Co-op and Condo Boards Call the Tune During Required Facade Repairs

The Facade Inspection and Safety Program, formerly known as Local Law 11, mandates that New York City buildings taller than six stories must undergo facade inspections and necessary repairs every five years. In addition to unsightly sidewalk sheds and scaffolding, the law often results in loss of amenities for co-op shareholders, condo unit-owners and renters.

At a Manhattan co-op, for instance, a shareholder in a top-floor apartment with a terrace has forfeited use of the terrace for more than a year after the contractor set up winches, ropes and scaffolding to gain access to parts of the building's exterior. This shareholder has a question: Do I have rights to limit access or the length of time this equipment remains on my terrace?

Co-op and condo boards must comply with the law, even if it causes inconvenience for residents, replies the Ask Real Estate column in The New York Times. However, the co-op's governing documents might provide for compensation when the full use of an apartment is curtailed during facade repairs, says Debra Guzov, founder of her eponymous law firm in Manhattan.

She notes that in this case, it’s not clear that the sharholder is entitled to a reduction in maintenance fees. The board’s allowance and calculation for such compensation depends on the language in the proprietary lease, its desire to establish good will with the shareholder, its finances, precedent in the building and legal precedent.

Inconvenienced shareholders or unit-owners could ask to use part of the terrace during the work, or urge the board to seek another place to stage the required equipment. They could also lobby the board to make sure the timelines in the work contract are being honored.

A more aggressive tack would be hiring a lawyer to write a demand letter and, if that fails, filing a lawsuit. However, litigants should be aware that courts have typically sided with tenants in matters such as yours only in extremely unreasonable situations. After all, the repairs — and inevitable inconvenience that comes with them — are required by law. To make matters worse for potential litigants, a year may not be an abnormally long time for extensive facade repairs, says Steven Sladkus, a partner at the law firm Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas.

“You’re not being inconvenienced intentionally," Skadkus adds. "It’s part of cooperative living.”