As More Americans Work From Home, Co-op Boards Need to Adapt

More and more people are working for themselves, and more and more of them are working from home. Today, according to the Freelancers Union, more than one in three American workers – some 53 million people – are working for themselves full- or part-time. The home office is the new office cubicle.

This presents a challenge for co-op boards, who must decide which kinds of work-at-home jobs are acceptable – and how to protect shareholders from the strangers who come and go from certain types of home businesses. And remember this: all home-work is not equal. A solitary draftsman is going to create a very different set of circumstances from an acupuncturist with large clientele.

Which begs a question: can a co-op board stop shareholders from working at home if it’s not prohibited in the house rules? 

Even if your line of home-business complies with the city’s zoning resolution, shareholders still have to follow their building’s rules about noise and safety, says the Ask Real Estate column in the New York Times. Logistics also come into play. For example, “No co-op or condo will allow clients to wait in the lobby or the common hallway for their appointments,” says attorney Beatrice Lesser, a partner at Gallet, Dreyer & Berkey.

The prospective purchaser’s board interview is when diligence should begin. While it’s illegal for a board to discriminate, it would not be unreasonable for a board to reject a buyer who admits that he plans to conduct tuba lessons in his apartment at 3 o’clock in the morning. If the board fails to ask a buyer about working from home, on the other hand, the buyer is not required to volunteer the information. 

In the end, people who work at home might want to consider buying in a condo instead of a co-op. Condo boards do not generally need to approve purchasers. Let the tuba lessons begin.