February 2016 By Adam Leitman Bailey The greatest changes in cooperative and condominium law this past year did not come from the legislature or from the courts but from the New York Attorney General’s office (NYAG). This article will review some of those changes and the most significant appellate cases affecting cooperatives and condominiums. Buyouts Full Article…
Court Clarifies Condo Owners’ Right to Inspect
December 20, 2016 By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio In their Condominium Law column, Adam Leitman Bailey and John Desiderio discuss the recent First Department case ‘Pomerance v. McGrath,’ in which the court has clarified the rights of condominium owners to inspect management books and records. In its 2013 decision in Pomerance v. Full Article…
Seven Secrets to Drafting An Effective Commercial Lease Default Lease
An effective commercial lease will dictate the future relationship between a commercial landlord and tenant. The more clauses forcing the commercial tenant to comply with its obligations, the better chance the landlord will have in not only have a successful relationship but also ensuring that the rent is paid and the tenant behaves. Below are Full Article…
Fair-Market Tenants and Condominium Conversions
A recent newspaper article reports that between 2009 and 2012, a total of 117 rental buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn were converted to cooperative or condominium ownership.1 Many of the units contained therein were deregulated. This article explores what rights tenants of these units have vis-à-vis rent-regulated tenants when a building is being converted, if and Full Article…
Attorneys Answer Six More Questions Boards Have About Superstorm Sandy, Habitat Magazine
By Adam Leitman Bailey, Leonard H. Ritz and Dov Treiman Jan. 15, 2013 — In this second of two installments, leading real-estate attorneys answer more condo and co-op board members have been asking about what’s expected of them and of shareholders / unit-owners in the terrible aftermath of superstorm Sandy. Q: Does the Board have Full Article…
Finding Individual Tort Liability for Cooperative and Condominium Board Members, the Appellate Division Takes a Large Scalpel to Business Judgment Rule, Thompson Reuters News & Insight
By Adam Leitman Bailey, John M. Desiderio Recently, the Appellate Division First Department, in Fletcher v. Dakota, Inc.,1 held that the business judgment rule does not protect individual condo and co-op board members from personal tort liability where a board acting in its corporate capacity has acted in bad faith, but where it is not Full Article…
Applying the Business Judgement Rule: Individual Tort Liability for Co-op & Condo Boards, The Cooperator
By Adam Leitman Bailey February 1st, 2013 Recently, the Appellate Division First Department, in Fletcher v. Dakota, Inc., involving a shareholder in The Dakota, a historic luxury co-op on the Upper West Side, held that the business judgment rule does not protect individual condo and co-op board members from personal tort liability where a board Full Article…
Owner’s Rights to Inspect Management Records, New York Law Journal and N.Y. Real Property Journal
By Adam Leitman Bailey April 10th, 2013 Since the Legislature gave birth to the first cooperative and condominium laws, very few issues have had as much attention and confusion as boards’ concerns about the extent of unit owners’ access to inspect the management books and records. Regarding cooperative buildings, many of the most prominent questions Full Article…