There, the Appellate Division, First Department, recently affirmed the denial of a motion by plaintiff, the proprietary lessee (owner) of a duplex penthouse in defendant's building, for a preliminary injunction to prevent defendant from making certain repairs to her apartment in a manner that the Court found "will constitute a breach of the
proprietary lease, because defendant does not dispute the assertion by plaintiff's expert that the plan will create a diminution of apartment space and necessitate some reconfiguration and alterations."
An outright ban on smoking would most likely require an amendment to the
proprietary lease, which would require the affirmative vote of the owners of a supermajority (typically two-thirds or 75 percent) of the shares.
In most instances, implementation of a smoking ban will require an amendment to the
proprietary lease or by-laws, approved by a super majority of apartment owners.
Another lawyer suggested that under the terms of a co-op's
proprietary lease, a shareholder could be held in default.
Each shareholder receives stock in the corporation and a
proprietary lease for his or her home.
She explained the attorneys due diligence by thoroughly reviewing the documents from the building such as the
proprietary lease, the house rules, the prospectus, the financial statements and physically going to the building and reviewing the minutes to determine if the building is financially and structurally sound.
The offering is actually comprised of 70 remaining years on an original 99-year
proprietary lease.
The
proprietary lease contained a provision providing for the termination of the tenancy of a tenant-shareholder if the cooperative shareholders, by a two-thirds vote, determined that
Every co-op needs to be aware of when its
proprietary lease expires.
Stanley Dreyer, Esq., partner in the law firm Gallet Dreyer & Berkey LLP, recommended that cooperatives and their legal counsel redo the corporation's
proprietary lease, by-laws and amend the certificate of occupancy.
Subsequently, a number of New York courts issued controversial rulings that a co-op's
proprietary lease should not be considered a perfected security agreement.
It is no longer necessary for the lender to take possession of the stock certificate or
proprietary lease in order to perfect its security interest (8.8 was the case under the prior versions of the law).