APPEAL
The system that can track a broken radiator in the Bronx cannot track a defective election in Harlem.
What your real estate agent won't tell you.
THE VOID
One million New Yorkers. Zero protections.
New York City has approximately 8,900 condominium buildings containing 318,000 units, plus 450,000 cooperative apartments — together housing over one million residents and accounting for 22% of the city's occupied housing stock. Nationally, nearly 370,000 community associations govern over 77 million residents.
When a board engages in self-dealing, election irregularities, financial mismanagement, or retaliation against unit owners who ask questions, the only recourse available is Supreme Court litigation — prohibitively expensive, years-long, and inaccessible to most unit owners without counsel.
There is no 311 category for board misconduct. HPD handles habitability, not governance. DCWP handles consumer fraud, not board elections. The Department of State oversees filings but not ongoing governance. The void is total.
THE NUMBERS
The math tells the story.
NO ALTERNATIVE TO SUPREME COURT
The only remedy costs more than the harm.
An average Manhattan Supreme Court Justice carries 2,500 cases on their docket and 400 motions awaiting decision. Between 2019 and 2024, unresolved cases across NYC courts jumped by 34%.
Into this overburdened system, the state funnels every condominium governance dispute — no matter how straightforward. A dispute over whether a board provided proper notice for a meeting, which could be resolved by an ombudsman reviewing the bylaws in an afternoon, instead becomes a Supreme Court motion with a filing fee, answering briefs, oral argument, and a decision that may take months.
Self-represented litigants face final judgments at 2.3× the rate of represented parties. The system is not merely inaccessible — it is structurally tilted against the people forced to use it without counsel.
WHAT OTHER STATES HAVE DONE
Six states and Ontario solved this.
New York has not.
🇫🇱 Florida
Full division of DBPR dedicated to condo governance. Accepts complaints. Investigates with subpoena power. Issues binding orders and fines. Mandatory 4-hour board education within 90 days. 62 new investigators and $7.5M/year after Surfside.
🇨🇦 Ontario
Dedicated online tribunal — Canada's first — for condo disputes. $25 filing fee. 1,619 cases resolved: 363 through negotiation, 564 through mediation, 612 through tribunal decision. Seldom awards costs, encouraging self-representation.
Hawaii
Real Estate Commission mediates condo governance disputes. Free or low-cost mediation. Administrative hearings for election and governance violations. Dedicated condominium specialist ombudsman.
Connecticut
Common Interest Ownership Ombudsman (Gen. Stat. §36a-725). Free complaint intake. Mediation services. Educational materials. Annual reports to the legislature on systemic issues.
Nevada
Office of the Ombudsman for Owners in Common-Interest Communities (NRS Chapter 116). Investigates complaints. Mediates disputes. Can refer for administrative penalties. Public database of complaints and resolutions.
Virginia & Maryland
Administrative hearing processes for condo governance disputes through their real estate regulatory bodies — without requiring unit owners to file lawsuits.
Tallahassee
File a complaint online. State agency investigates with subpoena power. Resolution at no personal cost.
Manhattan
Retain an attorney at $400–$700/hour. File in Supreme Court. Wait months. Hope you can afford to see it through.
GOVERNANCE FAILURE IS SAFETY FAILURE
We are waiting for our own Surfside.
On June 24, 2021, Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida collapsed, killing 98 people. The investigation revealed that the board had received an engineering report warning of "abundant" cracking in load-bearing elements in 2018. The board deferred the repairs. The association had only 6.9% of the reserves needed for critical maintenance. By the time a $15 million remedial program was approved, it was too late.
The Miami-Dade grand jury did not blame a single engineering failure. It identified a governance failure — a board that was unqualified, unaccountable, and operating in a regulatory vacuum.
New York's condominium buildings are older, denser, and taller than Surfside's. Local Law 11 requires facade inspections but the city has no mechanism to ensure a board actually funds the repairs. A board that diverts reserves to cover legal fees is a board that may not have the funds to address an unsafe facade condition before it escalates. A board that retaliates against members who ask financial questions is a board where the owner who notices the crack in the garage ceiling learns to stay quiet.
62 YEARS
A 20th-century framework in a 21st-century housing market.
New York's condominium regulatory framework has not meaningfully evolved since RPL Article 9-B was enacted in 1964. The AG's oversight role was designed for offering plan review — ensuring developers disclosed terms before selling units. It was never designed to police ongoing governance of thousands of condominium associations that now exist decades after their offering plans were accepted. Nine legislative attempts to create an ombudsman have failed. The managing agent industry — which exercises day-to-day financial control over these buildings — operates with no licensing requirement, no regulatory oversight, and no accountability mechanism short of litigation.
FAILED BILLS: S71, S2027, S7104, S2340, S3092, S663, and more — all died in committee.
New York is the largest city in the country.
It should not have the weakest condominium governance protections.
The precedent exists. The executive authority exists. The data exists. The only thing missing is the will to act — and the public pressure to create it. This site is that pressure.