IgeraFincas for New York Co-op & Condo Management

In a New York City co-op, you do not own real property. Instead, you own shares in a cooperative corporation and hold a proprietary lease granting the right to occupy a specific unit. The corporation owns the building. This means co-op buyers need board approval for any transfer, cannot sell to anyone the board rejects, and pay monthly maintenance that includes a proportionate share of the building's underlying mortgage and real estate taxes. In a condo, you own the unit itself (recorded deed) plus a percentage interest in common elements. Condo boards can exercise a right of first refusal but generally cannot block sales to third parties the way co-op boards can. Condo common charges do not include a mortgage or tax component.

Yes, in most cases. The business judgment rule (as articulated in Pullman v. 100 N. 3rd Street Realty and similar cases) protects co-op boards that reject buyers without disclosing their reasons, as long as the rejection was made in good faith and in the interest of the corporation. However, the board cannot reject a buyer based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or any other protected class under the federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. §3604), the New York State Human Rights Law, or the New York City Human Rights Law — which offers some of the broadest anti-discrimination protections in the country, including protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and source of income.

NYC Local Law 97 (2019) requires buildings over 25,000 square feet to meet carbon emission caps, with fines of $268 per ton of CO² above the cap starting in 2024. Stricter caps take effect in 2030. Most NYC co-ops with 50 or more units are affected. Buildings that exceed their cap face compounding annual fines, creating significant pressure on boards to invest in HVAC systems, LED lighting, and building insulation. These capital expenditures are typically funded through special assessments on shareholders, ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars per unit depending on the building's size, fuel type (oil vs. gas vs. electric), and the extent of upgrades required. IgeraFincas explains the LL97 obligations specific to your building's occupancy class and answers shareholder questions about whether a proposed capital assessment is authorized by the proprietary lease.

A flip tax (formally called a transfer fee or resale fee) is a charge paid to the co-op corporation when a shareholder sells their apartment. It is authorized in the proprietary lease and is used to build the co-op's reserve fund without raising monthly maintenance. Flip taxes are extremely common — the majority of Manhattan co-ops have one. The formula varies by building: common structures include 1–3% of the gross sale price, a fixed dollar amount per share sold, or 10–20% of the seller's net profit. The flip tax amount must be disclosed in the offering plan (the “Black Book” filed with the NY Attorney General under the Martin Act) and in the proprietary lease. IgeraFincas can calculate the exact flip tax owed by reading the formula from your uploaded proprietary lease.

Under BCL §624, shareholders have the right to inspect the corporation's books and records, including financial statements, minutes of board and shareholder meetings, and the shareholder register, upon written demand. The corporation must respond within 5 business days. If the board refuses or ignores the request, the shareholder can file a special proceeding in New York Supreme Court under BCL §624(e) to compel production. Most proprietary leases also contain explicit document access provisions that may be broader than the BCL baseline. IgeraFincas can identify the specific document request rights in your building's proprietary lease and explain the process for submitting a formal request to the managing agent.