A Low Down Dirty Shame

A co-op board with an obvious distaste for clean clothes has decreed that all washers and dryers must be removed from apartments, and new buyers are not allowed to install them. Is the board responsible for repairing kitchens after removal of the machines, a reader asks Brick Underground, and is the board responsible for lost resale value of the apartments?

Anyone acquainted with the vastness of co-op boards’ powers will not be surprised by the answer. "If acting in good faith and with the best interests of the cooperative and its shareholders in mind, a board of directors could ban the use of washing machines," says attorney Jeffrey Reich, a partner at Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas. And to make sure that the ban is enforced, he adds, the board is also within its rights to require that washers and dryers be capped off or even removed from the building.

And how about covering costs and lost value? “The co-op would not become responsible for the cost of repairs to apartments that may be necessitated [by the ban],” Reich says, “or for any decrease in the value of the apartments."

Get ready to get acquainted with the nearest laundromat.