The bill that would license NYC managing agents has no Senate sponsor going into 2027.

A barber needs a New York license. A cosmetologist needs a New York license. The person managing your $200 million residential building needs nothing — and that has not changed in ten consecutive sessions of the New York legislature. The 2027 session is set to begin without a Senate sponsor to reintroduce the one bill that would change it.

What S.71 would do.

NY Senate Bill S.71 would add Article 12-D to the Real Property Law. The article has two working parts. First, any managing agent of a cooperative or condominium, and any firm that employs or contracts with one, would have to file a registration statement with the New York Secretary of State. Second, the individual agent would have to obtain certification from an organization approved for that purpose.

The bill sets a floor, not a ceiling. It does not require a written exam, post a bond, or mandate continuing education. What it would create is a public record: a registry of agents and firms operating in the state, with the Secretary of State as the issuing body. The bill also addresses what happens when the relationship ends. When a managing agent ceases services, all building records, bank accounts, and operating funds would have to be returned within 10 business days. If bank reconciliation is required, the window extends to 45 business days.

Today, none of that is required. An agent can manage a portfolio of NYC co-op and condo buildings, collect operating funds from boards, and end the engagement with no state-mandated deadline for returning records, because New York law sets no such deadline. The Secretary of State has no managing-agent registry. There is no disciplinary database. There is no exam anyone has to pass before taking on the management of a building where residents have their most significant financial asset.

Ten sessions without a committee hearing.

S.71 has been referred to the Judiciary Committee in each of its recent sessions. The Judiciary Committee has not scheduled a public hearing on the bill. No floor vote has occurred. In the 2025-26 session, no Assembly companion bill was introduced, which means the path that would be needed to reach the Governor's desk did not exist even in theory.

The pattern across sessions is consistent. The bill is introduced in January. It is referred to committee in January. That is the last recorded legislative action it sees. When Albany adjourned on June 6, 2026, S.71 sat in Judiciary with no hearing on record. Three other co-op and condo reform bills, S8912 (reserve funds), S6346 (owner rights), and A8945 (reserve studies), produced the same outcome in the same session.

February 3 changed the math for 2027.

On February 3, 2026, Senator Brian Kavanagh published a statement on nysenate.gov announcing he would not seek re-election to the New York Senate. Kavanagh has served in the New York Senate since 2017, currently representing the 27th Manhattan Senate District, and served in the Assembly from 2007. He introduced or reintroduced the managing-agent registration bill in multiple consecutive sessions. In his statement, he wrote that elected officials owe it to constituents "to recognize when we have reached a point when we have given it our all and they would be well served by electing someone new."

For S.71, the practical consequence is this: New York bills do not carry over between legislative sessions. Every January, a sponsor must reintroduce the bill from the beginning. If no senator reintroduces S.71 or a successor bill in January 2027, the bill does not exist in that session. It cannot be referred to committee. It cannot receive a hearing. Without introduction, the decade-long record of committee referrals becomes the ceiling, not the floor.

As of July 29, 2026, no senator has publicly announced an intention to introduce a managing-agent licensure bill in the 2027-28 session. Multiple candidates have announced for Kavanagh's seat, with the primary scheduled for June 2026. Managing-agent certification has not been a named legislative priority for any candidate who has publicly announced. On the Assembly side, no companion bill to S.71 has been introduced in recent sessions, which means any Senate-side introduction in 2027 would still face the same structural gap on the Assembly floor that has existed throughout the bill's history.

What continues without the bill.

In July 2026, the AG's office settled with Spigro Management LLC, which manages more than 40 NYC buildings including cooperatives and condominiums. The settlement imposed $23,500 in fines and penalties for a pattern of illegal tenant lockouts in post-conversion co-op buildings in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Spigro had no license to lose. The settlement created no registration record that would follow the firm to future management contracts or be visible to boards considering hiring the company. The AG's enforcement authority under Executive Law §63(12) reached the unlawful conduct; it did not and could not reach the credential gap that S.71 was designed to address.

Six states have enacted managing-agent or community association manager licensing laws that would give a regulator something to revoke in a situation like Spigro's: Washington D.C. (1999, D.C. Law 12-261), Georgia (1997), Connecticut (1991), Nevada (2005), Virginia (2008), and Illinois (2010). In each jurisdiction, a licensed agent who commits the conduct at issue in the Spigro settlement has a professional credential at stake. In New York, there is no credential to revoke. The comparison is not hypothetical: the CCNYC national-comparison series has documented each of these regimes against the New York gap.

The industry has not been silent on the issue. David Kuperberg, a prominent NYC managing agent, described the current regime publicly as "dinosaur age." The gap is not disputed even by industry participants; the mechanism that would close it has simply not moved through the legislature.

What the gap means for owners and buyers.

New York's 15,108 condo and co-op buildings operate in this gap every day. A board that suspects its managing agent is commingling funds, withholding financial records, or failing to file required regulatory documents has two primary tools available: civil litigation in Supreme Court, or a complaint to the Attorney General's Real Estate Finance Bureau. The AG's reach under the Martin Act does not extend to managing-agent conduct in a building's post-offering-plan governance phase. A board that wants accountability from its agent in that phase must pay for a lawyer and file suit.

Buyers face a related gap. There is no state registry a buyer can check before purchase to verify that the managing agent running a building they are considering has a clean record. There is no disciplinary history to request. There is no licensing board that accepts complaints. The managing agent's reputation is whatever the managing agent's marketing materials say it is.

None of that changes because S.71's identified sponsor is leaving office. The gap existed before Kavanagh introduced the bill and will exist after 2026. What changes is the probability that a bill addressing it will be in the 2027-28 session calendar at all.

Bottom line.

S.71 was the one New York Senate bill consistently addressing managing-agent certification and registration for co-op and condo buildings. It did not receive a committee hearing in any session in which it was introduced. The 2027 session is set to begin without an identified sponsor to reintroduce it. That outcome is structural, not accidental: the bill never had Assembly side support, never produced a hearing, and now loses the senator who introduced it across multiple sessions without either of those facts changing. For owners and buyers in the 15,108 buildings that operate without a managing-agent licensing framework, the practical situation is unchanged. The person running their building needs no credential, appears in no registry, and answers to no licensing board. That will remain true for at least the duration of the 2027-28 session, and probably longer.

Primary sources: Senator Kavanagh retirement statement, nysenate.gov, Feb. 3, 2026 · S.71 bill page, nysenate.gov (2025-26 session) · AG Spigro settlement press release, ag.ny.gov, 2026

Companion resources: S.71: what the bill would actually require · Albany's June session: four reform bills without a vote · Ten condo reform bills: the full legislative record · The AG settled with Spigro. It still has no license to lose. · Why the AG can't help with condo governance disputes · D.C. licensed property managers in 1999 · Managing-agent licensure gap: full issue page