City Councilman Hiram Monserratte is the prime sponsor of a bill that would require co-op boards to explain why applicants were rejected when they deny a person's request to buy into a building. The secrecy behind the approval/refusal process by many co-op boards has generated long-held suspicions that the whole ordeal is simply a way to quietly discriminate against "undesirable" applicants.
Now nearly two-thirds of the members of the City Council are co-sponsoring a measure to shed a little light on the shadowy process by which co-op boards decide which apartment buyers to accept and which to reject. To the uninitiated, the council members’ aim may seem modest. What they want is for co-op boards to be required to give their reasons for rejecting an applicant, and to do it in writing within five days of rejection.more ›
