Coop Apartment / Office space

I'm constanly amazed by the number of "can I gt away with..." "should I lie about..." questions. Why is being honest so difficult? Be honest about how you plan to live/use your place.

Find a building where that use is approved by other shareholders/owners. Don't lie, then get upset when you run into trouble later.

Is that so difficult?

The standard proprietary-lease language is "The lessee shall not use the apartment for any purpose other than a private dwelling for the lessee and members of the lessee's family." That's been held to mean no patients or clients.

Some buildings have ground-floor office-apartments where your kind of practice is specifically allowed.

As 10003 said, it's best to ask the selling broker or the building's managing agent.

Keep in mind that even if a lease provision isn't currently enforced in an easy-going building, a single episode can trigger a change.

Perhaps a condo is a better choice in your case. As NWT aptly points out boards can at any time decide to enforce previously overlooked bylaws and can also implement new rules. Typically co-ops do not like businesses operating out of shareholders' apartments, especially businesses that involve traffic. Have you considered renting or co-renting a small commercial space for your business instead?

I'd post on an online forum for NY headshrinkers, and ask if they can recommend particular buildings that allow crazies to wander the halls. There are quite a few that do. Then try to get a sense of the history of those coops' policies, restrictions (if any), etc.

The "single episode" that NWT refers to happened just a couple of years ago in Yorkville, much to the detriment of the quack.

Thank you all.
Bramstar, Yes, I am considering all options though residential/office space is more cost efficient...

I completely understand a coop outlawing a person buying a coop unit to use as an office. But if it's your HOME and you want your patients to visit you there then I think it's absolutely ridiculous to forbid that. As long as the patients aren't making trouble, how can a coop regulate GUEST THAT COME TO YOUR HOME??? If it's really a situation in which you will run your business out of your full time home, I don't think the coop should be stopping your guests.

what's the definition of trouble?

is it ok if they use the lobby as a waiting room?

what would happen if half the people in the building decided to do the same thing?

No idea why anybody would ever buy a coop. Condos are so much better - no annoying coop boards sticking their noses in your business.

Lower price/sf. Less capital deployed.

Don't plan on being able to do it in a condo, either. The by-laws and other governing docs control use of residential units there, too.

columbiacounty
about 2 hours ago
Posts: 10787
Member since: Jan 2009
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what's the definition of trouble?

a) columbiacounty
b) Jim Hones
c) ape
d) i don't know nothing but if challenged and I don't have a real response, I will change the topic ever so slightly
e) all of the above

saiyar, do you want to live across the hall from someone who is counseling drug addicts or ex-cons in their apartment? Would you be comfortable with a "wait and see" approach to seee if they make trouble?

OP, how many patients, how many times per week, and how do they appear? If it's five suburban mom types one time per week each, I think you can get away with it. If you start having multiple visitors show up on the same day in succession, or if the people showing up are clearly not friends, someone is going to notice and talk -- big building or small.

>If it's five suburban mom types one time per week each

Any ethnic requirements?

five lean suburban mom types one time per week each

lad, doorman/kook convo like such:
"Good evening, I'm here to see Dr. NewHart"
"Who may I say is calling, sir?"
"Er, um, well ... say his 6 o'clock."