I follow a blog written by Malcolm Carter, a real estate broker, who reports on news regarding New York City real estate. Which is, as anybody knows, one of the major topics of conversation, controversy and a lot of other “c” words, among us New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
Today he reported on one particular co-op board which has blocked an owner-shareholder from selling his apartment<\/a>. (If you don’t get this particular article via the link, the article is called “Some co-ops won’t let residents move out,” is dated September 6, 2012, and you can find it in the archives.)<\/p>\n And that interests me because of my lawsuit against the Skush-O’Briens individually, and as the sole members of the co-op board for my building.<\/p>\n Generally, judges are reluctant to overturn co-op board rules, because boards are, in effect, mini-legislatures and judges; that is, their rules are nearly absolute. Very princely. The “nearly” modifier, though, is pretty simple: a board and all board members must act in compliance with the laws of the state, the city and of the rules inscribed in the Proprietary Lease for the co-op. So they may feel princely, but they really can’t behave as absolute monarchs, outside the law.<\/p>\n It’s sort of similar to state laws, which can do all sorts of things but can’t ignore or defy the U.S. Constitution. (We’ve seen a lot of civil rights lawsuits lately against Republican-controlled states that are attempting to suppress voting in districts that vote Democratic. One of those states, Ohio, is the home state of the Skush-O’Briens.)<\/p>\n And this is important to me because the Skush-O’Briens have demonstrably breached an amazing number of State, City and Prop. Lease laws, regulations and rules. In fact, when I have attempted to describe to friends what the Skush-O’Briens have actually done that brought me to sue, I usually laugh and say, “It isn’t so much what laws they’ve breached. It’s more what laws they haven’t<\/em> breached. We can’t come up with a single one.”<\/p>\n But since it’s unlikely you’re in the eye of the kind of perfect storm the Skush-O’Briens engendered (and will drown in), read Malcolm Carter’s piece on what your co-op board can legally do if you want to sell out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I follow a blog written by Malcolm Carter, a real estate broker, who reports on news regarding New York City real estate. Which is, as anybody knows, one of the major topics of conversation, controversy and a lot of other … Continue reading