Thomas - I was informed by our co-op lawyer that to add a person to a share certificate the board needs to approve it as it is like going through an accelerated 'admission process'. The person to be added to the share is assuming responsibilities with regard to the corporation, lease, etc. I made a request at one of the board meetings (in our co-op all shareholders are on the board) for approval and it was put to a vote. In my case, the other shareholders had met and interacted with my husband on many occasions and he was a regular attendee at meetings so the decision was not debated. If he had been an 'unknown' then it is likely that they would have required a short interview. I sent those minutes in a letter to the co-op lawyer requesting a new certificate and lease. Our charge was minimal. There may already be a basic charge in place at your co-op to cover replacing a lost lease or certificate. Hope this helps. NJ

Hi, the management company that is employed by my coop said i would have to pay around $800 to have a family member added to the ownership lease. I don't know if i should believe them or not because I've caught my coop board members and management in numerous lies as I'm dealing with an "entrenched coop board" and i know the management company is a puppet for the board at this point. I have a feeling they are trying to discourage me by saying it will cost $800 in fees so i don't have it done. The family member wants to join the board and try and correct the building problems and the board is aware of this. please let me know if anyone thinks that $800 is a legitimate fee to have a name added. thanks

There is usually a fee for this service since it does involve paperwork and issuing a new stock certificate and proprietary lease. This fee might be just a little high, but if it is important to you, pay it and get on with improving the board of that is your goal. Remember that when you add a name to the shares there are ownership rights involved. Be sure to seek legal advice on how to handle this.

My addition of a family member cost $1000.

does your proprietary lease or by laws specifically state that a board member has to be a shareholder ? does it state that the board member must live in the building,or any wording along these lines.
unless the by-laws and proprietary lease state limitations, as long as the individual is 18 years old, i believe that is all that is necessary to hold office
it could be a good situation since they don't have to live there and deal with the annoyances that a landlord who rents out part of his home faces with a bad tenant. In this case it would be dysfunctional board..

I believe if we are talking a legally licensed marriage or domestic partnership no interview or approval would be required. Because a disapproval would be against public policy and state law for legally non-differentiable spouses. However many coops would charge fees for a new stock certificate and proprietary lease made out in both person's names (normally JTWROS but sometimes not).

That does not mean both persons of a married couple couldn't be evicted (but not one without the other) if the actions of one of them create an evictable situation.

just a couple of comments, NY does not recognize domestic partners, so they have no legal standing in ownership unless a joint tenancy or tenancy in common is specifically created. Second, ownership should not be jtwros, it should be tenants by the entirety which automatically gives right of survivorship as does joint tenancy. Adding with right of survivorship is just a flourish, and can't hurt, but there are differences between tenancy by the entirety which is available to spouses only and joint tenancy which is available to two or more not married to each other.

our prop lease from 1985 states that same sex-partners are considered the same as spouses for rights of survivorship concerning passing of ownership of the co-op.
one of my neighbors said she paid to put her daughters on the proprietary lease,so there would be no problems for their right of ownership.
however she said her shareholder certificate was never changed to reflect this.
Does she need this updated stock certificate in order for her daughters to not run into problems if she passes,her husband predeceased her.
I orry since when searching for UCC, i only found about 10 out of 60 for this building. I ran the names of the owners, and used my name and others as checks that i was doing it correct, I know they charge for UCC filings and would not put it past them to pocket the money and not file the UCC papers.

So far I have been told my co op will be charging spouse and domestic partners who want to be added to the certificate over $2,400.00. Does this send a negitive message that they do not want anyone added to the certificate? Or is the managing agent trying to cash in on this new gold mine?