What's happening
This bill requires co-op housing boards to provide written reasons for rejecting prospective buyers within five business days.
Why it matters
Increases transparency and accountability. By requiring written explanations for rejections, the bill makes co-op boards more accountable for their decisions, reducing the likelihood of arbitrary or discriminatory practices.
Empowers prospective buyers. Buyers who are rejected will understand the specific reasons, allowing them to address issues, challenge unfair rejections, or pursue legal remedies if discrimination is suspected.
Aligns with anti-discrimination efforts. The measure supports existing state and federal laws prohibiting housing discrimination, making it harder for boards to conceal unlawful bias behind vague or unexplained decisions.
Could influence co-op market dynamics. Increased transparency may make co-op boards more cautious in their decision-making, potentially broadening access to co-op ownership and affecting the overall housing market in New York.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Explain Co-op Purchase Rejections
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to codes
- Referred to codes
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
2124
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 22, 2019
Introduced by Sen. SANDERS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to discrimination in the ownership of cooperative housing
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Legislative findings and declaration of intent. The legislature recognizes that cooperative ownership in multi-family dwellings is a popular form of home ownership in New York state. An ongoing concern for consumers dealing in the cooperative housing market is the potential for the unlawful rejection by a board of directors of a buyer.
The legislature finds and determines that, not infrequently, a co-op board rejects what appears to be a well-qualified customer. Often, the prospective purchaser has concerns that the rejection was in fact unlawful discrimination. Both federal and state laws protect our citizens from unfair housing practices, which include discrimination based upon race, ethnicity, gender, age or family status.
For such reasons, it is the legislature's intent to require boards of directors of cooperative housing to disclose to proposed purchasers, the reasons for rejecting a sale.
§ 2. Section 19-a of the civil rights law, as added by chapter 376 of the laws of 1971, is amended to read as follows:
§ 19-a. Prohibition against unreasonable withholding of consent. Whenever any corporation formed for the purpose of the cooperative ownership of real estate within the state withholds consent to the sale or proposed sale of certificates of stock or other evidence of ownership of an interest in such corporation, such corporation shall provide the prospective purchaser with a written statement of its reasons for withholding consent no later than five business days after its decision to withhold consent.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07101-01-9
S. 2124 2
1. No such corporation [formed for the purpose of the cooperative ownership of real estate within the state] shall withhold [its] such consent [to the sale or proposed sale of certificates of stock or other evidence of ownership of an interest in such corporation] because of the race, creed, national origin, or sex of the purchaser.
2. For the purposes of this section a "corporation" shall include the cooperative management, cooperative tenants, cooperative shareholders, or any appointee or successor in interest of a corporation.
3. This section shall apply to every sale or proposed sale whether by a corporation directly, its successor in interest, or by any other lawfully entitled party.
4. Every agreement, negative covenant, restrictive covenant or other provision, whether written or oral and wherever contained, inconsistent with this section shall be void and unenforceable.
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to discrimination in the ownership of cooperative housing
Purpose
Many prospective cooperators are arbitrarily and discriminatorily rejected. By requiring cooperative apartment corporations to provide a statement of reasons, this bill will serve to reduce the incidence of such rejections.
Summary of provisions
This bill amends Civil Rights Law § 19-a to require a cooperative apart- ment corporation to provide a prospective purchaser with a written statement of reasons whenever the corporation withholds its consent to the sale of the corporation's stock.
Existing law
Cooperative apartment corporations currently are not required to inform prospective purchasers of the reasons for their rejection.
Justification
Cooperative ownership in multi-family dwellings is becoming an extremely popular form of home ownership in New York State. In 1971, the Legisla- ture enacted section 19-a of the Civil Rights Law, which prohibits coop- erative apartment corporations from discriminating against prospective purchasers on the basis of race, religion, national origin or sex. Such discrimination nevertheless remains a widespread problem. See, e.g., BACHMAN V. STATE DIVISION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 104 A.D. 2d 111 (1st Dept. 1984); ROBINSON V. 12 LOFTS REALTY, INC., 610 F. 2d 1032 (2d Cir. 1979); ROGERS V. 66-36 YELLOWSTONE BLVD. COOPERATIVE OWNERS, INC., 599 F. Supp. 79 (E.D.N.Y. 1984); see also SANDERS V. WINSHIP, 57 N.Y. 2d 391 (1982). As the Court of Appeals has declared, "discrimination is rarely so obvi- ous or its practices so overt that recognition of it is instant and conclusive, it being accomplished usually by devious and subtle means." 300 GRAMATAN AVENUE ASSOCIATES V. STATE DIVISION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 45 N.Y. 2d 176 (1978). At present, proving discrimination by cooperative apartment corporations is even more difficult than proving housing discrimination in other contexts.
First, because the decision to reject a prospective cooperator generally is made by an admissions committee, and the individuals on the committee may purport to have acted for different reasons, it is difficult to determine whether the motivating factor for the rejection was discrimi- natory.
Second, "testing" for cooperative discrimination by the use of paired minority and non-minority apartment seekers is harder than "testing" for discrimination in rental housing because the process of purchasing a cooperative apartment is much more complicated than the process of rent- ing an apartment. Requiring cooperative apartment corporations to state reasons for rejecting prospective tenant shareholders has been recog- nized as an effective means of reducing the ability of such corporations to mask discriminatory conduct. In ROGERS V. 66-36 YELLOWSTONE BLVD. COOPERATIVE OWNERS, a federal court required a New York City cooperative apartment corporation which had violated federal fair housing laws to provide a statement of reasons to rejected minority applicants. If this bill is enacted, a cooperative apartment corporation will not be able to create after-the-fact justifications when a rejected purchaser chal- lenges as pretextual the corporation's reasons for refusing to permit a sale. The legislation thus will help prevent discriminatory rejections, and will further the goal of equal housing opportunity.
Legislative history
01/13/16 Referred to Codes
Fiscal implications
None
Local fiscal implications
None
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.