Common Interest Community Registry and Oversight Division 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 — the registry provisions on 2026-07-27, the reserve provisions in sections 6 and 7 on 2026-07-29. Each appendix row carries its own date; see Part V.

This is the least interesting bill in the set and the one the rest depend on. New York cannot regulate what it cannot address.

PART I — SPONSOR’S MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT

BILL NUMBER: to be assigned

TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the real property law, the real property tax law and the general business law, in relation to establishing a registry of common interest communities and a division to administer it, conditioning a tax abatement upon registration, and requiring disclosure of reserve adequacy and of compliance with the reserve fund law.

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

New York does not know how many condominiums and cooperatives it has, who governs them, or how to reach them. Every other reform in this area needs an addressable list. This bill builds one, and pays for the compliance with a lever the city already operates.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 sets out legislative findings.

Section 2 establishes a Common Interest Community Division within the Department of State with registry, rulemaking, and referral functions.

Section 3 requires annual registration by each residential condominium and cooperative corporation and specifies the data collected and the fields published.

Section 4 conditions continued receipt of the partial tax abatement under section 467-a of the real property tax law upon registration, with notice and a cure period.

Section 5 requires the Attorney General to publish a docket of offering plans and amendments.

Section 6 requires every offering plan and every association’s annual statement to express the reserve balance as a percentage of the amount a credentialed reserve study recommends, or to state that no study exists.

Section 7 requires publication, by building, of whether an offeror subject to the New York City reserve fund law filed the post-closing amendment evidencing that the reserve fund was funded and transferred.

Section 8 provides severability and effective dates.

JUSTIFICATION:

There is no list. No agency of New York State maintains a register of the residential condominiums and cooperative corporations within it. There is no authoritative count, no contact of record for the governing board, and no way for any agency to write to them. Every mandate this Legislature might impose on these associations is a mandate addressed to no one in particular.

New York City already proved the mechanism works. Sections 27-2097 and 27-2098 of the New York City administrative code require annual registration of residential property, due each September 1 and upon any change of ownership or managing agent, and require designation of a managing agent, with a successor designation within eight days of the agent’s death, incapacity, or disqualification. Penalties were raised by Local Law 71 of 2023 to between five hundred and fifteen hundred dollars for buildings of five units or fewer and between one thousand and five thousand dollars above five units. All verified 2026-07-27. The city registers hundreds of thousands of buildings this way. This bill applies the same instrument at state level to a defined class.

Other states did this and did not find it burdensome. Virginia’s Common Interest Community Board is established at section 54.1-2348 of the Virginia Code, with powers and duties at section 54.1-2349, under which “the Board shall administer and enforce the provisions of this article.” Colorado’s HOA information and resource center is created at section 12-10-801 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, within the Division of Real Estate, and the Division registers common interest communities and tracks complaints. Both verified 2026-07-27; the Colorado program carries a sunset and was continued through September 1, 2030.

The abatement condition is the part that makes this affordable. A registration requirement with a penalty needs someone to detect non-registration and pursue it — which is a budget line. Section 467-a of the real property tax law provides a partial tax abatement to eligible cooperative and condominium units in a city of one million or more, reducing annual property taxes by a range of roughly 17.5 to 28.1 percent depending on average unit assessed value. Verified 2026-07-27.

That is money the city already sends these buildings every year, through an existing administrative channel, on an existing annual cycle. Conditioning its continuation on a completed registration requires no inspector and no enforcement office. The building that wants the abatement registers. Section 4 requires written notice and a cure period before any abatement is withheld, because the alternative — silently withholding a benefit for a paperwork failure the individual owner did not commit — is not defensible.

The same problem appears in the reserve fund, and sections 6 and 7 address it.

Every offering plan in New York carries a disclaimer that no representation is made that the reserve fund is adequate, and that neither the Department of Law nor any other agency has passed upon adequacy. Both statements are accurate. Section 20.3 of title 13 of the codes, rules and regulations requires the plan cover to state that “FILING WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF LAW DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE DEPARTMENT OR ANY OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCY HAS APPROVED THIS.” Verified 2026-07-29. The Martin Act is a disclosure statute; nobody reviews the merits.

The disclaimers are accurate for a reason that is easy to miss: “adequate” has no referent in New York law. Nothing defines what a reserve should be measured against. A disclaimer that no representation is made as to adequacy is therefore not evasive — it is the only honest thing a sponsor can say.

Section 6 supplies the referent without asking any agency to certify anything. The plan states the balance, states what a credentialed study recommends, and states the ratio — or states plainly that no study has been performed. The State endorses nothing. It requires one number to be shown beside another.

New York City conversions are the partial exception, and it is worth being precise. Local Law 70 of 1982, at section 26-701 and following of the New York City administrative code, requires an offeror converting a residential building to condominium or cooperative ownership to establish a reserve fund and transfer it to the board within thirty days of the first residential closing — three percent of total price, or one percent initially with supplemental contributions over five years. HPD has oversight and violations carry civil and criminal sanctions. All verified 2026-07-29.

That obligation is real and it is already law. What does not exist is any way for a purchaser, a board, or a lender to find out whether a particular building’s sponsor complied. Section 7 requires HPD to publish, by building, a record it already receives.

One detail from the Attorney General’s own guidance belongs in the record, because plans routinely present the two funds side by side: “A working capital fund, which may be established by a sponsor, is not a reserve fund.” Attorney General Real Estate Finance Bureau memorandum of May 4, 2015, reviewed and approved by HPD. Verified 2026-07-29.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New. No prior version has been introduced.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

Registration is fee-funded. The Division’s standing cost is met by the registration fee, and section 5 of the new article provides that no moneys be appropriated from the general fund for its operation. The fee has not been costed against a staffing model — see Part IV.1.

The abatement condition in section 4 is revenue-neutral by design and revenue-positive only in the event of non-compliance, which is not the intended outcome. No revenue estimate is asserted.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

Sections 1, 2 and 6 on the first of January next succeeding enactment. Section 3 eighteen months thereafter. Section 4 on the first assessment roll prepared after section 3 takes effect. Section 5 one hundred eighty days after enactment.

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 Housing, Construction and
      Community Development


    AN ACT to amend the real property law and the real property tax law, in
      relation to a registry of 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. No agency of this state maintains a register of the residential condominiums and cooperative corporations located within it, or of the persons who govern them.

2. In consequence, no agency of this state is able to communicate with such associations, to determine their number, or to direct a requirement to them.

3. The city of New York maintains an annual registration of residential property, including designation of a managing agent, demonstrating that such a register is administrable at scale.

4. Several states maintain a register of common interest communities together with a body to administer it.

5. It is the purpose of this act to establish such a register and such a body, funded by a registration fee, and to condition an existing tax benefit upon registration so that compliance may be achieved without a separate enforcement apparatus.

§ 2. Common Interest Community Division.

The real property law is amended by adding a new article to read as follows:

§ 1. Definitions. As used in this article:

  (a) “Association” means a condominium subject to article nine-B of this chapter, or a cooperative corporation organized for the purpose of providing residential occupancy to its shareholders, located in this state.

  (b) “Owner” means a unit owner as defined in section three hundred thirty-nine-e of this chapter, or a shareholder in a cooperative corporation described in paragraph (a) of this section.

  (c) “Division” means the Common Interest Community Division established by section two of this article.

  (d) “Residential unit” means a unit or the shares allocated to a unit, intended for residential occupancy.

§ 2. Division established. There is hereby established within the department of state a Common Interest Community Division. The secretary of state shall appoint a director of the division.

§ 3. Powers and duties. The division shall:

  (a) establish and maintain the register required by section six of this article;

  (b) publish the fields designated as public by subdivision four of section six of this article, in a form permitting bulk retrieval at no charge;

  (c) publish annually a report stating the number of registered associations by county and by size;

  (d) refer to the attorney general any matter appearing to involve repeated fraudulent or illegal acts within the meaning of subdivision twelve of section sixty-three of the executive law; and

  (e) promulgate rules necessary to implement this article, in accordance with article two of the state administrative procedure act.

§ 4. Limitation of authority. Nothing in this article authorizes the division to adjudicate a dispute between an association and an owner, to impose a penalty other than as provided in section six of this article, or to direct the internal governance of an association.

§ 5. Funding. The division shall be funded by the registration fee established under section six of this article. No moneys shall be appropriated from the general fund for the operation of the division.

§ 3. Registration.

The real property law is amended by adding a new section to the article added by section two of this act, to read as follows:

§ 6. Annual registration.

1. Each condominium and each cooperative corporation organized for the purpose of providing residential occupancy to its shareholders, located in this state, shall register annually with the division on a form prescribed by rule.

2. The registration shall state: the name and address of the association; the tax parcel identifier of each parcel comprising it; the number of residential units; the name and business address of each member of the board and of the managing agent, if any; an address and electronic mail address for service of notices; and the name of the person filing.

3. A registration shall be amended within thirty days after a change in the managing agent or in the address for service of notices.

4. The following fields are public: the name and address of the association, the tax parcel identifier, the number of residential units, the identity of the managing agent, and the date of the most recent registration. All other fields are available to a unit owner or shareholder of that association, to a public agency, and to the attorney general, and are not otherwise public.

5. The fee shall be set by rule, shall be calculated per residential unit, and shall not exceed three dollars per unit per year.

6. An association that fails to register may be assessed a civil penalty by the division of not more than one thousand dollars, and not more than two thousand five hundred dollars for a second or subsequent failure. No penalty shall be assessed unless the division has first given written notice and thirty days to cure.

§ 4. Registration as a condition of abatement.

Section 467-a of the real property tax law is amended by adding a new subdivision to read as follows:

1. No abatement shall be granted or continued under this section with respect to a dwelling unit in a property required to register under section six of the article added by section two of this act unless a current registration is on file.

2. Before an abatement is withheld under this subdivision, the assessing authority shall give written notice to the association and to each owner whose abatement would be affected, stating the ground and the date by which registration must be filed, which shall be not less than ninety days after the notice.

3. Where a registration is filed within the period stated in the notice, the abatement shall be granted or continued without interruption.

4. Where an abatement has been withheld and a registration is subsequently filed, the abatement shall be restored prospectively, and shall be restored retroactively for the assessment roll then in preparation upon a showing that the failure to register was not the fault of the owner whose abatement was withheld.

§ 5. Offering plan docket.

1. The attorney general shall maintain and publish a docket of offering plans submitted for filing under section three hundred fifty-two-e of the general business law with respect to residential property, and of amendments to such plans, stating for each: the property to which it relates, the date submitted, the date accepted for filing or rejected, and the sequence number of any amendment.

2. The docket shall be published in a form permitting retrieval by property and shall be available at no charge.

3. Nothing in this section requires the publication of the contents of any plan or amendment.

4. The attorney general shall publish annually the number of plans and amendments submitted and the number accepted, by year.

§ 6. Reserve adequacy disclosure.

The general business law is amended by adding a new section 352-e-2 to read as follows:

§ 352-e-2. Reserve adequacy disclosure.

1. Definitions. As used in this section, “reserve study” means a study of the anticipated repair and replacement of the major components of a building, prepared by a person credentialed to prepare such studies or by an engineer or architect licensed in this state, stating a recommended reserve balance; and “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.

2. Disclosure in the offering plan. Every offering plan submitted for filing under section three hundred fifty-two-e of this article with respect to residential property, and every amendment to such a plan, shall state:

  (a) the amount of any reserve fund and of any working capital fund provided for under the plan, stated separately;

  (b) whether a reserve study has been performed and, if so, the recommended reserve balance it states, the date of the study, and the identity and credential of the person who prepared it; and

  (c) the reserve fund expressed as a percentage of that recommended balance, or, where no reserve study has been performed, the statement: “NO RESERVE STUDY HAS BEEN PERFORMED FOR THIS BUILDING. THERE IS THEREFORE NO PROFESSIONAL ESTIMATE AGAINST WHICH THE RESERVE FUND CAN BE COMPARED.”

3. Annual disclosure. Not later than one hundred twenty days after the close of each fiscal year, an association shall furnish to each owner a statement setting forth the information described in subdivision two of this section, updated to the end of the year then ended, and shall furnish it to any prospective purchaser upon request.

4. Working capital funds. A working capital fund shall not be described as a reserve fund, and shall not be included in any figure stated as a reserve fund, in any disclosure under this section.

5. No representation by the state. Nothing in this section shall be construed as a determination by the state, the attorney general, or the department of law that any reserve fund is or is not adequate. This section requires disclosure of a comparison and does not establish a standard of adequacy.

§ 7. Reserve fund law compliance record.

1. The New York city department of housing preservation and development shall maintain and publish, by property, a record of compliance with chapter eight of title twenty-six of the administrative code of the city of New York, stating for each property subject to that chapter:

  (a) whether the post-closing amendment evidencing that the reserve fund was funded and transferred to the board was filed;

  (b) the funding method elected by the offeror and the amount contributed;

  (c) the date of the closing of the conversion; and

  (d) whether an exemption under subdivision d of section 26-703 of such code was applied for and whether it was granted.

2. The record shall be published in a form permitting retrieval by property and shall be available at no charge.

3. Nothing in this section creates a new obligation upon an offeror, alters any obligation under chapter eight of title twenty-six of such code, or requires the publication of any document other than the fact of its filing and the particulars stated in subdivision one of this section.

§ 8. Severability; effective dates.

If any provision of this act is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect any other provision. Sections one, two and eight of this act take effect on the first of January next succeeding the date on which this act shall have become a law. Section three takes effect eighteen months after such date. Section four takes effect with respect to the first assessment roll prepared after section three takes effect. Sections five and seven take effect one hundred eighty days after such date. Section six takes effect on the one hundred eightieth day after such date and applies to any offering plan or amendment submitted for filing on or after that date, provided that subdivision three of the section added by section six takes effect on the first day of the first fiscal year commencing after such date. Effective immediately, the secretary of state and the attorney general are authorized to promulgate any rule necessary for the timely implementation of this act.

PART III — WHAT THIS BILL DOES NOT DO

It is not a regulator. Section 4 of the new article says so expressly: the Division may not adjudicate disputes, may not impose penalties beyond the registration penalty, and may not direct internal governance. That limitation is the reason this bill can pass. A bill that creates a registry is a records bill; a bill that creates a regulator is a fight. The adjudicative function belongs in the Ombudsperson bill, where it is paired with a cost saving.

It does not publish everything. Section 6(4) makes public only the association’s identity, location, size, agent, and registration date. Board members’ names and addresses are available to owners of that association, to public agencies, and to the Attorney General — not to the world. Volunteer board members should not be doxxed by a transparency statute.

It does not withhold anyone’s abatement without notice. Section 4(2) requires ninety days’ written notice to the association and to each affected owner, and section 4(4) permits retroactive restoration where the individual owner was not at fault. The objection that this punishes owners for a board’s paperwork is legitimate and is answered in the text rather than in argument.

It does not publish the contents of offering plans. Section 5(3) is express. The docket records that a filing exists and its disposition. Publishing plan contents is a larger question about the Attorney General’s files and is not attempted here.

It does not set a reserve floor, and section 6(5) says so in terms. The disclosure compares a balance to a professional recommendation. It does not require the balance to reach the recommendation, and it expressly disclaims any determination by the State that any reserve is adequate. A floor is a different bill and would draw different opposition.

Section 6 does nothing without a reserve study. Where no study exists the provision produces a statement that no study exists — which is informative, but it is not a ratio. This is why the mechanism formally depends on a study mandate, and why it should be carried alongside one rather than instead of one.

Section 7 creates no new obligation on anyone. Subdivision 3 is express: the reserve fund law obligation is unchanged, no new filing is required, and nothing is published except the fact of a filing the agency already receives. It makes an existing record legible; it does not extend the underlying duty.

It does not reach new construction. The New York City reserve fund law applies to conversions. A newly constructed condominium has never been subject to any reserve requirement, and section 7 will show nothing for one.

It does not reach homeowners associations. Scope is residential condominiums and residential cooperative corporations. Extending it is a decision with fiscal-note consequences.

PART IV — OPEN DRAFTING QUESTIONS

1. The fee has not been costed against a staffing model. Three dollars per unit per year against the residential condominium and cooperative universe produces a number; whether that number funds a division capable of maintaining the register and publishing it has not been modelled. This is the same unfinished piece flagged in the Ombudsperson draft, and if both bills advance the two fees must be considered together — a building should not face two separate per-unit state fees without anyone having added them up.

2. Article and section numbering are placeholders. RPL articles 9-A through 9-E are occupied; 9-F was verified unused by complete enumeration on 2026-07-27. The Commission assigns actual designations.

3. Section 4 amends the RPTL to cross-reference an RPL section created by the same act. That drafting is awkward and the Commission will likely restructure it. The substance is what matters: the abatement is conditioned on the registration.

4. The abatement lever reaches only New York City. Section 467-a applies in a city of one million or more. Outside the city, registration is enforced only by the section 6(6) penalty, which requires someone to notice. The registry will therefore be materially more complete in the city than upstate, and the bill should not be presented as producing a uniform statewide register on day one.

5. Whether the Department of State is the right home is genuinely open. The Ombudsperson bill places its office in the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, following S.7745. Two related functions in two agencies is a poor design. If both advance, they should be co-located, and DHCR is the more likely home given S.7745’s placement. This draft uses the Department of State because the registry function is closer to the Department’s existing corporate and licensing registries, but this should be reconciled, not left to chance.

6. 13 NYCRR § 23.3(ac) was not read. The Attorney General’s guidance memorandum identifies subdivision (ac)(1) through (6) as the provision governing reserve fund law disclosure in offering plans. The subdivision text itself was not independently read, and section 6 of this act may duplicate or conflict with a disclosure the regulation already requires. This must be checked before introduction.

7. Section 7 directs a city agency from a state statute. Whether the Legislature should direct HPD’s publication practice by statute, or whether this belongs in a New York City local law, is a real question. The city route may be cleaner and faster; it is placed here because the rest of the disclosure architecture is state-level.

8. “Credentialed to prepare such studies” is undefined in section 6(1). New York does not register reserve study specialists — Nevada does, and a companion mechanism in the CondosCoopsNYC model proposes it. Absent a registration regime, the definition rests on private credentials, which is a weakness this draft does not solve.

9. No penalty escalation beyond a second failure. A thousand dollars is immaterial to a large association. Whether the penalty should scale by unit count is unresolved.

PART V — CITATION APPENDIX

Verified 2026-07-27 against the source shown.

| NYC Admin Code § 26-701 et seq. | Cooperative and Condominium Conversions — the Reserve Fund Law, Local Law 70 of 1982. Applies to landlords in New York City converting buildings with residential units to condominium or cooperative ownership. HPD is the agency charged with oversight. Violations carry civil and criminal sanctions, and the Attorney General has sought injunctive and monetary relief against sponsors violating plan representations of compliance. | AG REFB memorandum 2015-05-04 | | NYC Admin Code § 26-703 | “Establishment of reserve fund.” Within 30 days after the closing of a conversion pursuant to an offering plan, the offeror must establish and transfer to the board a reserve fund for capital repairs, replacements and improvements. Either 3% of total price funded within 30 days of the first residential closing, or a 1% mandatory initial contribution plus supplemental contributions at 3% of actual sales price over five years. Subdivision (d) permits an exemption, on application to HPD, for buildings completed within three years before conversion. Per the Attorney General’s guidance: “A working capital fund, which may be established by a sponsor, is not a reserve fund.” | AG REFB memorandum 2015-05-04 | | 13 NYCRR § 20.3 | Requires the offering plan cover to state that “FILING WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF LAW DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE DEPARTMENT OR ANY OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCY HAS APPROVED THIS.” Acceptance for filing is not approval; the Department of Law does not review the merits or the adequacy of any fund. | ag.ny.gov | | 13 NYCRR § 23.3(ac)(1)–(6) | Identified in the Attorney General’s guidance as the provision setting the disclosures a sponsor must make regarding compliance with the reserve fund law. ⚠ The subdivision text was not independently read — see Part IV.6. | AG REFB memorandum 2015-05-04 |

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: standalone, Housing-led — but only after the fee arithmetic exists.

This bill has the hardest fiscal path in the set and it should not be pretended otherwise. It creates a division, and section 4 conditions the RPTL § 467-a abatement — which means Finance sees both an office and a tax provision.

Two things make it survivable. The division is expressly barred from adjudicating anything, so it is a records office rather than a regulator. And the abatement condition is a compliance lever, not a revenue measure — it is designed to produce registration, and it produces revenue only when it fails.

What sections 6 and 7 change about the pitch. They are the cheapest provisions in the bill and the easiest to defend: one requires a ratio to be printed, the other requires an agency to publish a record it already holds. Neither creates an obligation, a penalty, or a cost. If the division and the abatement condition draw a fiscal fight, sections 6 and 7 are severable and should be offered separately rather than lost with the rest.

The sequencing that actually matters. This bill is a prerequisite for several others but is harder to pass than any of them. Do not hold the easier bills hostage to it. If it stalls, the mechanisms that depend on a registry should be re-scoped to operate without one rather than waiting.

Related: LEGISLATIVE_MODEL.md · solutions S01, S07, S27, S50, S57 in 01_Database/condoscoop.db · companion: cic-ombudsperson-expedited-resolution-act.md