Reduction of Services by the Board in a co-op

[User23]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York State

We have received the following letter sent by the Coop Board of Directors:

Re: Repair/Replacement of Dishwashers
TO ALL STOCKHOLDERS
At the monthly meeting of the Board of Directors the following Resolution was made and approved as follows:
Berkeley Cooperative Towers Section III Corp. Will no longer pay for repairs or replacement of dishwashers.
It will be the responsibility of individual shareholders.
Board of Directors


My question is : This coop had this policy of the coop taking the responsibility of maintaining and replacing the dishwashers from the time when the coop was created in 1963. Now we got a new Board president of coop who is determined to reduce services. Can the Board reduce such services to individual coop apartments?

 

[FlyingRon]

They can if the appropriate governing documents allow them to make those changes. We certainly can't tell based on what you said. Perhaps you (maybe banded together with some other unit owners) should bring your documents to an attorney to see what he thinks.

 

[adjusterjack]

Can the Board reduce such services to individual coop apartments?

In addition to FlyingRon's comment it may be important to know if this is a Mitchell-Lama co-op as a shareholder may have additional rights under Mitchell-Lama.

My parents lived in a Mitchell-Lama co-op since 1964.

It's gonna get complicated.

 

[FlyingRon]

Don't think Mitchel-Lama will help provided they're reducing the services for everybody across the board the same.

 

[adjusterjack]

Don't think Mitchel-Lama will help provided they're reducing the services for everybody across the board the same.

Probably not.

But the shareholder contracts are probably different so it's a consideration.