Q: I consider I’m going through retaliation from the board of my Manhattan co-op. In 2018, the constructing supervisor was purported to appropriate an error with my account, however she by no means eliminated the baseless late prices, and has since added extra. Administration has used a few of my upkeep funds to pay these late prices, reasonably than making use of them to my month-to-month prices. I ran for a co-op board seat, however inside days bought “notices to treatment” all the way in which to “eviction,” primarily based on these inaccurate prices. The board didn’t file their papers appropriately the primary time, however they’ve filed them once more in housing courtroom. What do I do subsequent?
A: It’s best to reply to the notices to treatment in a well timed style, and contest the debt, following the process outlined in your co-op’s governing paperwork. Embody proof of the account error in addition to any related communications you’ve had with the board or your constructing’s managing agent.
Should you can not show that you just instructed the co-op to use your month-to-month funds to your common upkeep charges reasonably than these different prices, you might not be capable to problem how the co-op’s billing workers allotted the funds, mentioned Leni Morrison Cummins, chair of the condominiums and cooperatives apply at Cozen O’Connor. Should you do have documentation exhibiting that you just wished your funds to be utilized to your month-to-month prices, embody that proof once you reply to the board.
If the monetary dispute will get to courtroom, the burden of proof might be on the co-op to indicate that it’s correctly charging you, Ms. Cummins mentioned. You’ll have a possibility to answer the co-op’s claims and supply proof of the errors. In case you are victorious, the co-op might be required to pay your authorized charges. If not, you might have to pay constructing’s authorized charges.
“Earlier than this escalates to litigation, each you and the co-op might want to completely overview your information to substantiate the energy of every place,” Ms. Cummins mentioned.
You could be appropriate that the board is retaliating in opposition to you, however proving it might be troublesome. What sort of proof do you have got? Are you conscious that different shareholders in an identical state of affairs had been handled in a different way?
“It’s doable that the timing of the cooperative’s authorized motion, coinciding with the shareholder’s candidacy for the board, is coincidental,” mentioned Joseph Colbert, an actual property lawyer at Colbert Legislation, LLC.
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