New York's Cooperative and Condominium Community

Habitat Magazine Insider Guide

HABITAT

Subscribe for Daily Updates!
Updating Prop. Lease and Other Governing Documents?Dec 01, 2015

I'm in a large (+ 300 units) co-op. The building went co-op in the early 1990s, but the Prop. Lease, By-Laws and other documents look like they were drafted in the 1890s. Not only are they confusing and poorly organized, but they (possibly) fail to reflect current law and in many ways hand-cuff the Board's ability to manage the Building effectively.

I've read a bunch of articles about updating a co-op's governing documents. I'm curious what experiences people have had with this? Are shareholders (who will have to approve the changes) generally cooperative? Have people experienced a backlash -- i.e., the Board wants to move the documents in one direction, but the shareholders (or a sub-set) take the opportunity to move them in another direction? Is it a matter of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"?

Join the Conversation Comments (1)
it's a challenge - co-op_owner Dec 09, 2015

i feel your pain. it took us 3 tries to update our proprietary lease to allow for Fedex or UPS to be acceptable shipping method (rather than certified mail).

issue is not always the people who are against it - issue may be those who don't bother to vote. any updates require a supermajority of the total number of shares (check your lease to see if you are 66 or 75%). so if you have 100,000 shares total and 55,000 vote for, 10,000 vote against and 40,000 don't vote, you lose.

in our case, the first time around we had 55% yes votes, 1% no votes and 44% who didn't vote. so frustrating.

my suggestion would be to have a live meeting to discuss the issues at hand and from there determine if it's worthwhile to move forward.

Thank you for rating!

You have already rated this page, you can only rate it once!

Your rating has been changed, thanks for rating!

Introduce yourself to other members of Board Talk! Login below or register here.

Board Talk members who registered prior to March 9th, 2016 will need to reset their password.

Register

Forgot your password? Click here

> Join the conversation

Introduce yourself to other members of Board Talk! Log in below or register here.

Board Talk members who registered prior to March 9th, 2016 will need to reset their password.

Introduce yourself to other members of Board Talk! Login below or register here.
Board Talk members who registered prior to March 9th, 2016 will need to reset their password.

Ask the Experts

learn more

Learn all the basics of NYC co-op and condo management, with straight talk from heavy hitters in the field of co-op or condo apartments

Professionals in some of the key fields of co-op and condo board governance and building management answer common questions in their areas of expertise

Source Guide

see the guide

Looking for a vendor?