Legislation May 16, 2026 · updated June 14, 2026

New York's condo-reform record: what stalled, and what actually passed.

Reform is not absent because nobody tried. Most condo and co-op governance bills die at the committee level — usually without a recorded vote. But the record is not uniform: two reforms in this set did become law. The honest version of this story is worth more than the slogan version, so here it is, with every bill linked to its primary source.

We track the NY State and NYC Council reforms that touch condo or co-op governance on our legislative graveyard page. Ten reforms. Six are stalled in Albany committees right now — managing-agent licensure has been one of them for nine straight sessions. Two became law. Two have no bill at all. Every entry on that page links to its primary source, and so does every claim below.

The pattern, not the bill.

What matters here is the pattern, not any single bill. The substantive condo and co-op governance proposals follow a near-identical legislative life cycle in Albany: a sponsor introduces the bill, it is referred to committee, the committee chair declines to schedule a vote, the bill dies at the end of the session, and either the same sponsor reintroduces it next session or it quietly disappears. The pattern repeats across multiple sponsors and multiple sessions for the same handful of proposals.

This is not how Albany handles every issue. Bills that clear the Housing Committee do exist, and every session enacts dozens of housing-related laws. The pattern that defines the condo/co-op governance space is selective: many tenant-protection bills move; the core owner-governance bills mostly do not. The most charitable read is "low constituent priority." The less charitable read is "industry-aligned committee chairs."

The five stuck in committee.

S.71 — Managing-Agent Certification & Registration. Senator Brian Kavanagh's bill would require property managers of co-ops and condos to register with the Secretary of State and obtain certification. It has been introduced in nine consecutive sessions since 2009 — S.5301, S.87, S.184, S.198, S.2027, S.2340, S.3092, S.663, and now S.71 — and has never been reported out of committee. There is no Assembly companion this session. This is the licensure bill we support, and the single clearest illustration of the stall.

A.1505 — Condominium & Cooperative Owner's Bill of Rights. Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal's disclosure bill would mandate annual financial statements to owners, disclosure of board self-dealing, and a right to inspect minutes, financial records, bank statements, competitive bids over $5,000, and inspection reports within 10 business days. Reintroduced session after session since 2009; it dies in Assembly Housing each time. Opponents call mandatory disclosure a "litigation invitation" — the standard rhetoric used to stall any transparency mandate.

A.5227 / S.5089 — Right Against Extraordinary Expenses. Assemblymember Karines Reyes and Senator Luis Sepúlveda carry a "Residential Condominium Owner's Bill of Rights" that would force boards to put expense limits to a unit-owner vote at least every five years; above those owner-set caps, the board could not commit to extraordinary expenses without owner approval, barring emergencies or refinancing. S.5089 actually passed the Senate in March 2026 — the Assembly version remains stuck. (This addresses the special-assessment gap; note it sets no fixed dollar threshold.)

S.7600 / A.8945 — Capital Reserve Study Mandate. Senator Siela Bynoe's bill would direct condos and co-ops to complete a 30-year capital reserve study by a credentialed specialist and file it with the Attorney General. It is new in the 2025–2026 session and sits in committee. Worth being precise: New York has no statutory reserve-funding floor, and there is no pending bill that sets one as a percentage of budget — this study mandate is the closest live proposal, which is itself the story.

S.401 / A.6100 — Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes carry New York's TOPA, modeled on D.C.'s law and San Francisco's COPA: tenants and qualified nonprofits would get a right of first offer on their building before a third-party sale. Carried across four sessions since 2021; S.401 was stricken in May 2026 without being reported out. (Distinct from the NYC Council's separate COPA, Int. 902.)

The two that actually passed.

S.6577 (2023) — Real-Property-Theft Protections, now Chapter 630. Senator Brian Kavanagh's deed-theft bill (Senator Myrie co-sponsoring) amended the RPAPL to protect victims of fraudulent title transfers, including a rebuttable presumption of fraud after a related conviction. It passed the Senate 61–0 and was signed into law on November 14, 2023. It is in this list as a deliberate contrast: housing-adjacent reform can pass when it carries cross-party momentum.

NYC Council Intro 1120-B — now Local Law 58 of 2026. Council Member Amanda C. Farías's bill requires co-op corporations with more than 10 units to acknowledge a purchase or transfer application within 15 days and decide within 45 days. It passed the Council 46–2, survived a mayoral veto by override on January 29, 2026, and takes effect July 28, 2026. It is not managing-agent licensure — that is the state-level S.71 — but it proves municipal co-op/condo governance regulation is achievable, and it is the template if Albany keeps stalling.

Two gaps with no bill at all.

Two reforms we care about have no legislative vehicle whatsoever, and we will not invent a bill number to make the list look complete. There is no bill barring the Local Law 11 inspecting engineer from taking fees from the contractor performing the remediation they specified — that conflict is governed only by general special-inspector practice. And there is no bill extending a sponsor's liability for offering-plan misrepresentations beyond the six-year limitations period that case law runs from first closing. Both belong on a reform wishlist, flagged honestly as ideas rather than pending bills.

Why this matters in 2026.

The reason to publish this record is not to shame the legislators who carried these bills — most of the sponsors deserve credit for introducing reforms their constituents needed against organized opposition. The reason is to make the cumulative weight visible and accurate. When a journalist asks "what's the state of condo reform in NY?", the honest answer is: the core owner-governance bills have stalled in committee for up to nine sessions, a couple of adjacent reforms have squeaked through, and a few obvious gaps have no bill at all. That is the structural fact any reform conversation has to start from.

It also matters as targeting data. If you want to write a letter, the reforms that most reward constituent contact in 2026 are S.71 (the licensure bill in Albany), A.5227 / S.5089 (the owner-vote bill that already cleared the Senate), and S.7600 (the reserve-study bill). The letter-to-rep generator has templates you can adapt.

What we're missing.

This list is incomplete by design. We track bills that reached at least committee assignment in Albany or the NYC Council. We don't track draft legislation that never got sponsored, advocacy proposals never converted to bill text, or memo letters that never received an answer. The graveyard is bigger than what's visible here. If you have firsthand knowledge of a reform bill not listed (especially one killed in committee in the last three sessions), let us know via the corrections page. We add primary-source citations and update.