You'll need to check your coop's By-Laws and Proprietary Lease. Many coops - perhaps most, including ours - allow the board to modify the House Rules directly, without a shareholder vote. Similarly, deciding which contractor to hire for a major renovation is entirely within the board's authority. The board is empowered to make many types of significant decisions without the need for a shareholder vote.

Here is the text of Article XII from our own By-Laws:

"These By-Laws may be amended, enlarged or diminished either (a) at a shareholders’ meeting by vote of shareholders owning two-thirds of the amount of the outstanding shares, represented in person or by proxy, or (b) at any meeting of the Board of Directors by a majority vote, provided that the proposed amendment or the substance thereof shall have been inserted in the notice of meeting or that all of the Directors are present in person, except that the Directors may not repeal a By-Law amendment adopted by the shareholders as provided above."

Modifying the lease itself is a different matter. A material change to the lease pretty much always requires a shareholder vote. Many coops require a super-majority vote for such modifications.

Arrgh, I also meant to quote our relevant House Rule:

"(33) These house rules may be added to, amended or repealed at any time by resolution of the Board of Directors of the Lessor."

Both our By-Laws *and* our House Rules may be modified by a simple majority vote of the board. Your coop may differ.

I have printed them out and plan on going over them in great detail. I'm also contacting the office of the NYS Attorney General to find out what rights owners have.

I understand and thank you for responding- as the board made this decision 6 months after closing, and as both decisions directly affect the shareholders financially (a lot plan or planned to rent and/or get pets) we are all infuriated -and are hoping there are some sort of laws in place to protect the shareholders from the board making financial decisions without a vote. This is incredibly frustrating- as I put an excessive amount of time into researching buildings that would suit both these purposes.

I totally understand your frustration. We have 187 units in my bldg., and the rule was if no one said anything for the first 90 days of the dog owner move in, THE DOG STAYS! I've been here 21 years and every year there are more and more dogs in the bldg. It's a loosing battle. Good luck.! All those dogs are not grandfathered in! The board can change, update, modify anything the by Laws say. If I could afford to move, and if I had some place to move I would. Owning a coop is like many other things, NOT THE WAY THEY USED TO BE!

In addition to what Sandra recommended, case law is on your side. If you have a pet and the rules change, courts have said that you can AT LEAST keep your current pet for its lifetime. It's hard when you're new, but see if you can find out who else has pets and may be effected. If 5, 10, 20 shareholders demand their pets be grandfathered in, it's harder for the Board to ignore.

this is in violation of your rights. Actions of board of managers, the court must apply the business judgment rule. Under the business judgment rule, court review of the actions of a board of managers is limited to whether the board of managers' action was authorized, and whether it was taken in good faith and in the furtherance of legitimate interests of the condominium or Coop.
In your building this needs to be voted on by 2/3 of the shareholders which was not done.

Suzanne, I feel this is more an annoyance of shareholder rights than a violation. As Carl Tate stated early on, changing the Proprietary Lease or the By-Laws usually requires a supermajority. The exact terms are written into the PL and BL, but it's usually 67% or 75% of *all* co-op shares voting affirmative. Not just voting shares. A very high bar to achieve for very good reasons.

OTOH, changes to the House Rules usually requires a simple majority of just board members. House Rules regulate the decorum of the co-op and almost always affect individual shareholders only. They never address co-op corporation finances or governance.

If the changes to the HR's aggrieve enough individual shareholders, you might request to meet with the board at the next monthly meeting to hash things out. Remember the board is under no obligation to make any changes even if there is a majority or unimanous vote by the shareholders.

I don't know of any way individuals or groups of shareholders can make direct modifications to the HR's. The only other option I can think of is nuclear, and that is to run a slate of candidates at the next election who are favorable to reverting the HR's to their original form. This can get messy, so consider if the results are worth the animosity it could cause.

Good luck!