How to find out who board members are

Are you a shareholder? There are elections every year and if you are a shareholder you vote for them. If you aren't a shareholder I don't think anyone is under any obligation to supply with that info.

Ask your managing agent for a list of current board members.

Does anyone know what's happened to NYCMatt? Haven't seen a post from him in a long time. He could most certainly answer your question....

Thanks all.

I'm not a shareholder- does that mean one is out of luck?

Yes, unless you can get a shareholder to tell you.

The other option is if the sponsor is still filing amended offering plans with the Attorney General. They usually do that if they still own more than 10% of the shares. The amendment will list the current board member's names.

Thank you- I'm sorry- what is an amended offering plan?

I googled it, however the uses of the term are already "in context".

The pre-war building is built already and is being sold in whole- would an amended offering plan be filed in this circumstance? Thanks.

http://www.ag.ny.gov/bureau/real-estate-finance-bureau

The shareholders can agree to sell their building. Then they split the proceeds in proportion to the shares each holds, and wind up the corporation. That's been done with small co-ops, like the ones that sold out to the developers of 535 WEA.

The conditions and procedure for dissolving the co-op are in the proprietary leases.

Or a small rowhouse co-op might find that the building's worth more as a single-family house than their apartments are worth individually.

Let's start at step 1. When a building is converted to co-op, the sponsor has to submit an offering plan to the Attorney General and eventually to any potential purchasers. The offering plan describes the building, the anticipated financials, the share allocation among the apartments, and on and on for hundreds of pages.

If the co-op takes effect, i.e. if enough tenants agree to buy shares, the sponsor may be left holding the shares allocated to the apartments whose tenants chose not to buy them. The sponsor then sells those shares when the apartment eventually becomes vacant. Or the sponsor can sell the shares for a still-occupied apartment to someone who becomes what's called a Holder of Unsold Shares.

As long as there're unsold shares that could be potentially offered to the public, the sponsor and HUS have to file annual amendments to the original offering plan, with updated financials, current list of unsold apartments, names of board members and whether they're sponsor-affiliated, etc. It can take 50 years to completely sell out a co-op for owner occupancy, so there'd be that many amendments.

The same goes for condo conversions, and new condos, except for "shares" read "Percentage of Common Interest".

Also, the amendments may not have to be annual. A sponsor can wait to file an amendment until she's got a vacant apartment to sell. It can be several years between vacancies. As the saying goes among sponsors, the only guarantee of longevity is holding a RC or RS lease.

Has anyone stopped to ask why the OP is asking this question? Are you all sure you want to help?

Sure... It's in the neighborhood.

Fieldschester, first of all, that is absurd. You don't know either, do you? I don't know whst conclusion you are jumping at, but whatever it is, it has to be ridiculous.

Second of all, do you have anything at all better to do than to interfere with others trying to get help, even when it has absolutely nothing to do with YOU?

For your own sake, please get a life. Thank you.

Sheesh.

NWT, thank you. According to what you wrote, I imagine the AG office would have an amended offering plan. I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks again.

The data search thingie at the AG's site will tell you when the latest amendment was, but not what's in it. Then if something looks useful, you do a FOIL request online. They order the file from a warehouse upstate, and call you to go down to the Equitable building and make copies.

Also check offeringplanet.com.

Ok cool- actually read a NYT article from 2012 saying these were starting to be scanned in online, so who knows how far that went...

Woah, that's offeringplanet!

Fieldschester seems to have a very fun, interesting life. So there.................

Well I guess everything is relative, then.

meridians, it seems as if I touched a nerve. Why exactly is it that you don't know the names of the board members, but want to? Is it your within your legitimate business to have the names? Or are you an outside troublemaker?
If you had legitimate reason to know, why wouldn't you be asking the people who would then likely know and consequently be happy to tell you?
What is your game meridians? Fraud? Con game? Pretexting? You looking to file a lawsuit? What legitimate reason do you have?

Maybe OP is interested in buying and wants to do as much due diligence on those running the building as s/he can. Wouldn't you want to know identity of directors of any closely held corporation in which you were not only investing but in which you would also be living? I had same question when looking to buy.

Oh, I see building is being sold in entirety, in which case I see FC's point; why not just ask the broker as part of due diligence?

>Maybe OP is interested in buying and wants to do as much due diligence on those running the building as s/he can.

Then why not ask the seller and others involved in the potential transaction?

> in which case I see FC's point

After all this time, why don't you just default to recognizing that when I offer a contrarian point of view, that you should at least open your own point of view to self-question?

I see Fieldschester. You didn't touch any nerve, but it is kind of amusing the way your imagination is just ignited all over the place by a simple question. Did you ever think of taking up creative writing or such?

I hope you are being sarcastic, otherwise you really do have too much time on your hands while resorting to being the streeteasy real estate police.

And unnecessarily so, at that.

P.S. There is a difference between "a contrarian point of view" and being completely and entirely WRONG. I don't know how much more clear I can make that for you.

News flash: I don't owe you or anyone else an explanation. Although I could be inclined to give one- people are that way, when approached reasonably- and if my intentions weren't interpreted into ridiculous assumptions. Then I must decline on general principal.

If you are trying to pump me for information, I can assure you that none of your fears are founded, how's that? I hope this helps you sleep better at night.

Have a lovely weekend.

Seems like you are up to no good meridians.
Certainly you don't "owe" an explanation, but no one "owes" you an answer to your question in the first place.
And of course I don't "owe" anyone words of caution against you since I am a disinterested party.
But I still offer it.
Because you are up to no good.
You are the litigious or duplicitous or just outright nasty guy in New York real estate dealings that makes the whole environment difficult for the honest participants.

Fieldschester, I'm not saying anyone owes me an answer- however you seem to feel you are owed an explanation.

You are so off the mark that it's laughable.

Board minutes are available to prospective buyers, owners and their attorneys, simply ask the managing agent. I can't imagine how knowing this is of any value to a buyer. Financials and policies should be more important, and many buildings. If you want to contact the board you should send a letter to the managing agent.

meridians, you really aren't hiding very well that you have ill intentions, even if I don't know the specific nature of those ill intentions.

Our board would never release board minutes to anyone. They are available for view at our managing agent and can not be copied. This is standard for any coop.