THE DOCKET

What it costs to enforce a right New York won’t enforce for you.

Every case below exists because no administrative remedy did. A Florida owner refused their association’s records files a complaint and the statute gives the association ten working days. A New York owner hires a lawyer. This is what that difference costs, case by case.

And the finding that ought to lead any honest reading of it: across 22 verified cases, the number in which a court made a finding against a board is 0. This is not a catalogue of villains. Boards mostly win. Owners win access and they win the right to try again; they do not win judgments. The argument here is not that courts punish boards — it is that a process taking years and six figures serves nobody, including the boards that survive it.

5

still open, of 22 verified

9.4yrs

median time an open case has been running

12yrs

longest, and still not decided

9

of 22 where no tribunal ever decided what the board did

1

of 14 offense types with a NY agency that will hear it

How long each case has run.

Each bar spans from the day the case was filed to its last decision — or, for cases still open, to today. Hatched bars are not findings: the court has not decided whether the conduct occurred.

2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Florida: 10 working days to produce records Musey v. 425 East 86 Apartment 12.1 of Brightwater Towers Condomin 10.3 of Brightwater Towers Condomin 9.4 Levy v. 103-25 68th Avenue Own 8.2 Kerusa Co. LLC v. W10Z/515 Rea 5.9 Pomerance v. McGrath 5.8 of the 432 Park Condominium v. 4.9 Heywood Condominium v. Wozencr 3.8 Safe Haven Properties LLC v. M 3.3 Silver v. Murray House Owners 3.1 Cushing v. Sanford Equities Co 2.6 Atta v. 450 West 31st Owners C 2.3 Valyrakis v. 346 West 48th Str 2.2 Healy v. The Carriage House Co 0.9
Arrowheads mark cases with no end date — they are still running. Values are years. Source: verified NYSCEF dockets and published decisions.
  • Board prevailed 12
  • Split decision 8
  • Agency determination 1
  • Open — allegation only 1
  • Merits not decided

By what the board is said to have done.

Every category carries the same line: no New York agency will hear it. The courthouse is the entire remedy.

Refusal to Produce Books and Records

3

NY agency: none · Florida: 10 days

Self-Dealing and Fiduciary Breach

2

NY agency: none

Bad Faith and Unequal Treatment

2

NY agency: none

Selective Enforcement and Retaliation

2

NY agency: none · Virginia: 30 days

Assessments and Capital Charges Without the Required Vote

2

NY agency: none

Election, Proxy and Quorum Manipulation

2

NY agency: none

Too Late Before You Knew — The Four-Month Window

2

NY agency: none

Failure to Repair Common Elements

1

NY agency: none

Improper Liens and Fee-Stacking on Arrears

1

NY agency: none

Retaliation Against Owner Speech

1

NY agency: none

Discrimination and Denial of Reasonable Accommodation

1

NY agency: none

Sponsor Transition and Construction Defect

1

NY agency: none

Non-Compliance With an Existing Court Order

1

NY agency: none

Enforcement Against an Owner — When the Board Is Right

1

NY agency: none

0 more categories, no verified case yet

    What it cost.

    Only figures stated in the decision itself appear here. We publish no estimated dollar amounts.

    $25,000

    Board of Managers of Pomona Park Condominiums v. Gennis

    61 AD3d 905 (2d Dept 2009) · borne by the unit_owner

    $400,000

    1050 Tenants Corp. v. Lapidus

    39 AD3d 379 (1st Dept 2007) · borne by the association

    $63,409

    Heywood Condominium v. Wozencraft

    148 AD3d 38 (1st Dept 2017) · borne by the unit_owner

    An association has no money of its own — it has common charges. An owner suing their board is, through those charges, helping fund the defence against their own claim. A shareholder put it more plainly in a letter the First Department quoted back at him: “Where does the Board think the money… would come from? The answer is simple, it comes out of your pocket.”

    Every verified case.

    What the board or its agent is said to have doneFiledYearsOutcomeStatus
    Adopted house rules five months after a penthouse sale making that owner responsible for protecting the roof membrane beneath his terrace and indemnifying the cooperative for any damage to it. Never decided · Musey v. 425 East 86 Apartments Corp. · 154 AD3d 401 (1st Dept 2017) 2014-07-25 12.1 Board prevailed Open
    Moved to have the condominium board's lawyers held in civil contempt — and jailed — for communicating with each other while jointly opposing a motion to consolidate. Claim rejected · Board of Mgrs. of Brightwater Towers Condominium v. M. Marin Restoration, Inc. · 2022 NY Slip Op 03491 (2d Dept 2022) 2016-05-31 10.3 Board prevailed Open
    Ran the condominium's repair contracting in its own interest rather than the owners' — the board's own claim against the managing agent it had hired. Never decided · Board of Mgrs. of Brightwater Towers Condominium v. FirstService Residential New York, Inc. · 193 AD3d 672 (2d Dept 2021) 2017-03-17 9.4 Open — allegation, not a finding Open · merits undecided
    Treated a shareholder differently from others in the building, in concert with the managing company and three individual board members. Claim rejected · Levy v. 103-25 68th Avenue Owners, Inc. · 2024 NY Slip Op 00185 (2d Dept 2024) 2018-06-18 8.2 Board prevailed Open · merits undecided
    Certified in successive offering-plan amendments that there had been no material change affecting the property, while construction and design defects were, it was alleged, known and either ignored or inadequately remedied. Never decided · Kerusa Co. LLC v. W10Z/515 Real Estate Ltd. Partnership · 12 NY3d 236 (2009) 2003-05-22 5.9 Sponsor prevailed Closed · merits undecided
    Refused a unit owner access to the condominium's invoices, monthly financial reports, board minutes and legal bills, and to the contact list of the other unit owners. Claim upheld · Pomerance v. McGrath · 143 AD3d 443 (1st Dept 2016) 2011-01-19 5.8 Split decision Closed
    Sought to have the condominium pay his personal legal expenses in litigation the board itself had brought. Claim rejected · Board of Mgrs. of the 432 Park Condominium v. 56th and Park (NY) Owner, LLC · 2026 NY Slip Op 03381 (1st Dept 2026) 2021-09-23 4.9 Board prevailed Open · merits undecided
    Recorded a lien of $211,178.40 against a unit of which $132,879.10 was late charges and legal fees rather than common charges, curtailed the owner's building services, foreclosed, and had him ejected from the home he owned while requiring him to pay $6,500 a month in rent for it. Claim rejected · Heywood Condominium v. Wozencraft · 148 AD3d 38 (1st Dept 2017) 2013-03-15 3.8 Board prevailed Closed
    Did not repair the common elements said to be the source of water infiltration that damaged a unit. Never decided · Safe Haven Properties LLC v. Madison Green Condominium · 183 AD3d 460 (1st Dept 2020) 2017-01-09 3.3 Split decision Closed · merits undecided
    Withheld consent to a shareholder's replacement of HVAC units the cooperative had previously approved, under a lease clause saying consent would not be unreasonably withheld. Never decided · Silver v. Murray House Owners Corp. · 126 AD3d 655 (1st Dept 2015) 2012-02-28 3.1 Split decision Closed · merits undecided
    Declined a shareholder's demand to inspect the cooperative's books and records while a holdover proceeding against her was already pending. Never decided · Cushing v. Sanford Equities Corp. · 2024 NY Slip Op 00405 (2d Dept 2024) 2021-06-25 2.6 Board prevailed Closed · merits undecided
    Adopted house rules said to single out individual shareholders rather than apply to the building generally, including a rule governing parking spaces. Never decided · Matter of Atta v. 450 West 31st Owners Corp. · 2025 NY Slip Op 04042 (1st Dept 2025) 2023-04-17 2.3 Split decision Closed · merits undecided
    Reduced a shareholder's holding from 500 shares to 250 — two votes to one — and conducted the April 2015 board election on that basis. Never decided · Valyrakis v. 346 West 48th Street Housing Development Fund Corp. · 161 AD3d 404 (1st Dept 2018) 2016-03-10 2.2 Split decision Closed · merits undecided
    Withheld the condominium's correspondence with a third party the owners were investigating, and the documents behind its settlement with the sponsor, asserting privilege without particulars — then paid the legal expenses of the subpoenaed parties out of association funds. Split · Matter of Healy v. The Carriage House Condominium · 2018 NY Slip Op 07970 (1st Dept 2018) 2017-12-07 0.9 Split decision Closed

    This catalogue is a hand-verified sample, not the universe — our analysis of NYSCEF e-filing records suggests roughly 5,300 filings a year name a condominium or cooperative entity. Read the methodology before drawing conclusions from these numbers.