Condo Boards Can Enforce Rules with Injunctions, Not Just Fines

Condominiums have a different mechanism than co-ops when it comes to enforcing their bylaws. Unlike co-ops, which can evict shareholders for violating the proprietary lease, breaking house rules or disruptive behavior, condos cannot, since unit-owners own their apartment as opposed to having a proprietary lease. However, most condominium bylaws provide that when there is a violation of the rules and regulations or bylaws, boards can act to enjoin, abate or remedy the problem through appropriate legal proceedings — and that means getting an injunction.

START WITH FINES  When faced with a problematic resident, a condo board first sends a default notice and imposes fines. They are often escalated if the violations continue; for example, we have one condo that adopted a schedule of $500 for the first offense and $1,000 per day for a continuing violation. If the wrongful conduct continues, boards can impose a fine in an amount designed to cure the violation. Sometimes that can be a Draconian amount of $10,000 or more. But often unit-owners don't care about the fines, and the board has to file for a court order or injunction. 

CASE IN POINT  We represented a condo on the Upper West Side that was doing a lot of facade work. There was scaffolding put up outside the building. And a unit-owner started throwing parties, opening the windows, and letting people do acrobatics on the scaffolding. It was endangering their lives and the lives of the people below, a clear violation of the rules and regulations. The board imposed fines, but the unit-order didn’t care about the financial burden and the conduct continued. So we went to court and the board got the order it sought. The injunction barred the unit-owner from having the parties, barred the unit-owner's guests from coming into the building, and actually barred the unit-owner from occupying the apartment for a significant period of time while still collecting that person’s common charges. The condo got a home run. 

WRITE IT DOWN  You have to be careful to make detailed records showing the dates and the times when the wrongful behaviors occur. You need neighbors to explain how they are seriously bothered by the noise or odors or whatever. If a court can see that neighbors are being affected by the problem and that the board has tried to fix it, the condo is going to be the winner, because the court will lean toward giving you the relief you want. 

The takeaway is that condo boards should realize they have an option if their efforts — sending default notices, imposing fines, trying to talk to the unit-owner — are all unsuccessful. That’s when they should use the injunction tool to get the leverage of the courts behind you.