Private Property

Two-part system. There are a few land co-ops in New York City, and while they are called co-ops, their corporate structure is quite unique. They look like any typical community of homes, and the New York City ones happen to border a body of water. Like in a typical co-op, a shareholder in a land co-op owns shares, but unlike an apartment shareholder, a land shareholder owns the four walls and roof of the house that sits on the land. The co-op corporation owns the land where the house sits. The co-op is responsible for maintaining roads, trees, sewers and so forth within the community, and shareholders are responsible for maintaining their homes.

Extra duty. As for alterations, land co-ops have their own rules in terms of what you can do inside and outside your home. Boards require shareholders to maintain the exterior of their homes in a way that keeps the community aesthetically pleasing. Shareholders have to keep up the landscaping, and if they want to repaint, they have to follow the co-op’s rules on acceptable colors. But if a shareholder wants to renovate the interior of her home, dual permission must be sought. This means permission from the co-op and permission from the Department of Buildings. The wrinkle is that the landowner, which is the co-op corporation, has to submit the shareholder’s plans to the DOB and seek approval.

Because many of the land co-ops in Queens and the Bronx were created as summer bungalow colonies, the co-op has to contact not only the city but the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation for any water-related work.  Maintaining the infrastructure can get very expensive because in addition to repair costs, land co-ops have to spend a lot of money on insurance. If someone trips and falls on Fifth Avenue or Bruckner Boulevard, it’s the city that’s on the hook, but if that happens at a land co-op, the corporation is liable. 

Independent minded. Boards at land co-ops have a unique challenge when it comes to governance because the shareholders perceive themselves as homeowners. They expect a level of control and don’t want to be overlegislated, and boards need to understand this mentality when passing and enforcing rules.