How To May 16, 2026

How to write an AG REFB complaint that doesn't get ignored.

The NY Attorney General's Real Estate Finance Bureau has approximately five lawyers and receives hundreds of condo and co-op complaints per year. The realistic enforcement rate is low. A well-structured complaint with primary-source citations is substantially more likely to get a written response than a free-form narrative.

Most condo and co-op unit owners only learn about the Attorney General's Real Estate Finance Bureau (REFB) when something has already gone wrong. The Bureau is the closest thing New York has to a condo regulator. It enforces the Martin Act (General Business Law Article 23-A) against offering-plan misrepresentations and sponsor misconduct. It does not have administrative remedies, it does not run an arbitration process, and it does not provide individual relief. What it does is open files, demand written responses, and, in pattern cases, initiate enforcement actions. A complaint that doesn't open a file accomplishes nothing. Here's how to write one that does.

What the REFB will and won't do.

What it will do: open a file under the building's offering plan number; demand a written response from the sponsor, board, or managing agent; document the complaint as part of the building's record; in cases of clear Martin Act violations, initiate enforcement; in pattern cases (the same sponsor or managing agent named across multiple buildings), elevate to a broader investigation.

What it will not do: get you money back; force the board to reverse a specific decision; provide an arbitration forum; provide legal advice; respond to anonymous complaints. The REFB is a regulator, not a tribunal. Treat the complaint as the opening of a public record, not the start of a dispute resolution.

The structure that gets a response.

Every effective REFB complaint has six parts. The complaint generator on this site enforces this structure. If you'd rather write yours from scratch, here it is.

Part 1 — The cover. Date. Address the letter to "Real Estate Finance Bureau" at 28 Liberty Street, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10005. Subject line: building name + address + BBL + complaint type in one sentence. Example: "Complaint regarding The Sample Condominium, 125 Sample Avenue, NY 10001, BBL 1234567890: Special Assessment Imposed Without Required Vote." The Bureau handles complaints in volume; a clear subject line lets the intake reviewer route it without guessing.

Part 2 — Your standing. One sentence on who you are: unit owner, shareholder, prospective buyer, board member, or former owner. The Bureau treats complaints from anonymous or unidentified parties with low priority. Include your full name and contact information.

Part 3 — Statement of facts. Three to seven sentences. Facts only, no opinions. Use the form: "On [date], [actor] did [specific action]. The [bylaw / offering plan provision / statute] at [citation] required [process]. The [actor] did not follow that process." No "I believe," no "it seems," no characterization. The Bureau is reading volume; they want a chronology they can verify, not a narrative they have to weigh.

Part 4 — Financial harm. One sentence. The specific dollar amount and the specific way it harmed you. "$15,000 special assessment over 18 months that I was not given the opportunity to vote on." If the harm isn't financial, name what it is: denial of access to records, denial of governance participation, denial of disclosure required by statute. Concrete.

Part 5 — Evidence list. Bullet list. Each item is a document you can produce on request: board minutes, the offering plan provision you're citing, the special-assessment invoice, email correspondence with the managing agent, the bylaws section. Don't attach the documents in the initial complaint (the Bureau prefers to request them when they decide to open the file). Just list them.

Part 6 — Requested action. Four asks, in this order: (a) open a file under the building's offering plan to document the complaint; (b) direct the sponsor / board / managing agent to provide a written response; (c) if the conduct is part of a pattern across multiple buildings, consider Martin Act enforcement; (d) provide you with a copy of any response. Be explicit. Vague asks ("please look into this") get filed away; specific asks ("please open a file") trigger intake routing.

What kills a complaint on intake.

Multi-page narratives. The Bureau is not going to read a 12-page complaint. Two pages is the sweet spot. Three pages is the upper bound.

Opinions framed as facts. "The board is corrupt" gets filed away. "On [date], the board awarded a $250,000 contract to [vendor]; board member [name] discloses on their LinkedIn that they are also [position] at [vendor]" opens a file.

Demands for relief the Bureau can't grant. Don't ask the Bureau to reverse the assessment, refund your money, or remove the board. Ask for what the Bureau actually does: open a file, demand a response.

Anonymous or unverified submissions. The Bureau will not act on anonymous complaints. Sign with your name and provide working contact information.

Statute confusion. Don't cite federal law (the Bureau doesn't enforce federal statutes). Don't cite criminal statutes (the Bureau is civil). Stick to the Martin Act (Article 23-A GBL), the offering plan itself, the bylaws, and the Business Corporation Law for co-op governance issues.

Where to send it.

Primary: mail to the Real Estate Finance Bureau, 28 Liberty Street, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10005. Include your generated letter, the cover sheet listing your contact information, and a one-page summary of the evidence you can produce.

Secondary: for managing-agent fee and disclosure issues, file in parallel with the Bureau of Consumer Frauds and Protection at ag.ny.gov/consumer-frauds/file-consumer-complaint. The web intake is faster but routes through a different team.

Tertiary: courtesy-copy your state assembly member and state senator. Find them at nyassembly.gov and nysenate.gov. Their offices regularly forward constituent complaints and ping the AG for a response. Two to three weeks faster on average.

What happens next.

Realistic expectation: weeks to months for the first response. If the Bureau opens a file, you typically receive a letter acknowledging receipt and an indication of the file number. The respondent (board, sponsor, managing agent) typically receives a letter demanding written response within 30-60 days. The Bureau then reviews the response and either closes the file, opens a follow-on inquiry, or, in cases of clear Martin Act violation, initiates enforcement. Most files close without enforcement. That doesn't mean the complaint accomplished nothing: it created a public record that becomes part of the building's pattern history.

Generate yours with the complaint generator. Nothing you type is sent to our server. Everything happens in your browser. We can't see, store, or be subpoenaed for what you write. The output is a structured letter you submit yourself.