Lately, this seems to be the trend as more and more people are "consultants" because of the type of the business environment. However, you should check your proprietary lease, your certificate of occupancy and speak with your co-op counsel in order to bring sense to these problems in which you have "mix use" of a residence.

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Look at your occupancy agreement - and other corporate documents - ours state that the apartment can only be used for residential purposes - no businesses - besides which if you have central electric, water, etc - you the shareholders are paying for that persons additional use

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you MAY have a business - we are in a coop in manhattan and there are shrink's ofices, architects offices, etc - not really much more traffic than the housekeepers. is this your personal agenda or is it really a problem?

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Its really a problem when you only have one PA elevator for 100 apartments, and one business already had three employees, (started out as a single-home worker) And there are now three other SH who want to open employee/client-based business's. Home based business's are a growing trend, and as long as it only requires a ph, the internet and an occasional meeting -- no problem!

Four business with two employees or four clients a day, substancially increases the elevator usage and waiting time, not to mention the packages and deliveries...Also WHO are these people who spend more waking hours in the building than a sub-let or owner, they are not bonded and have not passed the Boards approval. We dont have the staff for signing in and out, so are they wondering around the building? Employees know our scheduel. And what about insurance.
The list goes on... The bottom line is that we bought into a CoOp, not a ConDo or rental... So, to say this is personal, is to accuse the majority of Sh in the building, who are tired of waiting for the elevator and disturbed by all the strangers, agree with this point of view. Bottom line, its also a very real safety issue.

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Alice, I agree with the previous responses: First, check your proprietary lease to see what kind of businesses are permitted. (In our case, it's "professional" offices that don't have pedestrians from off the street walking in.) Even in the case of our medical office, the doctor's patients are prohibited from entering or waiting in the building's common areas (the doctor has a separate entrance to his office). These rules are in our proprietary lease, which all residents must follow.

Second, check the certificate of occupancy. This is on file through the city's Department of Buildings.

Third, check the zoning laws. But even if the city permits an office, that doesn't mean that your certificate of occupancy allows it. And even if the c. of o. doesn't rule out such offices, your proprietary lease may. Finally, check the house rules. While they are an extension of the proprietary lease, they may be more detailed than the p. l. and may have more information about such questions. Then again, the house rules may be silent on the topic. Still, worth a check.

Here's one of the bottom lines: If someone has a business in his/her apartment with clients coming in for meetings, who is liable if the client slips on the stairs?

I hate to always have to bring up a lawsuit, but we live in litigious times in a litigious city. The co-op must take reasonable steps to protects its investors (i.e. you & your neighbors) from avoidable expenses.

So I think you are doing the correct thing to check into the kind of offices permitted in your building.

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As always thank you for the information. We are concerned about issue of insurance. Both clients and employees (this includes interns and part-timers) are our concern.

We are lobbying to have the house rules changed... No clients or employees... otherwise you can work in your apartment... Home-based businesses are becoming the trend,,, We hope that the house rules will be changed to avert this growing problem.. We now have three other owners who want to open busnesses in the building -- with employees and clients... We are a fairly small (75 units) building with only one elevator -- and if you start to add up the numbers of daily elevator trips of employees or clienst of five businesses...,, it quickly equals elevator gridlock....Thanks,,, AT...

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Of course, each person who falls in a building premise will be a potential for lawsuits. Of course, it could happen to anyone, the nanny, the dog walker, the client or a visitor to a resident. Unfortunately, human beings stand on two legs and chances for falling are greater than four-legged animals when "strolling."

The main issue is could you run a business with employees or tons of disrruption in a residential aparmemnt. The answer is to be determined by the documents that you have agreed will cover the "USE" of occupancy and makes for taxes and assessed value of the property.

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