Co-op Transparency: What Do You Think?
We’re going to be on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC tomorrow at 10:20 a.m. to discuss the recent proposal by City Council to require co-op boards to give a written explanation within five days to people they reject. We thought it would be interesting to see what readers think of the proposal, so please…
We’re going to be on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC tomorrow at 10:20 a.m. to discuss the recent proposal by City Council to require co-op boards to give a written explanation within five days to people they reject. We thought it would be interesting to see what readers think of the proposal, so please take a minute to answer the three-question co-op survey and then listen in tomorrow. There’s a field on the survey for your comments. Thanks!
Check out the results here
When Co-Ops Say “No”, They May Have to Say Why [Gothamist]
Pushing Co-ops to Explain Why You Can’t Buy [NY Times]
To download the audio, go to http://www.wnyc.org then click “Shows” at the top. Choose “The Brian Lehrer Show,” and then on the right select the “Archives” link. The show is “Rejection Made Clear” on April 26.
To attemp to answer Anon5:47 on behalf of Our Blog Host’s behalf, the Brownstoner guy said on the show that he had owned in two co-ops. From his answers, however, he seemed unfamiliar with the particulars of how a corporation works. He probably didn’t serve on a board — or if he did it was a very small (fewer than 10 apt’s) co-op.
If you click “About” at the top of this page, you get a statement that Brownstoner has an interest in historic Brooklyn architecture and neighborhoods.
We’ll have to watch to see if he replies to you, Anon5:47.
BTW, Mr. B,
For those of us who haven’t given up our day jobs, how did it go on the radio? Can you post a link to a transcript, podcast, or just give us a few reflections about the conversation? Inquiring minds want to know.
Anon10:03 makes my point better than I regarding Anon8:33. True, the bill itself would, I believe, allow a city attorney to file charges (instead of a citizen filing a lawsuit). (Anon8:33 is referring to Chapter 11, Section 8-1105, of Int. No. 119.)
But any reason a co-op board puts in writing (and certifies to be true) can be read in many different ways by many different lawyers and many different juries.
Which is probably one really good reason why rejections from schools, job offers, and the like come without explanation.
Anonymous 8:33 is technically correct about the bill, but takes too anrrow a view. The risk is a disgruntled applicant will take the disclosure and try to build a lawsuit around it. If the rejection was on financial grounds, what is to stop a disgruntled buyer who is in a class protected against discrimination (once you combine women and ethnic minorities, that’s most of the City) from claiming that the disclosure is pretextual (“look at my income, how could they possibly say the rejection was for financial reasons”). It is not lawsuits under the proposed law that pose the problem, it is the way the disclosure will become litigation fodder and will lead to the courts micromanaging how coops are to evaluate applicants.
The Real Estate Board of New York opposes this bill, as it reflexively opposes many pieces of consumer friendly and civil rights legislation (it also opposes, for example, legislation that would prohibit landlords from discriminating against someone just because that person has been a victim of domestic violence).
Wally repeats one of the falsehoods spread over and over again by the coop industry: in fact, NO ONE — not buyers, not sellers, not brokers — can sue for discrimination under the bill. All the bill allows is an action alleging that the coop violated its obligations to disclose. Read the bill. P.S. – Under existing discrimination law, anyone injured by discrimination can sue, including brokers.
Why are you going on the show? Doyou have some expertise in Real Estate. I assume not, that’s why you’re asking for our help?? Do you pretend to know anything?? Because I don’t see what someones opinion who has no background in real estate means??
Thanks, Wally, you did a better job than me in trying to explain why there are legitiamte reasons to oppose the law in its present form even if you are against discrimination, for transparency, and have no ties to the real estate industry. I know from my days as a brownstone coop president (no I am a homeowner) this law would have had me nervous even though I knew our non-snooty little coop never discriminated. Would a realtor deprived of a $40k commission due to a turndown spend a few bucks on a complaint, no matter how weak the merits? Would a disgruntled applicant? Quite possible.
Holy shit, Wally, no one asked for a treatise.
How about this idea:
If a board turns down a potential buyer, it writes a letter certifying that the reason excludes each and all of the state’s protected classes. The letter includes the phone number for the state a.g.’s civil rights complaint hotline. And no one but the people whose names were on the purchase application may pursue legal action.
It won’t make the Real Estate Board of New York happy, and plenty of lawyer will lose out on plenty of money.
But at the end of the day, if the state continues to investigate and punish discrimination, and the Realtors and lawyers are kept out of things, it’s not so bad after all, is it?
Sorry for taking so much of your time. I hope some of the vagueries of the co-op board are a little less mysterious now.