A Time Limit on Co-op Applications is Shot Down

A massive lobbying effort by co-op advocates helped kill a bill in the closing days of the current session of the state legislature that would have required co-op boards to rule on buyer applications within 45 days. Failure to do so would have resulted in the automatic acceptance of the applicant as a shareholder in the cooperative.

The so-called “Fairness in Cooperative Home Ownership Act” was intended to combat discrimination by boards. The opposition to the bill was led by The Building & Realty Institute and the Westchester County-based Cooperative and Condominium Advisory Council, who were joined by the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums (CNYCC), the New York Real Estate Journal reports.

“This bill would be detrimental to the vast majority of cooperatives who behave well and respect applicants,” said Mary Ann Rothman, executive director of the CNYCC. “It also is the start of a slippery slope towards total oversight of the admissions process…including mandatory disclosure of the reasons for a co-op board’s decision on an application.”

Added Ronald Finger, attorney for the co-op lobbying groups, “This is a clear-cut example of the state legislature attempting to usurp the authority of cooperatives, and it is an outrage.”