Posted by Anna on February 10, 1999 at 14:19:58:
In Reply to: Illegal Evictions of Co-op OWNERS! posted by Lori on February 10, 1999 at 06:00:32:
: Housing court has no statutory jurisdiction over co-op "owners" (as opposed to co-op tenants." If you are a co-op owner who was evicted by a summary proceeding in the housing court instead of a plenary proceeding in a higher court, please contact me. Refer to RPAPL Sec. 713. Co-op is not "real property." See also Prosnitz v. Augustus, CC:Bx Housing Part 18, Judge Fiorella (NYLJ 1/28/98): "Conspicuously absent from this section is any reference to a condominium owner and its right to commence the instant holdover proceeding since there is undisputably no landlord and tenantrelationship between the parties...Petitioner lacks standing beforeo this court to maintain a summary eviction proceeding for payment of common charges."
: If a condo, who is closer to "real property" than a co-op which is not real property, but personal property, as a matter of law, cannot use housing court to evict, how the hell can a co-op? Only with a corrupt judge or judges!
Co-ops & condos are different animals (I've also read of a NYC-hybrid, the "coop-condo").
The Co-op, the short L&T version:
There is no such thing as a coop-apt-owner, it is merely street slang.
In a coop building, there is only ONE owner: the cooperative corporative. It is a paper entity that owns the whole building & sometimes the land under it.
It sells 'shares' (stocks); a person buys some shares 'allocated to a specific apartment(s)' and receives a 'proprietary lease appurtenant to' the apartment. (translation: the shares & lease are joined at the hip)
The buyer pays cash or gets a bank loan for the shares, and pays 'maintenance' (rent) for the lease. Maintenance pays for the underlying building mortgage & taxes & building-wide expenses, like heating fuel.
Therefore, ALL coop shareholders are tenants with leases with their landlords, the coop corporation.
More details about coops are available on this site, all over the web & in most bookstores.
In a condo, the unit owner actually does buy the unit or apartment & pays a monthly 'common area' charge.
The case you cited concerns non-payment of condo common area charges. The petitioner tried to use RPAPL 713 (the section only for certain specific parties with NO landlord-tenant relationship) to bring it to Housing Court, the judge said they couldn't do that. But some Condo cases can be brought in Housing Court...
Here is the Housing Court's own description of its special Coop-Condo Part:
" c. Co-op/Condo: All cases in which the building is co-op or a condominium.
i) The petitioner may be the Board, or a shareholder.
ii) The respondent may be a shareholder, a rent
stabilized tenant, a rent controlled tenant, etc"
So: yes: coop-shareholders can be evicted in Housing Court for non-payment of maintenance or other breaches of their leases. And Coop-shareholders can evict their subtenants in Housing court too.
If you have a more specific concern about living in a NYC coop or being evicted from one, please state it: someone might have an answer for you or point you in the right direction. (or correct me if anything above is misleading)
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