Removing the Welcome Mat From a New York Rooftop

Here’s a timely question for the coming hot summer days (and nights): Can a co-op board deny rental tenants access to the building’s roof deck?

“I think a board would be within its rights under the Business Judgment Rule to run the building for the benefit of the shareholders, not tenants,” attorney Steven Sladkus, a partner at Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas, tells the Ask Real Estate column in the New York Times.

If your board wants to keep renters from using the roof deck, it could amend the house rules by drafting a resolution to be voted on by the board. But rental tenants, the sponsor and any shareholders who sublet apartments could push back.

Rent-regulated tenants, according to the Times, would have the strongest case. If the roof deck was in the building and available to a rent-regulated tenant when he or she signed the lease, says Sladkus, that tenant could apply for a rent reduction from the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, because losing the deck could be considered a reduction in services.