Page 6 - NY Cooperator April 2020
P. 6

6 THE COOPERATOR —  APRIL 2020  COOPERATOR.COM  Cooperator.com From  Chaos, disruption, everything closing around us...not the best conditions for buy-  ing or selling a co-op or condo. Yet for many, the search for a home—or the urgency to   sell the one you’ve got—may supersede the crisis around you. The question arises as to   how the real estate brokerage community is coping with the COVID-19 crisis. As the   pandemic—and federal, state, and local government responses to it—evolves, how are   brokers keeping their business afloat?  Precautions & Options  Apart from the obvious hand washing, hand sanitizing, and hand wringing that   have become a fact of daily life in the past weeks, brokers and brokerage companies say   they are doing their best to handle this crisis of social intimacy as fairly and creatively   as possible.  Bruce Robertson, a broker with Compass in upper Manhattan, provided   The    Cooperator   with the basic precautions his company is taking. In a memo to its sales   staff, Compass management recommends that “it is up to you and your sellers whether   or not you should proceed, but in light of the current situation in Westchester and   NYC, you might be better off only allowing showings” rather than holding open hous-  es that are less manageable. They also offer some best practices going forward to pro-  tect both agents and clients:  •  Offer to do video tours for buyers and/or agents by appointment  •  Take an open house live on Facebook. You may need a gambrel to steady your      phone and will need a good internet connection.  •  Replace an open house with a social media ad and market it more extensively on  Facebook or Instagram.  •  Continue to market to brokers via email or social media.  When it comes to conducting open houses, the following rules are suggested:  •  Disinfect the home when you arrive —and know if your clients have traveled or             are ill  •  No entry to anyone who has traveled internationally in the last 14 days  •  People must disinfect their hands at the front door with hand sanitizer or wipes        upon entering the home—or wash their hands using soap and water and             disposable towels  •  Ask them not to touch anything in the home—lights should be on and doors open  •  Limit the number of people in the home at one time to just one or two parties  •  Ask people to maintain safe distances if waiting  •  Sign people in yourself, one at a time  •  Disinfect the home before leaving     Additionally, Compass recommends the following rules to protect their brokers              and salespeople:  •  Confirm that buyers have not traveled internationally in the last 14 days  •  Ask buyers and agents to disinfect their hands with sanitizer or wipes at the front              door  Sales in the Age of Coronavirus  Lockdowns, Quarantines, and Uncertainty  BY A.J. SIDRANSKY  How to Recover Fees from a Delinquent Shareholder in   the Age of HSTPA  Legislation Prevents Collecting ‘Additional Rent’ in Court  BY DARCEY GERSTEIN  COOPERATOR.COM  continued on page 7   As previously covered in this publica-  tion  and elsewhere,  sweeping legislative  likelihood  that  in  addition  to  mainte-  reforms under the 2019 Housing Stability  nance, the shareholder owes other monies  at law firm Schneider Buchel in Garden  legal fees being sought (which most pro-  and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) that  to the co-op for late fees, assessments, re-  were  intended  to  protect  rental  tenants  pair fees, and attorney fees that accrue in  because of co-op shareholders owning  to place a lien on the shareholder’s shares   perhaps inadvertently—and, many argue,  the course of the proceedings or any other  shares rather than real property (as is the  for the indebtedness and obligations.” He   deleteriously—included cooperatives in  legal action that has been taken against  case in ownership of a condo or single-  their regulations. Among  those  regula-  tions is the prohibition of collecting “ad-  ditional rent” charges—such as late fees,  paid and unrecovered charges from a ten-  attorney fees, sublet fees, and the like—  in summary nonpayment proceedings in  the remaining shareholders are on the  protracted timeline associated with them.   Housing Court.  Because the structure of cooperative  cumbent upon boards to avoid shoulder-  ownership relies on a proprietary lease  ing their neighbors with undue financial  is to file a lawsuit, which would of course   for the right to occupy a unit within the  burdens in ways that are legally permis-  building, legislation that covers residen-  tial leasehold agreements is inclusive of   co-ops  and  their  shareholders.  In  cases   where a shareholder is being legally pur-  sued for nonpayment of “rent”—or, in co-  op parlance, the monthly charges referred  collection is commencing what is known   to  as  “maintenance”—there’s  a  strong  Article 9 nonjudicial foreclosure. Accord-  them.    Unlike rental apartments where un-  ant would fall to the landlord, in a co-op  courts and therefore the legal fees and   hook for any bad debts. It is therefore in-  sible.   The Case for Nonjudicial Foreclosure  One possibility suggested for recover-  ing fees from a shareholder in arrears now  shareholder to make the co-op whole or   that HSTPA prevents “additional rent”  to strike a deal that suits both parties.   as a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)   ing to Marc Schneider, managing partner  have language entitling the co-op to the   City, New York, this option is available  prietary leases do), and entitling the co-op   family home).   A sale of shares via a nonjudicial fore-  closure has the benefit of avoiding the   Once such a foreclosure is initiated, says   Schneider, the shareholder’s only recourse   require additional time and money on the   part of the shareholder. Schneider asserts   that the threat of losing the shares in the   foreclosure sale is enough to force the   Schneider points out that “In order to   do this, the governing documents must   adds that this method is best reserved for   arrears collection only—not for eviction   of the shareholder from the co-op unit.   The Case Against Nonjudicial    Foreclosure  But not everyone agrees with the util-  ity—or legality—of this method. Andrew   J. Wagner, shareholder in the New York   office of Anderson Kill P.C., who spe-  cializes in co-op and condo law, recently   wrote an article published in the   New   York Law Journal   in which he advocates   against the use of nonjudicial foreclosures   by co-op boards looking to sidestep re-  strictions imposed by HSTPA.  He argues that even if a proprietary   continued on page 7 


































































































   4   5   6   7   8