BREAKING: HEARING TESTIMONY DIVIDED ON MERITS OF CO-OP ADMISSIONS BILL

Barbara Ford said she had unsuccessfully urged her clients to go to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) which hears complaints about violations of the Fair Housing Act.  One problem is that it is not the seller who is accused of discrimination; it is the board, a third party not covered by any anti-discrimination laws.

"They can come up with any cockamamie reason they want," she said of boards who want to mask discriminatory actions. 

Among Council members who attended the hearing was Mark Weprin (D, 23rd District), who expressed doubt about the need for the discrimination component of the bill, and Brad Lander (D, 39th District), who said it didn't go far enough.  Lander is sponsor of Intro 126, which requires boards to give a reason for any rejection.

The requirement to certify the absence of discrimination proved to be a sticking point for the bill's foes.  "How can an individual know what other board members are thinking when they must certify for the entire board?" Saft asked.  "You're opening the door to more litigation," he went on.  "Every rejection is going to be followed by a lawsuit."

Perhaps the certification language is not as clear as it should be, Councilman Fidler allowed, saying it is meant to deal with "overt discrimination" such as, in his words, "I'm not going to let a Jew into this building."

To the contention of those who argued that the timeframes would unduly burden buildings both large and small, especially those without property managers, Fidler implied that the bill would need to be fine-tuned to permit a range of standards.

As for deadlines, Warburg's Peters got a smattering of applause from, it seemed, shareholders, when he said that "everyone benefits from those timeline considerations."  The current "lengthy, lengthy process," Peters added, always is an economic disaster to someone. 

But Saft and others maintained that rather than risk failure to meet the deadlines, boards may well just reject applicants who might have been accepted with enough time for additional research.

"The last thing they want to do is let a sale fall through for no good reason at all," Saft said.

Aside from other lawyers — for example, Andrew Brucker, whose firm Schecter & Brucker is general counsel to 200 co-ops and condos, and Geoffrey Mazel, whose firm Hankin & Mazel represents more than 9,000 units of housing — testimony also was given by the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums, the Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives and Condominiums and the Alliance of Condo & Co-op Owners.

The hearing lasted for close to four hours.

Malcolm Carter is a real estate broker and blogger and a former journalist. This was adapted from his report at his blog.