Can a Co-op Board Say "Don't Feed the Birds"?

As New York City grows ever-wealthier, long-time renters in many co-ops are feeling pinched by ever-stricter house rules. One is a rent-stabilized tenant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, who is put out by new rules that bar residents from socializing with doormen; designate hallways and outside sidewalks as “quiet areas”; and even forbid residents from feeding birds.

In the Ask Real Estate column in the New York Times, this rent-stabilized tenant wonders: Do such draconian rules apply to renters as well as shareholders?
Yours is “a very typical scenario in the evolution of New York City,” replies Andrew Scherer, director of the Impact Center for Public Interest Law at New York Law School. If you owned your apartment, you would have no choice but to follow the co-op’s rules. But as a renter, you must follow the terms of your lease, the rent stabilization law and other housing laws. The only co-op rules binding on renters are the ones that protect health and safety, or enforce laws.

But is feeding the birds worth a potential fight – and nuisance lawsuit – with the co-op board? Scherer advises: “You might want to weigh whether the friction with neighbors that would be caused by violating the rules is worth it.”