Everyday Owner Protections Act

Drafting status. A complete bill draft with a sponsor’s memorandum. No bill number is assigned and no legislator has agreed to carry it. Every citation was verified against a primary source on 2026-07-27; see Part V.

The four mechanisms in this bill carry the highest viability scores in the CondosCoopsNYC model — 78 to 85 out of 100. Nothing here restructures anything. Every provision is something an owner has personally experienced.

PART I — SPONSOR’S MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT

BILL NUMBER: to be assigned

TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the real property law and the business corporation law, in relation to fees charged to unit owners and shareholders, the authorization and disclosure of transfer fees, the uniform application of sublet and rental restrictions, and time limits upon a right of first refusal.

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

Publish the fees, adopt them the way the governing documents require, apply the rules the same way to everyone, and answer within a fixed time.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 sets out legislative findings.

Section 2 requires a published schedule of every fee charged to owners, requires adoption by the vote the governing documents require, imposes a cost-relatedness standard on administrative fees, and requires disclosure before contract.

Section 3 requires that a transfer fee rest on an identified authorization and be disclosed before contract.

Section 4 requires that sublet and rental restrictions be adopted by the required vote and applied uniformly.

Section 5 imposes a decision deadline on the exercise of a right of first refusal.

Section 6 provides severability and an effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:

These are the charges nobody votes on.

A common charge increase requires whatever the governing documents require — notice, a budget, in many buildings a vote. A move-in fee does not. Neither does a move-out fee, an alteration application fee, a sublet fee, a pet fee, a package fee, a key fee, a refinancing fee, or a fee for producing the paperwork a lender demands at closing. Individually each is small. Together they are a parallel revenue system, adopted by resolution, disclosed at the moment payment is demanded, and set at whatever figure the board thought it could charge.

This bill does not cap any of them. It requires three things: that the schedule be published, that a fee be adopted the way the documents say fees are adopted, and that an administrative fee bear some relationship to a cost. A fee that recovers a real cost survives all three untouched. A fee whose size has no relationship to anything does not.

The transfer fee provision is narrower than it looks and rests on existing law. Section 501 of the business corporation law provides, for residential cooperative corporations, that variation in transfer fees and charges among shares of the same class does not render the shares unequal, provided liquidation rights are substantially equal per share, maintenance charges are fixed equally, and voting is either per-share or one-vote-per-unit. Verified 2026-07-27. That is the statutory foundation on which a cooperative transfer fee rests. Section 3 of this bill requires that a transfer fee identify its authorization and be disclosed before contract. A properly adopted fee is unaffected.

Uniform application is the whole of section 4. A sublet restriction adopted by the required vote and applied to everyone survives this bill unchanged. What ends is the restriction applied to some owners and not others, which is both the most commonly reported governance complaint in the CondosCoopsNYC catalog and the hardest to prove without a rule requiring uniformity in terms.

Section 5 is a clock and nothing more. An association’s right of first refusal, unexercised and with no deadline, functions as a veto over a sale that the association never has to justify and never has to fund. A defined period, after which the right is deemed waived, preserves every legitimate use and removes the illegitimate one.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New. No prior version has been introduced.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

None. No appropriation, no agency, no new forum.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

First day of the first fiscal year of the association commencing at least one hundred eighty days after this act becomes a law.

PART II — THE BILL

                           STATE OF NEW YORK
    ____________________________________________________________________

                                                    [NUMBER TO BE ASSIGNED]

                              IN SENATE / IN ASSEMBLY

    Introduced by ____ -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed
      to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary


    AN ACT to amend the real property law and the business corporation law,
      in relation to fees, transfer fees, rental restrictions and rights of
      first refusal in common interest communities


    The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly,
    do enact as follows:

Section 1. Legislative findings.

The Legislature finds and declares as follows:

1. Associations charge unit owners and shareholders fees, in addition to common charges or maintenance, for services and for consents.

2. Such fees are commonly adopted by resolution of the board rather than by the procedure the governing documents prescribe for the adoption of charges, and are commonly disclosed only when payment is demanded.

3. An owner has no practical means of determining, before purchase, what such fees will be.

4. It is the purpose of this act to require publication and proper adoption of such fees, to require that a fee charged for an administrative service bear a relationship to the cost of that service, and to place time limits upon consents that presently have none.

§ 2. Schedule of fees.

The real property law is amended by adding a new section 339-ll-1 to read as follows:

§ 339-ll-1. Schedule of fees.

1. Definitions. As used in this section, “association” means a condominium board of managers or the board of directors of a cooperative corporation organized for the purpose of providing residential occupancy to its shareholders; “owner” means a unit owner or shareholder; and “fee” means any charge imposed upon an owner other than common charges, maintenance, a duly adopted assessment, and real property taxes.

2. Published schedule. An association shall maintain a written schedule stating each fee it charges, the amount of each, and the event upon which each is charged. The schedule shall be furnished to each owner annually, shall be furnished to any owner or prospective purchaser upon request within ten business days, and shall be included in any disclosure furnished before contract.

3. Adoption. A fee shall be adopted, and its amount shall be changed, only by the procedure the declaration or by-laws prescribe for the adoption or increase of charges. Where the governing documents prescribe no such procedure, a fee may be adopted by the board, and notice of its adoption shall be given to owners not less than thirty days before it takes effect.

4. Cost relatedness. A fee charged for the administrative processing of an application, consent, transfer, or request shall not exceed the reasonable cost to the association of providing that service. This subdivision does not apply to a transfer fee governed by section three hundred thirty-nine-ll-two of this article, or to a charge for the use of a facility or amenity.

5. Unpublished fees. An association shall not charge a fee that is not stated in the schedule then in effect.

6. Remedy. An owner charged a fee in violation of this section may recover the amount paid. Nothing in this section limits any other remedy.

§ 3. Transfer fees.

The real property law is amended by adding a new section 339-ll-2 to read as follows:

§ 339-ll-2. Transfer fees.

1. An association shall not impose a fee upon the transfer of a unit or of shares, however denominated, unless the fee is authorized by the declaration, the by-laws, or the certificate of incorporation, adopted by the vote such instrument requires.

2. The association shall, upon written request and within ten business days, furnish to an owner or a prospective purchaser a statement identifying the instrument and provision authorizing the fee, the amount, and the manner of its calculation.

3. The statement required by subdivision two of this section shall be furnished before the execution of a contract of sale. A fee not so disclosed shall not be collected in connection with that transfer.

4. This section does not affect the validity of a transfer fee properly authorized and adopted, and does not limit the amount of such a fee.

§ 4. Sublet and rental restrictions.

The real property law is amended by adding a new section 339-ll-3 to read as follows:

§ 339-ll-3. Sublet and rental restrictions.

1. A restriction upon the subletting or rental of a unit, and any fee charged in connection with a sublet or rental, shall be adopted by the procedure the declaration or by-laws prescribe, and shall be stated in the schedule required by section three hundred thirty-nine-ll-one of this article.

2. An association shall apply a restriction adopted under subdivision one of this section uniformly to all owners similarly situated. An association that grants a consent, waiver, or exception to one owner shall grant it to another owner similarly situated who requests it.

3. An association shall determine an application for consent to sublet within thirty days after a complete application is submitted, and shall state in writing the reason for a denial. A failure to determine within such period shall constitute consent.

4. An owner aggrieved by a violation of this section may obtain injunctive relief and may recover the amount of any fee paid in violation of subdivision one.

§ 5. Right of first refusal.

The real property law is amended by adding a new section 339-ll-4 to read as follows:

§ 339-ll-4. Right of first refusal.

1. Where the declaration, by-laws, or a proprietary lease confers upon an association a right of first refusal with respect to the transfer of a unit or of shares, the association shall exercise or decline the right within thirty days after receiving written notice of the proposed transfer together with the material terms.

2. A failure to exercise within the period stated in subdivision one of this section shall be deemed a waiver of the right with respect to that transfer.

3. An association that exercises the right shall close upon the same material terms as the proposed transfer and within the period stated in the proposed transfer, or within sixty days, whichever is later. A failure to close within such period shall be deemed a waiver of the right with respect to that transfer.

4. This section does not create a right of first refusal, does not affect the validity of one otherwise properly created, and does not limit the grounds upon which an association may decline to consent to a transfer where the governing documents confer a right to withhold consent.

§ 6. Severability; effective date.

If any provision of this act is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect any other provision. This act shall take effect on the first day of the first fiscal year of the association commencing at least one hundred eighty days after it shall have become a law, and shall apply to fees charged, applications submitted, and notices given on or after that date.

PART III — WHAT THIS BILL DOES NOT DO

It caps nothing. Section 2(4) imposes cost-relatedness only on fees charged for administrative processing, and expressly exempts transfer fees and amenity charges. Section 3(4) says in terms that transfer fee amounts are not limited. A board that wants to charge a large flip tax may do so; it must have adopted it properly and disclosed it.

It does not create a right of first refusal or restrict a board’s consent rights. Section 5(4) is express on both points. Where governing documents give a board a right to withhold consent to a transfer, that right is untouched. Section 5 addresses only the clock on a right of first refusal.

It does not prohibit sublet restrictions. Section 4 requires proper adoption and uniform application. A building that bars all subletting, by the required vote, applied to everyone, is unaffected.

It does not reach discriminatory denial. Section 4(3) requires a written reason for a sublet denial, but this bill creates no anti-discrimination remedy; those claims arise under human rights law and are not addressed here. It would be wrong to present this bill as a fair-housing measure.

It creates no penalty and no agency role. The remedies are recovery of the amount paid and injunctive relief. There is no attorney-fee provision in this bill — which means, absent the Owner Standing and Enforcement Act, a two-hundred-dollar improper fee remains uneconomical to litigate. That is a real limitation and it is stated rather than hidden. This bill is materially stronger carried alongside that one.

PART IV — OPEN DRAFTING QUESTIONS

1. Section numbering. 339-ll-1 through 339-ll-4 are placeholders. RPL article 9-B ends at § 339-ll — verified 2026-07-27 — so these designations sit at the very end of the article and the Commission may prefer a different placement entirely.

2. “Reasonable cost” in section 2(4) is undefined and will be litigated. Alternatives are a schedule of presumptive maximums by fee type, or a burden-shifting rule under which the association must produce a cost basis on request. The second is probably better and is not drafted here.

3. Section 4(2) may be too absolute. “Shall grant it to another owner similarly situated” removes discretion entirely where a waiver was granted once. A board that granted a hardship sublet to a deployed servicemember may not intend to grant one to every owner who prefers to rent. “Similarly situated” is carrying the entire weight and needs either definition or softening to a rebuttable presumption.

4. Section 4(3)‘s deemed consent is aggressive. Failure to decide within thirty days constitutes consent. That is the strongest form of the remedy; a weaker form deems the application approved only after notice and a further opportunity. Expect this to be negotiated.

5. Thirty days in section 5(1) may be too short for an association that must convene a meeting and obtain financing to exercise a right of first refusal. Sixty days is defensible. The number is a judgment.

6. Cooperatives. Sections 2 through 5 amend the real property law but reach cooperative corporations, most of which are Business Corporation Law entities. This is the same unresolved chapter question flagged in the Owner Standing, Vendor Conflicts, Fraud Prevention, and Ombudsperson drafts. It must be settled once, consistently, across all five before any of them is introduced.

7. Retroactivity. The bill applies to fees charged on or after the effective date, but many fees now charged were adopted years ago without the vote the documents required. Whether section 2(3) invalidates those on a going-forward basis, or grandfathers them, is not resolved in the text and should be.

PART V — CITATION APPENDIX

Verified 2026-07-27 against the source shown.

Claims deliberately not made

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: fold into S.8912 where it overlaps; carry the remainder as a single low-controversy bill.

These four mechanisms carry the highest viability scores in the model — 78 to 85. Nothing here restructures anything, and every provision is something an owner has personally paid.

Its real weakness is not political, it is structural. This bill contains no fee-shifting. A two-hundred-dollar improper fee remains uneconomical to litigate, so absent the Owner Standing and Enforcement Act the remedies are mostly declaratory. That is stated in the bill itself and it must be stated in the room too — otherwise the bill passes, nothing changes, and the failure is attributed to the idea rather than to the missing enforcement route.

What has to happen before introduction. Two provisions need a decision first. Section 4(2) requires that a waiver granted to one owner be granted to another “similarly situated” — that phrase carries the entire provision and is undefined. And section 4(3) deems a sublet application approved if not decided in thirty days, which is the strongest available form of that remedy. Settle both fallback positions before the bill is heard, because a sponsor asked to defend an undefined term in committee will trade the whole section.

The tactical use. Because it is the easiest to move, it is the right bill to establish the relationship with a sponsor who has not carried anything in this area before. Lead with this one, then bring the harder bills to a sponsor who has already won something.

Related: LEGISLATIVE_MODEL.md · solutions S19, S20, S39, S40 in 01_Database/condoscoop.db · companion: owner-standing-and-enforcement-act.md