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Can Shareholders in a Mitchell Lama Cooperative requesting access to the community room to discuss the Election be denied by the Board and Management?
Join the Conversation Comments (4)There are rulings in the Mitchell Lama Guidelines underscoring accessibility rights to shareholders. . Worth stating after much push back Gouverneur Shareholders were granted access to use the space to discuss Board Elections. Its was censored by the Board nonetheless. . If anyone out there with legal experience please help with suggestions it will be greatly appreciated.
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If the co-op is a mitchell lama co-op the mitchell lama rules states the shareholders rights. also
Hud rights and responsibilities
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The Mitchell Lama Guidelines contain rulings underscoring shareholders' accessibility rights. It is worth stating here that we received a lot of pushback from the board.
Shareholders were eventually granted access to our community room to discuss Board Elections, but not without censorship from board members.
Anyone with Legal experience, please advise. It will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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Unfortunately, the board still negatively responds to shareholder rights. Management instructs building staff who post flyers to remove them. Limiting shareholders to a meeting
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As a temporary measure, you can slip a copy of the meeting notice under each unit's door unless you have an unwieldy number of units.
Be very clear about the date, time, and purpose of the meeting. Don't try to hide anything like your name. Mistrust will severely hamper your efforts. If multiple shareholders agree with you, get their permission to include them on the notice. The more who sign on, the more weight your efforts will carry.
Don't badmouth the board or in any way disparage them. Always be completely professional.
Be prepared to hire a co-op law attorney. Interview 3-4 before any meeting with the board. Describe to the attorney what you're trying to do and how you plan to go about it. It's perfectly fine to discuss billing rates and estimated costs during initial contact. Imagine the look on the boards' faces if discussions break down and you calmly state, "I guess this will need to be resolved legally. Here is our attorney's contact information. Who on the board should they get in touch with?"
Good luck!
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This is an interesting question. I would believe if a shareholder is requesting the community room to have a shareholders meeting the board should not have the power to denied the shareholder in question the community room.
It’s not like they’re having a party or fundraising event where the board would have the right to express concerns of allowing the shareholders in the community room.
So with that being said I hope there’s an attorney out there that could answer the question in a legal manner if the shareholder in question has had his or hers request to the community room rights violated.
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