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A newly elected treasurer wants to see the financial records of the coop for the last 5 years. The board president has denied that request. The treasurer is not a neophyte having been on the board before and serving as a treasurer knows she is entitled to view them. Outside of hiring a lawyer and making a big deal out of it what other steps should she take?
Join the Conversation Comments (2)
this pres is outrageous and worthy of your disrepect.
Agree with the advice to get a lawyer if talking with him doesn't loosen the finances for review.
I'd work on voting this guy out.
BYW, every shareholer should see the finances on a regular basis.
My first consideration is to think he is a crook.
I fully agree with PhilC and Grant. This has a very bad smell to it.
As suggested by PhilC, I think the first course of action would be to have the treasurer ask the co-op's accountant for copies of the last five years of audited financial reports and annual budget projections. How the accountant reacts to the request will tell you a lot about how you proceed.
Another approach would be to contact the Real Estate Finance Bureau. They are a division of the NYS A/G's office. Either they can help you directly or point you in the right direction. If there is anything illegal going on with your building's finances, the A/G's office is who you want involved.
Your final recourse will be to have a group of shareholders hire a private attorney familiar with co-op and condo law. It won't be cheap, but ask the attorney if you can recover any expenses from the co-op and under what circumstances.
Have you considered putting up a slate of candidates to run for the board at the next election meeting? If it's not that far in the future, this might be the least painful way to gain control over your finances.
Best of luck to you.
Why doesn't the entire board vote on this? The president doesn't have the power to unilaterally withhold documents from officers. If the full board votes to conceal past financial records from the treasurer, then I'd be worried for many reasons. The treasurer should have access to any financial records from the dawn of the coop onwards, in my view.
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What's the point of having a treasurer that doesn't have access to financial records?
I think hiring a lawyer and making a big deal out of it is an excellent idea, but another option might be to discuss the matter with the co-op's accountant at the next annual meeting.
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