Tenants in condo building don't pay Common Charges

I'm afraid you can't do anything on your own without first hiring a lawyer.

This is another one of the dangerous downsides of going condo rather than co-op; co-op boards have the ability to evict non-payers.

Could a coop evict without a lawyer involved?

They probably could, but why should they? Most management companies contracted by co-ops have attorneys in-house to handle this sort of thing, and that's what your management fee pays for.

@NYCMatt - We (in our coop) hired our own attorney, which we pay for, and were not offered the services of legal council by our management company. But obviously each management company works differently.

coop boards can change rules. They can prohibit the renting of apartments. They can render these apartments empty. They will need a lawyer. You can't afford one? You can't afford not to have one.
Going to have to raise the cc fees (to hire a lawyer) in order to lower them.

What kind of coop doesn't have strict rules about renting?
Is this a condo?
Might be time to change the locks on the building and only issue keys to those in good finacial standing.

I'm not a lawyer but I am the president of a condo board for whatever that is worth. We had a similar situation and sent a letter to the tenant of the non-paying unit and explained that under General Business Law Section 352-e(2-d) there is a provision which provide that in situations where common charges or other fees are due from an non-occupying unit owner have not been paid in full, the Condominium board of managers may require that all rental payments or a portion due to the unit owner be made by the tenant directly to the Condominium Association. Again, this is not legal advice and may not apply but it worked for me. Good luck.

>Might be time to change the locks on the building and only issue keys to those in good finacial standing.

Obviously you are not part of the 99%.

nba that's if a condo unit owner is renting. What if the condo unit owner is not renting and just doesn't feel like paying the common charge.

Have you reached out to the owners of these units? I find it very odd more than one owner would stop paying their dues. Is there a problem with the building/management company?

A coop can also seek to recover legal fees from shareholders against whom the coop must take action. Ah...the pleasures of condo ownership. To listen to some on here, condos are just fantastic and beat coops on all fronts. This thread is one of the many reasons that for me, coop ownership offers many benefits and condo ownership offers no advantages. I live in my unit, do not wish to rent it, have long term ownership plans, do not like transients in the building, like people living here who have "skin in the game," and I like having a board that can reasonably maintain a coooperative living environment.

"Must take action" being the key point, kyle.
Because they must get a vote from a majority of shareholders before suing.

As opposed to a condo board.

nba-

Isn't that in the lease?

. Renter of some condo's are required to sign a lease agreement with landlord and a rider from the condo management. In that rider it sometimes states if condo owner doesn't pay cc the renter will.

nba:

1. most coops have a direct collection provision like the GBL section you cite
2. there is no reason a condo HOA cant do the same
3. all it needs to do is to amend its by-laws or controlling documents

"This thread is one of the many reasons that for me, coop ownership offers many benefits and condo ownership offers no advantages. I live in my unit, do not wish to rent it, have long term ownership plans, do not like transients in the building, like people living here who have "skin in the game," and I like having a board that can reasonably maintain a coooperative living environment."

Yep.

Obviously you are not part of the 99%.

They only time I'm not part of the 99% is if we are talking about fat free.

Congratulations

matt, you are wrong

i have been serving on coop boards, and in fact, coop is also powerless to do anything

first, coop needs to pay a lot of money for a lawyer to start, and then endless effort to get involve in small courts. and if tenants play games with the board or get help from some community low-income agencies, they could do this in rounds and rounds

my friend's coop lost tons of money in legal fees trying to evict such a tenant. years later, the tenant is still living happily in the building now