Any warnings re. renting in a co-op?

Most coop boards will only allow sublets for a finite period of time. If you are looking to rent long-term, I would inquire about this.

There are checks to be written: move-in deposit, move-in fee, application fee in addition to the standard first month's rent and one or two months' security. In this market, you can push some, though probably not all, those checks onto the owner.

As far as the package -- I do board packages all day long ... I can't say this enough, take it seriously. Allow one to two weeks to get your letters done, so request your letters before you sit down to do everything else. Letters should be on letterhead -- have your broker review a draft -- and signed.

And expect the board to take three weeks to approve your app.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

Thanks for the good advice. The unit has been approved by the board to rent for 2 years, and the broker is "checking with the owner" to confirm she has long-term intentions. As for checks to write, don't forget a 15% broker's fee! (unreal in this market, but that's what I've been presented with). That will likely be what makes or breaks it - I'm willing to front the small stuff, but will definitely be pushing back on that one.

Just looking at renting here for the 1st time here in NYC and came across your comment - 15% broker's fee. Wow! Is that paid by the prospective renter? Is that typical?

Renting a coop is less than ideal given the issues noted above.

Just make sure that that is reflected in a lower rent than you would otherwise get. For me, such a rent would have to be considerably lower.

Good luck.

I hope this is an amazing apt, because I dont think its worth it at all. You or the owner will have to pay for a board package fee, move in fee, physically moving in and out of a coop is also more annoying then a rental building, It will probably take 2 months to get all the paperwork thru.

CELIII,

Be sure to review the current thread on NEGOTIATING.

I can tell you that this thread helped me a great deal when I negotiated my last rent.

Just checked the listing and saw the rent has mysteriously gone up $50 in the last few hours (of course, the broker did not call to notify me in advance of this change). It is an amazing apartment, considerably below market (all signs are the owner is in a big hurry to get it occupied and dropped it), but regardless, it is at the upper end of my range, so I'm prepared to walk in a heartbeat given all the stated complexities. BTW - anyone know if I'm entitled to review the board minutes the way I'd be in a purchase?

I'm not sure about being able to review the board minutes, but since they're supposed to be public record, I wouldn't be surprised if you could. However, as a renter, you'd have no rights to attend the board meetings, which are open only to shareholders (your landlord).

Did you say whether you intended to find a place to live long-term? Most co-op boards only allow sublets for a finite period -- usually only up to two years.

Take house rules VERY seriously. My building just had a serious problem with renters in one of the units, and the board forced the shareholder with the revocation of his proprietary lease if he refused to evict the renters. The renters tried to sue in housing court, which immediately dismissed the case since co-op proprietary leases always trump whatever secondary sublet agreements may exist.

Just to bring the thread to a close: the broker not only misled us about the rent (oops, I put it in the system wrong...), the exposures (east, not west. oops, I put it in the system wrong...), but now we find out the "definitely approved for 2 years" is a "well... I'm waiting to hear back from the board after their next meeting, but I think it looks good." What a joke. Learned a lot from the process - hope others will too. Adios!

I have been living in a Park Ave. co-op sublet for 7 months now.
One other thing to consider is that you may have to pay cash upfront to repair things that go wrong. For example, I have had to pay a plumber in an emergency, a locksmith when my lock broke, and a porter for a window that was stuck shut. My landlord gives me the option of taking it off the next month's rent or sending me a check for reimbursement. But, when your toilet explodes, you pretty much have no choice but to pay that plumber ASAP.
It's a whole unique pain in the ass I didn't even consider when I signed the lease, so make sure to discuss this with your potential landlord!

I just rented a coop on prime WEA and got the owner to pay for ALL the fees, including the brokers commission. My argument was that since I'm limited to only a 2 year stay there is no way I'm paying the fees and they went for it. I agreed to pay for the credit check and that's it. Try it and see what happens.

If you go forward, your sublease will be conditioned on Board approval. You should put something in there that allows you to walk if the sublease is not approved within a given time period. This provision is in the standard coop sublease, but just in case it is not in the one you've been presented, you should put it there. In this market, you should get owner to pay all fees but credit check. You can definetely read the Board minutes and perhaps should.