Ignoring Coop rules
We’re a small 6 unit Coop. One of our members is a single mother, is at a loss and has lost control of her 17-18 year old unemployed son who frequently gathers his friends and parties in front of our home, sometimes until 4 am in the morning. As neighbors we have complained to her…
We’re a small 6 unit Coop. One of our members is a single mother, is at a loss and has lost control of her 17-18 year old unemployed son who frequently gathers his friends and parties in front of our home, sometimes until 4 am in the morning. As neighbors we have complained to her .We suspect that there are drugs involved and that she’s totally intimidated by her son and friends who have access to the house and our whole Coop. She blatantly went against some coop ruling in the name of helping her son .We have offered our help in the past, but quite frankly we’re all at a loss what to do and feel we need to protect our property.What is our in house recourse before the block association or we have to call the police. Can they seize her apartment if there are drugs involved? She is responsible for a minor. Can we force her to move/ sell? We welcome any advice or resource
Thank you all for your comments, it’s been really helpful I’ll pass it on to the Coop members.
As a longtime co-op board member, I think you need to nip this in the bud right now. Yes, it’s great that you’re all friends, but this is obviously keeping you all up at night. If she really is in violation of some sort of rule, then your next step is clear. If not, then you need to call the police. I wouldn’t threaten to call the police; just do it. If you get any blowback, say it must have been a neighbor.
Reading through again, I would like you (all) to consider that talking to this woman in the context of violating rules and potential eviction may be the worst thing you can do. Outside of expressing your concerns and indicating you will call the police, I think it is a very dangerous game to try to move to evict someone based on “Allegations” of illegal activity. You will open the board up to all kinds of potential exposure incuding, harassment, libel, slander, etc.
You indicate the main problem is the woman’s son and friends hanging out IN FRONT of the building making noise and potentially engaging in illegal activity. This is not grounds to evict someone since it is outside of the building in a public area. That is a matter for law enforcement not a coop board.
If you want to confront her based on the noise – fine, she should do something to curb it. But if she does not and you want to move forward with more aggeressive measures, you had better be prepared to provide hard evidence of illegal activity going on IN HER APARTMENT, otherwise you are opening yourselves up to serious legal problems. Frankly I dont see any way you are going to be able to do that without a police raid anyhow.
Simplest safest option is to tell her to curb the noise, and then start calling the police and let them figure out if anything illegal is happening. Trying to evict a coop owner and board member because her son has friends hanging out outside in a public space and accusing her of harboring and facilitating drug deals in the building sounds like an awful mess for a coop to get into.
Agree that you should warn the shareholder that you plan to take legal action before starting proceedings. Hopefully that will be enough incentive for her to do something about the situation. It can be very expensive and time-consuming to try to evict a co-op shareholder. Here’s an article specifically about criminal activity inside of apartments and it does mention that courts are generally more sensitive to the shareholder if it is the child/relative accused of criminal activity and not the shareholder.
http://www.habitatmag.com/publication_content/2009_julyaugust/featured_articles_from_our_print_magazine/criminal_activity_in_apartments
Lastly, since you seem sympathetic to her situation, you may want to consider that calling the police on her son may be much better for her family than evicting her from the co-op would be. If you evict, you will be foreclosing on her apartment (and since we are in a recession this is potentially at a significant financial loss to her). She would have to rent while waiting some type of equity payout from the sale of the unit which could take months/years (if she isn’t upside-down on the mortgage). It may financially devastate her for years and years to come, whereas her son getting arrested a few times (if he is engaging in criminal activity) might give a little bit of a wake-up call.
What coop rules is she violating by her son having friends gathered outside and making noise? If it is inside of her apartment that is 1 thing, but what if was the next door neighbor doing the same thing? What recourse would you have against him?
Best thing is to just call the cops and let them know there is a large group of people disturbing the peace and selling/using drugs. They will come, dispurse the group and keep an eye on them for a while. Eventually they will get the message and find a new location to loiter. You are NEVER going to be able to evict someone because her son gathers his friends outside of the building.
It is not clear what coop by laws she may be violating. But they must be well documented. Then sit down and tell her that the coop WILL go to legal about it. I woudl go that route first. Let her know the coop means business.
I would add to the “call the cops” mantra, that you reach out to the community officer at the precinct. Its their job to deal with quality of life stuff and if they catch a wiff of drug related activity will make the responding officers when you do call 911 more engaged.
Sounds like a sucky situation, sorry to hear about it.
Co-ops, unlike condos, are subject to residential tenancy laws because of the proprietary lease. The five co-op members who are not in violation need to swallow their scruples and contact a co-op lawyer and begin proceedings. As board members you are required to act in the best interests of the corporation, allowing a shareholder-tenant to ignore the provisions of the proprietary lease is not in the best interests of the corporation. Difficult as it will be, in the interest of the corporation, you need to act now. Call the New York Bar Association and ask for the names of lawyers in your area specializing in co-op matters.
Thank you all for your comments. The reluctance to call the police, is that as a small coop, we have for most of the time worked as a family of friends . We are the board, and wouldn’t want to see her arrested.
Denton , what does a 60 day notice to cure mean? how does a Coop start eviction proceedings . we have no Coop lawyer.