NYC gave co-op buyers a deadline. It did not give them the books.

On July 28, 2026, Local Law 2026/058 took effect across New York City's more than 7,000 co-op buildings. For the first time, co-op boards with 10 or more units must acknowledge a purchase application within 15 calendar days and reach a determination within 45. Before the Council reached that vote, its Committee on Housing and Buildings held a hearing on two companion bills: one that would have required boards to explain rejection decisions in writing, and one that would have let approved buyers inspect the building's financial records within 15 days of a request. Neither came to a floor vote. Companion to what NYC condo and co-op owners can legally demand from the board.

What current law gives a shareholder, and what it withholds from a buyer.

NY Business Corporation Law §624 gives co-op shareholders the right to inspect a corporation's books and records for any purpose "reasonably related to such person's interest as a shareholder." The right is enforceable. A current co-op owner who suspects the managing agent has commingled funds can invoke §624 and seek court-ordered disclosure if the board refuses. As we covered in What NYC condo and co-op owners can legally demand from the board, no state agency enforces that right proactively. But the right exists.

The statute's operative word is "shareholder." A prospective buyer holds no shares until the sale closes. BCL §624 does not extend to applicants, to buyers under contract, or to people who have received board approval but have not yet signed. The statute draws a line at share ownership, and it draws it clearly.

For condominiums, NY Real Property Law §339-w gives unit owners the right to inspect "receipts and expenditures arising from the operation of the property." The same limitation applies: a "unit owner" is a title holder. A buyer under contract is not within the statute.

No New York statute, city or state, gives a prospective co-op buyer the right to inspect the building's reserve fund balance, the most recent financial audit, the current operating budget, the outstanding special assessment schedule, or the ratio of owner-occupied units to investor-held units before signing. The information asymmetry at the moment of purchase is a structural feature of the current legal framework, not an accident of oversight. It is documented as a regulatory gap on this site at No Mandatory Financial Disclosure to Buyers.

Three bills. One floor vote.

In the fall of 2025, the Council's Committee on Housing and Buildings scheduled hearings on three co-op reform bills at the same time. The bills addressed three separate but related problems in the co-op purchase process.

The finance disclosure bill would have created something that does not exist anywhere in New York law: a right for an approved buyer to see what a co-op costs to run before committing to purchase. The building's financials are prepared by the board's accountants and managed by the board's managing agent. Under current law, a buyer who has cleared every hurdle in the admissions process can sign without ever seeing those documents, unless the seller volunteers them or the buyer's attorney negotiates their production during due diligence. Many boards refuse both requests. No statute compels either.

The Council held the hearing, heard testimony on all three bills, and passed only the timing bill. As reported at the time by Habitat Magazine and The Real Deal, the industry opposed all three bills and most vigorously opposed the two that would have added disclosure duties.

The rejection bill is back. The finance bill is not.

In the current 2026 Council session, the rejection-reasons bill has been reintroduced as Int. 0774-2026, titled the Fair Residential Cooperative Disclosure Law. It would require co-op boards in buildings with 10 or more units to give rejected applicants a written explanation of the decision within five days. Fines for noncompliance run up to $25,000.

The Fair Housing Justice Center, which operates coopdisclosure.nyc, is the bill's lead advocacy organization. Its argument: unexplained rejections give racial, gender, and sexual-orientation discrimination no paper trail to follow. As we documented in NYC co-op boards can reject you without a reason, Westchester County has required a written rejection reason since 2021. NYC still does not.

The Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums 2026 legislative scorecard rates Int. 0774-2026 as a bill the organization opposes, calling it burdensome to volunteer boards. CNYC's position mirrors its opposition to the 2025 version.

No 2026 counterpart to the finance disclosure bill has been introduced in the current Council session. The right for an approved buyer to see a co-op's financials before signing remains unaddressed at both the city and state level.

The same pattern, at a different address.

The City Council's experience is not unique to it. At the state level, the Condo Transparency Act (S.7541) would have required boards to disclose engineering reports and inspection records to buyers at contract signing. The Senate passed it 58-1. The Assembly companion bill was withdrawn before a floor vote, as we documented in our June post on S.7541.

The Condo Owner's Bill of Rights (S.5089) passed the full Senate 60-0-2 in April 2025. Two Assembly companion bills were referred to the Housing Committee and received no floor vote before Albany adjourned June 18, 2026, as we documented in our post on S.5089. And as we documented in When Albany adjourned in June, four co-op reform bills had no vote, managing-agent licensure, reserve study mandates, and the ombudsperson bill all received the same outcome.

The pattern is consistent at both addresses: the reform that adds a process clock advances; the reform that adds a disclosure duty stalls. A timeline right tells a buyer when they will hear an answer. It says nothing about what they are buying into.

The unlicensed intermediary in the room.

The financials that a buyer cannot currently see are prepared and managed by the co-op's managing agent. The same person or firm processes the purchase application, maintains the building's books, and executes the board's determination. As we reported in S.71: the managing-agent licensure bill nobody's talking about, New York imposes no license, registration, or certification requirement on managing agents of any building size.

S.71 has not received a committee hearing in ten consecutive sessions. Senator Brian Kavanagh, who carried the bill for more than a decade, announced in February 2026 that he would not seek re-election. The 2027 session begins without an identified Senate sponsor for managing-agent licensure.

A financial disclosure right and a license requirement address separate gaps, but they interact directly. The buyer's right to see building financials is only as useful as the preparers of those financials are accountable. New York currently provides neither the right nor the accountability.

Bottom line.

New York City's co-op buildings hold more than 300,000 units, the largest co-op housing stock of any municipality in the United States. Starting July 28, 2026, buyers in those buildings have a timeline right: a clock on how long a board can leave an application unanswered. They do not have an information right.

The finance disclosure bill the City Council heard in 2025 would have created one: building financials, on written request, within 15 days, for buyers who had already been approved to purchase. It would not have changed who could be rejected. It would not have required public filing of any building's accounts. It was a narrow right, limited to approved buyers, with a short production window. The Committee heard it and did not schedule it for a floor vote.

The buyer who closed in August 2026 under the new 45-day clock signed with the same financial information available to a buyer who closed in 2015: whatever the selling shareholder chose to volunteer, whatever the buyer's attorney could extract before the contract deposit was at risk, and nothing the law required to be disclosed.

Primary sources
NYC Council Int. 0774-2026 (Fair Residential Cooperative Disclosure Law) — NYC Legistar
NY Business Corporation Law §624 — NY Senate OpenLegislation
NY Real Property Law §339-w — NY Senate OpenLegislation
CNYC 2026 Co-op/Condo Legislative Scorecard (PDF)
Fair Housing Justice Center — We Need Transparency: Intro 0774
Habitat Magazine — NYC Council to hold hearing on co-op bills (November 2025)
The Real Deal — Co-op boards clash with NYC lawmakers over transparency bills (Dec. 2025)

Companion resources: What NYC condo and co-op owners can legally demand from the board · NYC co-op boards can reject you without a reason · NY's Senate passed a condo owner's bill of rights 60-0-2 · Issue: No mandatory financial disclosure to buyers · Issue: Managing-agent licensure gap · AG REFB complaint tool