Page 9 - NY Cooperator June 2019

COOPERATOR.COM THE COOPERATOR —JUNE 2019 9 Make the Right Mortgage Choice. $170,000 Brooklyn, NY Residential Underlying Co-Op $300,000 New York, NY Residential Underlying Co-Op/Retail $250,000 Brooklyn, NY Residential Underlying Co-Op 220 RXR Plaza, Uniondale, NY 11556 • www.FlushingBank.com Patrick Akosah 718.512.2798 MLO #674966 Patrick Dolan 718.512.2817 MLO #1016524 Cindy Lam 718.512.2816 MLO #410081 Daniel Lee 718.593.8067 MLO #64756 Anthony Montalbano 718.512.2731 MLO #1180405 Christopher O’Hara 718.512.2809 MLO #673112 Michael Pollis 718.512.2911 MLO #1703994 Community lending expertise with personal service. At Flushing Bank, we are focused on exceeding your goals. Composed of experienced lenders with local market knowledge, Flushing Bank’s Real Estate Lending team is ready to help you with your real estate mortgage solution. As a leader in community lending, we provide competitive rates, including long-term, fixed-rate loan programs. Call us today to discuss a mortgage solution that is right for you. Flushing Bank is a registered trademark FB 952 - RMU Cooperator UPDATE.indd 1 12/13/18 11:13 AM tion is deemed approved. Obviously, boards ership in order to sue for damages. Th e de- should be acting expeditiously, but I am veloper still owned 20 percent of the units, ment,” says Goldman. “Th e decision may be make some money from this. Th e defense always concerned when absent a discrimi- nation issue or other legally compelling owners would have reason, the legislature gets involved with to approve the suit resales and co-op corporations. Th ese could in order to move certainly fi nd a way down to New York City forward. In addi- in some form in the near future.” Two Cases From New England Howard Goldman, a partner at the law 60 days and the as- fi rm of Goldman & Pease in Needham, sociation board had Massachusetts, points out two recent cases to produce an es- that demonstrate the ability of the courts to timate of what the defi ne protections and rights under current legal process might law. In the fi rst case, Trustees of Cambridge Point vs. Cambridge Point , the Supreme Ju- dicial Court in Massachusetts ruled against feeling was that so-called ‘poison pill’ clauses in condomin- ium governing documents that may have alarmed, if the cost been placed there to prevent a condo asso- ciation from successfully suing its develop- er. Goldman explains that in the Cambridge more costly than Point case, this particular condominium the cost to cure the association was left with over $2,000,000 construction defects. worth of construction defects, but the as- sociation’s governing documents required pill clauses were not in the public interest. chasing indoor parking in Boston is quite approval from fully 80 percent of the own- which meant 100 percent of individual unit appropriate for the legislature to amend the has always been that the user isn’t really the tion, the suit had to be brought within cost the association to conduct. Th e owners might be to bring the pro- ceeding appeared Th e court ultimately ruled that poison parking spaces,” explains Goldman. “Pur- “Th e court looked at gross negligence and expensive – oft en $40,000 to $100,000 per warranty of habitability to make its judg- condo statute to owner; it’s an easement. And oft en the entire avoid these poison parking area is what’s called an easement in pill clauses.” He gross. Th e second defense is that the space is advises condo as- sociations that if ium. What the court response said was that they have this type easements in gross are not actually part of of clause in their the common area. Th e court also made the documents, they distinction that oft en these are easements in should amend the gross that the developer reserves for itself documents to re- move them. A second case affi rmed the city’s right to tax ownership of outlined by Gold- man is Rauseo vs. Board of Asses- sors, which looked not only what’s going on in your village, at the taxation town, city, and state, but everywhere else. of parking ease- ments. “In Boston, area will require the same consideration as the state began to it got elsewhere. assess unit owners for their ownership of space – and the City thought they could part of the common area of the condomin- – not the condominium.” Th e lower court found for the city, and the appellate court parking. Law and legislation are a living, growing, breathing organism. It’s important to watch You never know when a situation in your n A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter for Th e Cooperator, and a published novelist. “New York City recently amended the section of the administrative code governing reasonable accommodation, requiring a cooperative dialogue when dealing with a reasonable accommodation request.” —Marc Schneider