Coop Storage Space

Demand? You're the co-op. All four of you are on the board, right?

The three of you should bring it up at a meeting, saying that in a fair split each of the three should get 25% more space, that that space can only come from the fourth, and that the four of you need to work in a collegial way to redo the storage-room partitions, etc.

And if it's physically impossible, which is often the case, that's not an excuse for inequitable division. Half of the other apartment's space can be used for the building's storage for operations (snow salt, shovels, supplies, etc.)

For reasons that I don't want to get into. The other two tenants do not care about the storage space and dont want to make an issue out of it. The question is what options I have.

I would talk to the squatters on all the extra space and ask if you can have some.

I would get the word "demand" out of your negotiation language.

Appeal to their sense of fairness. Express your needs (new baby, new hobby, too broke to rent a storage unit).

People have an amazingly strong belief in fairness. It might not work in this case, but it's worth a shot.

Dig up your co-op papers and be prepared to quote the language. Try really hard to be nice (not so easy for me, I hope you're better at it)

You can sue your own co-op for breach of contract, but that would be quite the terrible idea. You're business partners and you live on top of each other.

Not sure breach of contract lawsuit is the right action, but aren't there anti discrimination laws that would allow me to demand that the basement be reapportioned?

The basement as you said is not mentioned in your prop lease, so I guess looking to the BCL is your best legal course. But I cant imagine any legal action would be more effective than taking it up at the next meeting or personally talking to the squatters.

Anti-discrimination laws? For STORAGE SPACE??

Now you're just being silly.

You bought into this intimate 4-unit co-op knowing full well what you were getting into (or at least you should have done your due diligence to find out).

Now that you're in, you want to shake things up and change what's been *past practice* (yes, a real legal term that no doubt would be invoked in any legal action you decide to pursue) for some 20 years.

Taking your business partners (not to mention the people with whom you share a walls and roof) to court would almost certainly result in some serious bad blood. You MAY win the battle, you would have lost the war. The ensuing tension (if not outright hostility) would eventually force you to sell.

Is all this really worth a square of space in the basement to store crap you probably should be getting rid of anyway?

Think about it.