Q: The garage in my Bronx co-op building has far fewer spaces than there are apartments, making them highly coveted. I’ve been in the building for 19 years and got my space 10 years ago. The shareholders who have spots were recently sent an 18-page lease agreement to sign. We have a new management company, and this new agreement was given to us without explanation. Most of the provisions seem fair, except for one that allows the building to revoke a shareholder’s spot for any reason or for no reason at all. This seems outrageous! Is it legal? What can we do?
A: Don’t sign anything yet. First, check the building’s existing governing documents to learn what your rights are when it comes to garage spaces.
Read over the co-op’s proprietary lease, offering plan and bylaws, as well as any parking agreements that preceded this new agreement. Do they outline the process for obtaining a garage space, or retaining one? You have rights under those documents, and the co-op must negotiate with you to change the terms. It can’t just change them midway through the contract.
It’s possible, however, that the documents do not outline parking rights.
“It’s not uncommon for a co-op to say that it’s a license, not a lease, and we can terminate it at will,” said Catharine Grad, a tenant lawyer in Manhattan. (Rent-stabilized tenants have protections that co-op shareholders do not have when it comes to parking spaces, Ms. Grad said.)
If the existing agreement is actually a license, your building’s management might have the right to replace it, said Adam Leitman Bailey, a real estate lawyer in Manhattan. But, this right would apply only if the co-op board has approved this action in a resolution, and only if the bylaws allow the board to approve it without a vote of the shareholders. (You didn’t mention the use of accessible parking spaces, but there are laws requiring managers of multifamily housing to make these spaces available to people with physical disabilities.)
Read the new agreement to see if the management company has acted outside the bounds of its authority, or if the co-op board has improperly ceded any of its authority to the management company.
“If so, there may be grounds to challenge management’s right to act without proper authority from the co-op shareholders as a whole,” Mr. Bailey said.
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