Subscribe for Daily Updates!
Greetings! I was recently elected Board President of a coop. The new Board is anxious to get started in turning around a cooperative that's been under the same, dysfunctional leadership for nearly 2 decades! However, as you can imagine, the previous members, including the Board President, are reluctant to assist the new Board. Specifically, the Board President is holding "hostage" items that rightfully belong to the cooperative, including mailbox keys, security entrance fobs, and parking permits. Despite repeated attempts by myself and building management to have the president forfeit the items, no avail. Does anyone have any experience with dealing with a difficult transition and if so, what legal options are available? Thanks!
Join the Conversation Comments (4)Go to your co-op attorney for assistance. They should know how to deal with this. If you don't have a co-op attorney then get one. There are a number of firms that do work with co-ops that can deal with it.
I agree with Burt that you need to contact your co-op attorney - and FAST. With the keys to the castle in the hands of a vindictive ex-board member, you need to make sure that this jerk doesn't try to wreak havoc by throwing away important mail, or by handing out parking permits and entrance fobs to convicted pedophiles. In fact, once you have back all the security tokens, I would strongly recommend that you change the locks on anything that can be easily duplicated, such as mailbox keys.
If the ex-president refuses to cooperate even after your attorney intervenes, I would change everything in sight, including the security entrance fobs. You'll need to check with your attorney to be sure, but I believe you could probably bill the changeover expenses to the offending ex-president, after proper notice that he must return everything or face the consequences. (I'm not an attorney and you should always check with yours before billing unusual charges to a shareholder.)
Yes, Chris, go get a lawyer right away and sue the former president for breach of fiduciary duties and tortious interference with the business of the Coop. But I would also ad a caveat: the Coop lawyer, if there is one, probably was hired by the former board and its loyalties are with them (don't expect objectivity and fairness from any lawyer, they are all mercenary selfish slimy people). Get a new one, call the bar association and get a names, interview them, and talk to him in earnest, establish very clearly, from the beginning, that you want legal action, and you want it now. (they all offer you just negotiation, writing letters to the board, etc, they all have this attitude that they want your money, but not going to court or filing anything in your behalf, they are lazy).
And be happy that you were able to dislodge the former board. You have no idea what a miracle that is. Here in my coop we still have the original board appointed by Sponsor 25 years ago! All my efforts to run for the board (a 5 years efforts) have been blocked and defeated, because the Sponsor/HUS is still around, controlling a big chunk of shares, plus other clearly illegal shenanigans, like starting the annual meeting without a roll call and without a quorum, and having populated the list of shareholders with nominal absentee owners whom nobody knows who or where they are, probably fictitious characters, just standees for the Sponsor. Out of 121 apartments, I located only about 30 owners, and my efforts to educate and organize them has unleashed a campaign of terror from the board, threatenind them with termination and eviction if support my efforts. The coop lawyer has also sent me a letter threatening with the same thing, for trying to educate and organize the tenant, get them to sign petitions, etc...You have no idea what enclaves of lawnessness the coops are, under the dictatorship of the omonipotent-unscrutable board of perennial directors and sponsors in perpetuity. Fight on, and good luck to you and your valiant efforts. Jerry Grosof, CONCERNED CITIZENS for COOP REFORM- P.O. . Box 568 -Bronx NY 10463. - g5grosof@msn.com
Try Property Shark to get names of owners
Introduce yourself to other members of Board Talk! Log in below or register here.
Board Talk members who registered prior to March 9th, 2016 will need to reset their password.
Corruption is a plague in coops. The whole formation of coops was a fraud. We had a similar situation in out coop here in the Bronx (Riverdale). Here the sponsor owned more than 50% (close to 54%). The management company was a company of the sponsor. The contract between the coop and the management was a one way contract where it benefit only the management co. The cancel the contract where were questioned about some payment and left the new board alone. The ex president who was there since the coop was formed made life very difficult. The started with wll the hope as you do but since the sponsor own more than 50 % all decision were sponsor's decisions. I hope your sponsor only own 10% or less. Do not let him scare you. Tell him you will have to go to the attorney general and you will see how fast he will give it you. Coop corruption is a plague and we to win this fight we need to fight together. We are organized and making politicians aware that this is a crime that is destroying us financially and emotionally; we could end up homeless. Please take at look at COOPABUSE.COM and register to receive info. Also email me at ROSA.NAZAR@GMAIL.COM and I will keep you inform of our activities. We win if you fight the corruption together.
Thank you for rating!
You have already rated this page, you can only rate it once!
Your rating has been changed, thanks for rating!
Board Talk members who registered prior to March 9th, 2016 will need to reset their password.