Non Payment of maintenance fees

An attorney can answer that question pretty easily. I suspect the answer is: what you propose is illegal and in violation of your proprietary lease. The coop will have various options, none of which are good for you, your credit rating, your own future real estate purchases, among other things. They can sue you for the money, try to forfeit your shares, take the money you owe--plus interest--out of any sale proceeds should you ever sell, .... Sellers have buyers rejected. It happens. They well may not have been qualified. My suggestion: keep at it and find a qualified buyer and get out of the building you no longer want to be in. No need to blow up the world in the process when the blow-back is going to be far worse for you than the building.

How big of a co-op? And what are your plans re: future housing? I do wonder if it may benefit you to be strategically annoying if being annoying will have a direct impact on board members' lives. Keep in mind there are other ways to be annoying aside from non-payment of maintenance.

We bought our unit from a person who was a major headache for the building, although we didn't know it at the time. We had a Board interview date before we even had a signed contract. The building was desperate to get rid of this guy.

Kylewest is right that the co-op has various options, but none of them are easy nor inexpensive. If someone in my building whose unit was for sale stopped paying maintenance or started being a nuisance in other ways (e.g., suspected Airbnb guests, parties, other violations of house rules), I'd be a lot less picky about prospective buyers. (Hopefully no one in my building is reading this.) We're too small to deal with even one unit not paying, and we're all impacted when someone isn't playing by the rules.

While my perspective is from a Condo, a final consequence, whether a condo or a coop could result in foreclosure.

If I were buying a place where the owner was in arrears in maintenance, I'd be sure to take advantage of the situation, or back out. The latter because if the owner's a dishonest person not paying, who knows what else is misrepresented. The former because if the owner is in financial difficulty, well,

Why guess about the consequences? Read your proprietary lease and all will be clear. Late fees, interest, attorneys' fees, default, ejection. If you want to fight it, then add your own attorney's fees.

There's always the chance you can force your neighbors and fellow shareholders to accept a buyer, but don't plan on it.

Look, I think before we can really know what to do, we need to get some basics, starting with an understanding of what neighborhood this is in, what is the price point we are talking, how many apartments in the building?

Would you be able to ask the board for some feedback about the two rejected buyers, so that you know how to market your place for the 3rd prospective buyer?

Kaydee, have you sat down with any of the board members to ask them for any advice on vetting prospective buyers so you are not wasting the board's time? They might give you some feedback if you aren't asking them about specific past cases and if they realize that you are trying to work with them.

You are coming across as a spoiled troublemaker. Perhaps they'll already be glad to see you go. Lad, if you lower your standards to get rid of a nuisance, then you may let in a problem even greater.

KD:

1. not paying your maintenance will breach your proprietary lease
2. the Coop will then be entitled to and will bring eviction proceedings

3. per standard Coop lease paragraph 28 you will have to pay your unpaid
dues, along with late fees and all of the Coop's legal fees

4. the only time you can refuse to pay maintenance is if the acts of the
Coop constitute an actual or constructive eviction, as defined in he
NY Court of Appeals recent decision in Eastside Exhibits v 210 East
86th Street, which concerned constructive eviction caused by reno-
vation work