New York Condominium Act: Owner Rights, Board Duties, and NYC Rules

The New York Condominium Act, codified as Article 9-B of the Real Property Law, is the statute that lets a single building be divided into individually owned units with shared common spaces, and it sets the ground rules for everyone involved.¹ It governs how a condominium comes into existence, what the declaration and by-laws must say, how the board of managers operates, how common charges are collected, and what happens when an owner falls behind. If you own a unit, sit on a board, or plan to buy or develop one, the rules below are the ones that apply to you.

How a Condominium Is Created

A condominium exists only after a declaration is filed with the county clerk in the county where the property sits. The declaration is the document that converts a single parcel into separately owned units plus shared common elements. Section 339-n of the Real Property Law requires the declaration to include a description of the land and building, each unit’s location and approximate area, the number of rooms in residential units, the common elements each unit can access, each unit’s percentage of common interest, permitted uses, and a designation of the Secretary of State as the agent for service of process on the board.²

The declaration is paired with by-laws, which govern elections, meetings, financial management, and the everyday rules owners must follow.³ Between them, these two documents function as the condominium’s constitution. Amending either one later takes real owner consensus, so the drafting stage matters more than most first-time buyers realize.

The Attorney General’s Offering Plan

Before a developer can sell units in New York, an offering plan must be submitted to and accepted by the Attorney General’s office under General Business Law Section 352-e.⁴ The plan must include the declaration, by-laws, financial statements, projected budgets, the backgrounds of the principals, the interests and profits of the promoters and organizers, and disclosure of any pending litigation. The point is to give buyers enough information to make an informed decision and to keep fraud out of unit sales.

If circumstances change after the plan is accepted, the developer must amend it promptly, and no new occupancies can begin until the amendment is accepted for filing.⁵

What You Actually Ownh2>

Ownership in a condominium is narrower than the walls suggest. In most buildings, a unit’s boundaries run to the unfinished interior surfaces of the perimeter walls, floors, and ceilings. Paint, wallpaper, and finished flooring are yours; the framing, insulation, wiring, and pipes inside the walls are typically common elements the association maintains. Perimeter windows and doors are usually limited common elements: your exclusive use, but the board controls repair and replacement.

Not every building follows that default. Some declarations pull drywall or windows into the unit itself. The only reliable way to know where your ownership ends is to read your own declaration, because it controls.² When a pipe bursts inside a wall, whether the board or you pays for repairs turns on that boundary line.

Common elements are everything outside the units: lobbies, hallways, elevators, the roof, structural components, the land. Each unit holds a percentage interest in those shared spaces, fixed in the declaration.⁶ That percentage doesn’t carve out any piece of the lobby for you; it sets your share of the cost to maintain the whole and, typically, the weight of your vote.

Owner Rights and Responsibilities

A condominium unit is real property. You can sell it, lease it, mortgage it, or leave it to heirs, subject to whatever restrictions the declaration and by-laws impose. Some buildings require minimum lease terms, board approval of tenants, or caps on how many units can be rented at once. Those restrictions are enforceable when properly adopted.

Voting and Board Elections

Your voice in building decisions is proportional to your common interest percentage. The by-laws set the quorum and the vote thresholds needed to bind all owners.³ Board meetings can be held in person, electronically, or as a hybrid at the board’s discretion. Owners elect the board of managers, and at least one-third of board seats must turn over annually, so no faction can entrench itself.

Access to Books and Records

Owners have a statutory right to look at the association’s financials. The board must keep detailed, chronological records of receipts and expenditures, must make them available for owner inspection during convenient weekday hours, and must send every owner a written financial summary at least once a year.⁷ If a board is stonewalling on financial information, this is the provision to cite.

Leasing Your Unit

If your unit is in New York City, renting it out for fewer than 30 consecutive days is effectively prohibited unless you stay in the unit with no more than two paying guests and those guests have access to the entire apartment. Renting an entire unit to visitors for any period shorter than 30 days is illegal.⁸ Building owners can add their address to a prohibited buildings list that blocks short-term rental registration entirely. Outside the city, the rules turn on your declaration, by-laws, and local ordinances.

Common Charges, Liens, and Foreclosure

Every owner pays monthly common charges based on their ownership percentage. Those assessments cover maintenance, utilities, insurance, and staff. The consequences of falling behind escalate fast. Under Section 339-aa, the board can file a lien against your unit for unpaid common charges plus interest after just 60 days of delinquency, and that lien can be foreclosed the same way a mortgage is foreclosed.⁹

The common charge lien sits behind only three categories of prior claims: tax liens, amounts owed on a first mortgage of record, and certain subordinate mortgages held by designated New York state and city housing agencies.¹⁰ In practice, the lien takes priority over second mortgages, home equity lines, and judgment liens. Unpaid common charges attach to the unit itself, so if you buy, verify the seller’s payment history before closing or you inherit the arrears.

Section 339-kk gives the board additional collection mechanisms against owners who rent out their units. When a non-occupying owner falls behind on common charges, assessments, or late fees, the statute lets the board pursue collection from rental income.¹¹

The Board of Managers

The board runs the condominium. Its authority flows from the by-laws, which specify the number of members, their terms, and which duties can be handed to a professional managing agent.³ The by-laws must also provide for a president who presides over meetings, a secretary who keeps minutes, and a treasurer who keeps the books.

Day to day, the board maintains common elements, enforces rules, signs service contracts, hires staff, and manages the budget. It can also bring or defend lawsuits on behalf of unit owners concerning common elements or issues affecting more than one unit.¹²

Fiduciary Duty and the Business Judgment Rule

Board members owe a fiduciary duty to the association and its owners. That duty has two parts: a duty of care, meaning informed decisions after reasonable investigation, and a duty of loyalty, meaning acting for the association rather than for themselves. Courts apply the business judgment rule, and generally will not second-guess a board decision, even a bad one, so long as the board was informed and acted without self-interest.

Condominium boards face a slightly stricter version of this protection than typical corporate boards. Courts in this context frequently add a reasonableness test: even where the board acted with care and loyalty, was the decision itself reasonable? Board members who skip required owner votes or act outside the authority granted by the governing documents risk personal liability, because those actions may fall outside any indemnification or exculpation clause in the by-laws.

Budgets, Assessments, and Reserves

The board prepares an annual budget covering maintenance, utilities, insurance premiums, management fees, and staff payroll. Each owner’s monthly assessment is that owner’s share of the budget, calculated by common interest percentage. Monthly assessments across New York can range from under $100 for a small unit in a suburban building to well over $1,000 in a Manhattan high-rise, depending on size, amenities, age, and staffing.

Financially sound condominiums also maintain reserves for major capital work: roof replacement, elevator modernization, facade repairs, boiler upgrades. Without adequate reserves, a board has to hit owners with special assessments when something breaks. New York does not mandate reserve studies by statute, but lenders and buyers increasingly scrutinize reserve adequacy, so it functions as a practical requirement.

Insurance the Building Must Carry

The Condominium Act requires the board of managers to maintain adequate insurance for the building and common elements. The master policy should cover at least the full replacement cost of the structure and common areas. Unit owners insure the interior of their own units, their personal property, and their personal liability.

Financing adds another layer. Fannie Mae’s current guidelines require the master property policy to cover at least 100% of the estimated replacement cost of project improvements, including common elements and residential structures, and cap the per-unit deductible at $50,000. If the master policy carries a per-unit deductible, the individual borrower must carry a unit owner’s policy covering at least the deductible amount, and the maximum deductible on that individual policy is the greater of 5% of the coverage or $2,500.¹³ Buildings whose insurance falls outside these standards can lose access to conventional buyer financing, which drags on unit values.

Amending or Terminating the Condominium

Declarations and by-laws are not permanent. The Condominium Act requires both documents to specify the method for their own amendment.² The threshold varies by building because each set of governing documents sets its own, but most declarations require two-thirds or more of unit owners, measured by common interest, to consent to substantive amendments. The notice and meeting procedures in the by-laws have to be followed exactly; a procedural misstep can invalidate an amendment even one owners overwhelmingly wanted.

Termination, meaning dissolving the entire ownership structure and returning the property to a single parcel, is the most drastic step available. It generally requires unanimous consent of all unit owners, which protects minority owners from being forced out. If termination does happen, the property is sold and proceeds are distributed among owners in proportion to their common interests after outstanding liabilities are satisfied. Involuntary termination of occupied residential condominiums is extremely rare in New York.

Fair Housing Sits on Top of the Act

Federal law applies to every condominium association regardless of what the declaration or by-laws say. The Fair Housing Act requires boards to grant reasonable accommodations, meaning changes to rules, policies, or services, when necessary for a person with a disability to have equal opportunity to use and enjoy their home, including common areas.¹⁴

The most common request involves assistance animals. Even under a strict no-pets policy, an owner or resident with a disability may keep an assistance animal, including an emotional support animal, if the request is supported by reliable information connecting the disability to the need for the animal.¹⁵ The board cannot charge a pet deposit or extra fee for an approved assistance animal, though it can charge for actual damage the animal causes.

A board can deny an accommodation only in narrow circumstances: if granting it would impose an undue financial or administrative burden, fundamentally alter the nature of the building’s operations, or if the specific animal poses a direct threat to health and safety that no other reasonable accommodation can eliminate.¹⁵ The board must also allow residents with disabilities to make reasonable structural modifications to units and common areas at their own expense. Refusing without a legitimate, documented reason exposes the board to federal liability.

Extra Layers for New York City Buildings

Condominiums in New York City sit under regulatory obligations that do not apply statewide.

Local Law 97 Emissions Limits

Buildings above 50,000 square feet must comply with Local Law 97, which caps carbon emissions on large buildings. The first compliance period runs from 2024 through 2029, with penalties assessed starting in May 2025. Buildings that exceed their cap face fines of $268 per metric ton of CO₂ over the limit, and that cost flows to owners through common charges or special assessments. Envelope and mechanical retrofits take years to plan, so large-building boards should already be working with energy consultants.

Alteration Permits

Effective January 2026, the New York City Department of Buildings requires that when a unit owner files a permit application for an alteration, a board representative must log into the DOB’s online system and electronically attest that the board has authorized the work. Owners can no longer pull alteration permits without the board’s active involvement.

Short-Term Rental Enforcement

New York City prohibits renting an entire apartment to visitors for fewer than 30 consecutive days. Boards can add the building to the prohibited buildings list maintained by the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, which blocks short-term rental registrations at that address entirely.⁸ For boards worried about transient guests and the wear on common areas, getting on that list is the practical first step.

1
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 339-E – Definitions
2
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 339-N – Contents of Declaration
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New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 339-V – Contents of By-Laws
4
New York State Senate. New York General Business Law 352-E – Real Estate Syndication Offerings
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Cornell Law School. New York Comp. Codes R. and Regs. Tit. 13 25.5 – Amendments
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New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 339-I – Common Elements
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New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 339-W – Books of Receipts and Expenditures Availability for Examination
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NYC311. Short-Term Rental Registration
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New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 339-AA – Lien for Common Charges Duration Foreclosure
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New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 339-Z – Lien for Common Charges Priority Exoneration of Grantor and Grantee
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New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 339-KK – Rents
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New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 339-DD – Actions
13
Fannie Mae. Lender Letter LL-2026-03 Updates to Project Standards and Property Insurance Requirements
14
U.S. Department of Justice. Reasonable Accommodations Under the Fair Housing Act
15
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Assistance Animals