, it's illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp. In Pueblo, Colorado, it is illegal to let a dandelion grow within city limits. In Alabama, it is illegal to wear a fake mustache that causes laughter in church. You may not be arrested and jailed if you're caught pulling any of these stunts, but make no mistake: these rules are on the books, and if you're deemed unruly, publicly intoxicated, or otherwise disagreeable to the authorities while tethering your giraffe, cultivating your dandelions, or wearing your goofy mustache, they may decide to dust off these old laws and arrest you for them, too. Read More
The Local Law Lowdown
The past year has seen a lot of changes in the codes governing New York City's buildings, both inside and out. Rules covering lead paint, carbon monoxide detection, and construction permits have been introduced or revised, and it's up to board members, property managers, and individual shareholder/ owners to take responsibility and educate themselves about the changes. Read More
Changing the Rules
When you're on the board of a co-op or condo building, sometimes it can feel like you need a law degree to understand all of the paperwork that gets thrown at you. Depending on where you live, there are bylaws and proprietary leases and house rules and everything in between. And like any thriving growing community, sometimes rules and laws need to change with the times. But how often can these documents be changed? Who changes them? Do the owners or shareholders have any say in these changes? Read More
Fitting the Bill in Albany
Co-op and condo buildings can often seem like their own little self-contained worlds, with drama, politics, and debates aplenty. Given that, it's understandable why shareholder/owners might think the people who run their building—the board members, management companies, and special committees—make all the building decisions that in turn influence the lives of residents. Read More
You're Fired
While not a common practice, boards of directors of New York cooperatives have, at times, reached the decision to evict a shareholder based on objectionable conduct. Nearly every cooperative corporation's proprietary lease contains a section on dealing with default. Objectionable conduct on the part of the shareholder or other residents in the apartment provides the board with the basis for terminating the shareholder's shares and evicting them from the building. Read More
Reasonable Accommodations
New York City can be tough enough to navigate as a young, able-bodied person; it's even more difficult for the elderly or physically challenged to get around and go about their day. Imagine living with a physical disability in an apartment building without ramps or wheelchair access. Imagine living with a serious illness and wanting a pet to ease your suffering—in a building whose bylaws do not allow animals. Read More
Resolving Property Damage Disputes
Renovating in existing, occupied buildings such as co-ops and condominiums is a challenge. There is no extra space to work in, and one little mistake can damage a number of apartments. Not only is all the space already spoken for, it's fully occupied with people who are greatly inconvenienced and annoyed by any noise or heavy work being done in or around their space - yet the work has to be done. The odds of renovation work causing some damage are great - especially in older buildings - but problems aren't inevitable. Read More
From the Court to the Board
Since my column in June of this year, there have been some significant cooperative and condominium cases that have been given little publicity. The most interesting case, may be the West Gate House case which brings the infamous Jennifer Realty (sponsor divestiture) and Pullman (shareholder "objectionable conduct") doctrines together for the first time. In a few cases, the courts give the business judgment rule a good workout. In two cases, we learn more about the courts' views on board rulemaking and in another case, we learn what could happen if a contract is not drafted thoroughly. Read More
Holding the Purse Strings
You may not realize it, but your building may be hemorrhaging money. Not in the form of disastrous lawsuits or maintenance crises like a collapsed roof or exploded boiler, but in a steady trickle coming from your method of ordering supplies and keeping tabs on small, seemingly inconsequential bills. Read More
From the Court to the Board
In this and in future columns, I will be examining decisions of interest to co-ops and condo boards and suggesting what valuable lessons can be learned from these legal decisions. Read More
Lamentable Leaks
A Brooklyn condominium board learned a painful lesson recently when a jury awarded $55,000 in punitive damages to a unit owner who lived with a leaking roof for 11 years. Read More
Mixed-Use Buildings
Many co-op and condo board members know the difficulty of working to resolve arguments between residents. In mixed-use buildings, the problems may be greater. With both commercial and residential unit owners or shareholders in a building, the board may find the disputes unmanageable. Compromise may seem unworkable, because the two sides have such fundamentally different interests. Read More
After Massachusetts Mold Verdict
The entire real estate industry - from owners and developers to contractors and architects - has been focused on the issue of mold contamination during the past year. However, no segment of industry has been more watchful than cooperative and condominium boards. It has become increasingly clear that in the current environment, co-ops and condos must take a leadership position to maintain control over this issue. Read More
Due Diligence
House hunters often spend weeks, months, sometimes even years searching for that perfect place to call home. Finally they find it - great space, perfect location, price within the budget. But, before signing on the dotted line, purchasers of co-ops and condos should do their homework - or, as it's referred to in the legal world, their due diligence. Due diligence is the level of care, prudence and activity that a person would reasonably be expected to meet under particular circumstances. Read More
Legal Matters
In the world of co-ops and condos, few people are more important than a organization's legal counsel. Some of the reasons for needing an attorney's help are obvious - how else would complicated contracts be drawn up and ever-changing laws be followed? Other advantages are less obvious. The right relationship between management and an attorney can help keep shareholders happy, building operations running smoothly, and costs under control. Read More
The Abatement Debate
To address the problem of steeply escalating taxes on co-ops and condos, the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums (CNYC) created the Action Committee for Reasonable Real Estate Taxes in February of 1990. During their study and investigation, the group discovered that there was a gross disparity between the taxes paid by co-op and condo owners and those assessed to private homeowners; according to the committee's findings, co-op and condo apartments in buildings containing more than three units were paying three to five times more in property taxes than single-family homes of comparable value. Co-ops and condos were being taxed as Class Two income-producing properties, rather than as the single-family homes that most of them were, simply because they happened to be apartments in large buildings. Read More
Past Precedents
New York City real estate is governed by a number of things: available housing stock, the economy, state legislation, and quite often by major legal cases argued in the courts and then applied by proxy to building communities all over the city. The courts thus have the ability to greatly impact the way boards, managing agents, and shareholders/owners conduct business. Read More
In Brief: From the Court to the Board
In this and in future columns, I will be examining decisions of interest to co-op and condo boards and suggesting what valuable lessons can be learned from these legal decisions. Read More
Lien-To
Co-op and condo boards often become involved in disputes with contractors and subcontractors who perform work either on the building's common areas, or within individual apartments for a shareholder or unit owner. A mechanic's lien and lien enforcement action is the most popular and most potent remedy for contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers of materials to recover payment for services or materials supplied to a construction project, of which building owners and managers should be aware. Read More
Mayor Presents $45.7 Billion Budget Plan
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg presented a $45.7 billion budget plan for fiscal year 2005 and awarded property owners a $400 tax rebate to thank New Yorkers for their sacrifices in helping the city weather its fiscal crisis. Read More
Mayor Vetoes City Council's Lead Paint Bill
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg last month vetoed the New York City Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act, which was intended to replace Local Law 38 and correct lead-based paint hazards in housing, schools, day care facilities and playgrounds. Read More
Sidewalk Liability
Property owners will now be responsible for the maintenance and repair of public sidewalks in front of their buildings following passage of legislation that transfers liability from the city to the owners of multi-family dwellings. Read More
Getting The Lead Out
1960: New York City becomes the first municipality in the country to ban sale of lead paint. Nationwide restrictions on the manufacture and use of lead-based paint did not come into effect until 1978. Read More
State Appeals Court Invalidates Lead Paint Law
The City Council will meet to adopt a new lead paint abatement law following a state Court of Appeals decision July 1 that invalidated the current Local Law 38. The council's Committee on Housing and Buildings will convene in mid-September to consider proposed legislation governing lead paint standards in residential buildings. Read More
Feeling Your Pain
New York City's eight million hardy souls are used to a lifestyle in which the best of everything is at their disposal. But now residents may have to do more with less as the city struggles to find its way out of a deepening fiscal crisis. Read More
The Silent Killer
With all the recent concern over environmental hazards in residential buildings - mold, funguses, and various allergens - it makes good sense to discuss one of the most dangerous of the invisible problems that can plague a home or building: carbon monoxide, or - to use the chemical abbreviation - CO. Read More
Push and Pullman
In a decision with profound repercussions throughout the co-op community, the New York Court of Appeals decided last month to allow the application of the business judgment rule in situations involving so-called "objectionable tenants." Read More
Renovating Your Apartment
Anyone living in a co-op knows that if they want to renovate their apartment, they will need to sign an alteration agreement. This document is basically a contract between the shareholder and the co-op in which the shareholder agrees to various terms and conditions, which will ensure that the co-op and other shareholders will not suffer damage during the renovation. Some shareholders are engaged in major renovations where items, such as pianos, are being hoisted up the side of the building or temporary elevators are built outside the building. Other shareholders are making changes, which can affect the building's heating and plumbing systems, as well as the other shareholders' apartments. It is quite common for demolition in one apartment to cause cracks and dust in a neighbor's apartment. These are all damages the co-op wants to protect against. Read More
The Check's in the Mail
State legislation regulating the payment of contractors and allowing the withholding of payment for shoddy or incomplete construction work, was signed into law by Gov. George Pataki and became effective January 15. Read More
Silence is Golden
Honking horns, noisy refuse trucks, construction clamor, boom boxes and car alarms are just some of the undeniable facts of life in living in the city that never sleeps. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, however, hopes to quell these noisy episodes with a quality of life initiative aimed at making the city a more peaceful place to live. Read More
Broker Suggests Change in Tax Code
U.S. Congressman Tom Reynolds (D-NY) has introduced legislation to remove an inequity in the tax code that penalized seniors and middle income homeowners from taking a deduction on their tax returns for any mortgage interest they had accumulated in the purchase or refinancing of their primary residence. Read More
City Sidewalks, Busy Sidewalks
City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo pleaded with members of the City Council last month to enact meaningful tort reform to help the city close what officials say will be a $6.4 billion budgetary gap by 2004. Read More
A New Lease on Life?
One of the main documents governing the majority of New York City's co-op buildings is the antithesis of the well-known Oldsmobile ad: it is your father's proprietary lease, and many of its parts are not exactly of-the-minute. Sponsors of most New York co-op buildings modeled their proprietary leases on a document that dates back to the 1970s, and although the detailed provisions of the lease vary from one co-op to another, on the whole, they are rather uniform - in some respects, according to many in the industry, uniformly in need of an update. Read More
