Condominium and Cooperative Resident Disclosure Act

Drafting status. A complete local law draft with a sponsor’s statement, prepared for introduction in the New York City Council. It carries no introduction number because none has been assigned. Every citation was verified against a primary source on 2026-07-27; see the appendix at Part V. No Council Member has agreed to sponsor this, and none is named as though they had.

PART I — SPONSOR’S STATEMENT

INTRODUCTION NUMBER: to be assigned

TITLE: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring notice in condominium and cooperative buildings of where the building’s public regulatory record may be obtained.

PURPOSE:

A tenant in a rent-stabilized building now gets a sign in the lobby telling them their unit may be regulated and where to check. An owner who paid several hundred thousand dollars for a unit in the same neighborhood gets nothing. This local law closes that gap with one sign.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the administrative code by adding a new section 27-2104.1 requiring the owner of a condominium or cooperative multiple dwelling to post a notice in a common area at the building entrance identifying the form of ownership and stating where the building’s public regulatory record and its offering plan file may be obtained.

Section 2 requires the department of housing preservation and development to prescribe the form of the notice and to make it available at no charge.

Section 3 applies the existing civil penalty provisions of the housing maintenance code.

Section 4 sets the effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:

The city already requires a lobby sign in these buildings. Section 27-2104 of the administrative code — verified 2026-07-27 — requires an identification sign bearing the dwelling’s serial number assigned by the department, posted for the purpose of identifying the registered multiple dwelling and the owner, the managing agent, and any agent designated to collect rent, in the manner and location the department prescribes. The sign goes in the entrance hall.

The city has also just decided that a lobby sign is the right instrument for telling residents about a regulatory status they may not know they have. Local Law 86 of 2025, the Rent Transparency Act — Council Int. 1037 of 2024, passed May 28, 2025, effective January 26, 2026, verified 2026-07-27 — requires a multiple dwelling of three or more units containing at least one rent-stabilized apartment to post a notice in a common area stating that the building contains rent-stabilized units and directing residents to New York State Homes and Community Renewal to find out whether their own unit is one. The notice must be available in English and Spanish.

The reasoning behind that law applies with equal force, and arguably greater force, to owners. A rent-stabilized tenant who does not know their status loses the benefit of a rent cap. A condominium or cooperative owner who does not know their building’s regulatory record has already paid for the building’s problems and will pay again — in assessments, in resale price, and in the cost of repairs that were deferred before they arrived.

The information this notice points to is already public. Housing maintenance code violations, department of buildings records, facade filings made under section 28-302 of the administrative code, and offering plans filed with the New York State Attorney General under section 352-e of the general business law are all public records. What is missing is any moment at which an owner is told they exist.

This local law creates that moment, once, in the lobby, for the price of printing a sign.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Negligible. The department prescribes a form and makes it available at no charge; owners print and post it. No new inspection regime, no new office, no new penalty schedule — enforcement runs through the civil penalty provisions the housing maintenance code already contains.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

Two hundred ten days after enactment, except that the department may take any action necessary for implementation before that date.

PART II — THE LOCAL LAW

                        THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

                                              [INT. NO. TO BE ASSIGNED]

    By Council Member ____

    A LOCAL LAW

    To amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to
    requiring notice in condominium and cooperative buildings of where the
    building's public regulatory record may be obtained.

    Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

§ 1. Chapter 2 of title 27 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 27-2104.1 to read as follows:

§ 27-2104.1 Notice in condominium and cooperative dwellings.

a. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:

  “Covered dwelling” means a multiple dwelling in which dwelling units are held in condominium form of ownership pursuant to article 9-B of the real property law, or in which occupancy of dwelling units is conferred by ownership of shares in a cooperative corporation.

  “Responsible party” means, for a covered dwelling, the board of managers of the condominium or the board of directors of the cooperative corporation, and any managing agent designated pursuant to section 27-2098 of this chapter.

b. Notice required. The responsible party for a covered dwelling shall post and maintain a notice, in a form prescribed by the department, in a conspicuous location within the common area at the entrance of such dwelling. Where a covered dwelling has more than one entrance used by residents, such notice shall be posted at each such entrance.

c. Content of notice. The notice required by subdivision b of this section shall state, in a form prescribed by the department and in no smaller than fourteen-point type:

“THIS BUILDING IS A [CONDOMINIUM / COOPERATIVE].

Public records about this building — including housing maintenance code violations, department of buildings records, and facade inspection filings — are available from the city of New York.

The offering plan for this building and any amendments to it are filed with the New York State Attorney General, Real Estate Finance Bureau.

This notice does not tell you anything about the condition of this building. It tells you where to look.”

The department shall include in the prescribed form the current means of obtaining each record described in this subdivision. The responsible party shall not be required to verify or update such means.

d. Languages. The department shall prescribe the notice in English and in Spanish, and shall make the notice available in each of the designated citywide languages. The responsible party shall post the English and Spanish forms and shall make the remaining language forms available upon request.

e. Additional information. A responsible party may post additional information adjacent to but separate from the notice required by this section, provided such information does not obscure, contradict, or appear to be part of such notice.

f. Prescribed form. The department shall prescribe the form of the notice required by this section, shall make such form available on its website at no charge, and shall not impose any fee for the form or its filing.

g. Rules. The department may promulgate rules necessary to implement this section.

§ 2. Enforcement.

A violation of section 27-2104.1 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by section one of this local law, shall constitute a violation subject to the civil penalties provided in section 27-2115 of such code. No such violation shall be classified as immediately hazardous.

§ 3. Severability.

If any provision of this local law is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect any other provision, and to this end the provisions of this local law are severable.

§ 4. Effective date.

This local law takes effect two hundred ten days after it becomes law, except that the department of housing preservation and development may take such measures as are necessary for its implementation, including the prescription of the form of notice and the promulgation of rules, before such date.

PART III — WHAT CHANGED FROM THE PRIOR DRAFT, AND WHY

Removed: the mandatory URL to condoscoopsnyc.org. The prior draft’s notice text directed residents to condoscoopsnyc.org/[BBL]. A local law cannot direct the public to a private website operated by the party advocating for the law. It is a conflict of interest on its face, it makes the bill trivially attackable, and it makes the statute dependent on a domain the city does not control. The notice now points to the city and to the Attorney General — both permanent, both public. If the site is useful, residents will find it; the statute should not conscript them.

Removed: the claim that HPD must execute a data-sharing agreement with the Attorney General before the law takes effect. The prior draft asserted this “mirrors LL86 § 2’s HPD↔DHCR agreement.” The existence and terms of such a provision in Local Law 86 were not verified. More to the point, this notice requires no data sharing: it points to where records live, it does not reproduce them. The provision was solving a problem the redesigned notice does not have.

Removed: “Effective date: 210 days after becoming law (matches LL86 § 3).” The 210-day period is retained as a reasonable implementation runway, but the claim that it matches Local Law 86 is not asserted, because it was not verified. What was verified is that Local Law 86 passed the Council on May 28, 2025 and takes effect January 26, 2026.

Removed: “Int. 1037-A of 2024.” The Council file located is Int. 1037 of 2024. The “-A” suffix denoting an amended version was not confirmed. The unadorned number is used.

Added: the last line of the notice. “This notice does not tell you anything about the condition of this building. It tells you where to look.” This is the provision that makes the bill defensible. Without it, a posted notice invites the argument that the city has implied something about the building’s condition — which is both untrue and the strongest available objection. The sentence removes the objection.

Added: a rule that the responsible party need not verify the record locations. The department prescribes the form including current URLs and contact points. If those change, the department reissues the form. A volunteer board is not made liable for a dead link.

Narrowed: enforcement. The prior draft cited § 27-2115(a). The subdivision reference was not verified; the section was. Section 27-2115 is titled “Imposition of civil penalty” and sits in subchapter 5, article 2 of the housing maintenance code — verified 2026-07-27. The bill now cites the section and expressly provides that a violation is not immediately hazardous, which keeps a missing sign out of the class C daily-penalty machinery where it plainly does not belong.

PART IV — OPEN DRAFTING QUESTIONS

1. Section number. 27-2104.1 is proposed. Whether the Council’s drafters would place this in article 2 of subchapter 4 alongside the registration and posting sections, or elsewhere, is theirs to decide.

2. Designated citywide languages. The prior draft cited administrative code § 23-1101 for this term. That citation was not verified and is not asserted here. The bill uses the term without a cross-reference on the assumption that it is defined elsewhere in the code; before introduction, the correct defining section must be located and cited.

3. Whether HDFC and Mitchell-Lama buildings need additional notice text. These buildings carry regulatory obligations — under Private Housing Finance Law article XI and article 2 respectively, both verified 2026-07-27 — that ordinary condominiums do not. A supplemental line may be warranted. It is not drafted here.

4. Sponsor-controlled buildings. Where a sponsor still controls the board, the “responsible party” is effectively the sponsor. Whether the notice should say so is a live question.

5. Interaction with § 27-2104. If the department prefers, this notice could be added to the existing serial-number sign rather than posted separately. Co-locating mandatory notices makes them more durable; it also makes them easier to ignore. This draft keeps them separate.

PART V — CITATION APPENDIX

Verified 2026-07-27 against the source shown.

Citations removed as unverified

PATH TO PASSAGE

Choke-point analysis: the choke-point analysis. In the 2025 session 16,794 bills were introduced and roughly 800 reached the Governor — about 4.8%. Verified 2026-07-27.

Route: New York City Council, standalone. The cheapest bill in the set.

The precedent argument does most of the work. Local Law 86 of 2025 — Council Int. 1037 of 2024, passed 2025-05-28, effective 2026-01-26 — already requires a lobby notice in buildings with rent-stabilized units, directing residents to a state agency to check their own status. Verified 2026-07-27. The Council has already decided a lobby sign is the right instrument for this exact problem. The ask is to extend a decision already made, which is a materially easier ask than a new one.

Before introduction: the “designated citywide languages” cross-reference was not verified and must be located in the code first. A missing cross-reference in a two-page bill is the kind of thing that gets it sent back.

Related: LEGISLATIVE_MODEL.md · solution S15 in 01_Database/condoscoop.db · condo-coop-fraud-prevention-and-recovery-act.md