How does co-op board approval work in New York City? we'll demystify this topic
in today's video i'm Nick at Hauseit visit hauseit.com to learn how to save money
if you are buying selling or renting here in new york city we also operate in
long island the hudson valley and south florida so let's get started
so co-op board approval consists of filling out and submitting a detailed
application and sitting for a board interview
the typical co-op application asks for a litany of financial documents which
includes bank statements a financial statement as well as tax returns among
other requirements you'll also be asked to submit letters of reference in almost
all cases as well as various disclosure forms which you'll be
asked to sign you'll typically also submit a copy of your purchase contract
and a copy of your commitment letter if you are financing
most co-op boards take roughly four weeks to review and respond to an
application now keep in mind that this four-week
timeline does not include the period when the managing agent receives and
reviews your application usually management reserves about a week in
order to review what you've submitted make sure it's complete not missing
anything and then they will submit it to the board upon submission to the board
is when you can be guided by that roughly four week estimated timeline
if after four weeks or whenever the board responds they like what they see
it means you have been conditionally approved and this will trigger a request
for an interview now keep in mind that a co-op has no
obligation to actually invite you to an interview so if they strongly dislike
what is contained in the application it is possible that the co-op board can
reject you outright but if you are called in for an
interview it's really good news because it essentially means that they're in
principle on board with approving you and as a result the objective of the
interview is really just to make sure that you are the same person as
reflected and outlined in the application that you've submitted
and obviously they want to make sure that there's nothing severely wrong with
your mentality mindset personality and whatnot and an interview is a very easy
way for them to check this now one thing we would like to circle
back on is that rough timeline of four weeks in terms of when you'll hear back
from the co-op board now unlike a condo there is no legal requirement for the
co-op board to respond within say four weeks
it could potentially take several months admittedly this is rare but we do have
one particular example where we were working with a building in greenwich
village downtown by nyu and it just so happened that during the time of this
particular deal it was the summer so a lot of board members were on vacation
and this was pre-COVID and sort of pre-Zoom taking over the world and back
then the board literally had to have everyone present and physically meet to
review applications so the summer holidays really delayed
the board's ability to review the purchase applications and in addition
there were a ton of sales at that same time in the building way
more than is normal and as a result it literally took three months
for that poor buyer to hear back from the co-op now fortunately everything
went through buyer was approved deal closed but
we just want to emphasize as a result that you know if you are trying to time
your purchase with a lease expiration you need to allow some buffer you need
to have a contingency plan and not to assume that the co-op will absolutely
respond within four weeks now what happens after your co-op board
interview well most of the time you'll probably
receive a response within a day or two whether it's approval or rejection but
officially it can take up to one week for the managing agent to convey the
official decision to
typically your attorney or in some cases the buyer's agent and feel free to refer
to our detailed guide on co-op board approval as well as our detailed
step-by-step guide for preparing an application both of which are available
at hauseit.com we really appreciate your time today and if you have any questions
please leave a comment below the video or send us an email to team@hauseit.com
please also visit hauseit.com to learn about ways to save money when buying
selling or renting here in new york city i'm Nick at Hauseit and we'll see you on
the next video