Earl Laing • 23 Jul 2026 • 12 min readThe Guide to New York COA Laws
Key Takeaways
- Real Property Law Article 9-B is a deliberately light-touch statute that leaves most operational rules to each condominium association’s declaration and bylaws.
- New York lacks a state agency policing condo boards. Enforcement is mostly handled through the courts.
- Condos and co-ops operate under different rules. In a condominium, unit owners own their property, while in a co-op, residents own shares in a corporation plus a proprietary lease. This page is about condos only.
- The board of managers is the governing body of a condominium, and while New York state law mandates that each association have one, the bylaws dictate how many, how they are elected, and other details.
- The financial stakes for an association are higher in New York than other states, as a lien for unpaid common charges is subordinate to tax liens and to a recorded first mortgage. If the unit owner owes the bank and the condo, the bank must be paid first.
Real Property Law Article 9-B, better known as the Condominium Act, anchors New York condominium laws, and it says far less than most new board members expect. The statute sets the outer boundaries of the law and then leaves the specifics to your building’s declaration and bylaws. Where your governing documents conflict with Article 9-B, the statute wins. But because it says so little, most of the rules your board actually runs on come from your own documents.
Keep in mind as you read on that Article 9-B and this guide cover New York condominium laws only. Co-ops follow a different set of rules because their ownership structure is different. Article 9-B also has its own vocabulary: “unit owner” instead of “homeowner,” “board of managers” instead of “board of directors,” and “common charges” instead of “dues” or “assessments.” One more term worth knowing: the declaration is the founding document that created your condominium and is recorded with the county. It fixes each unit’s ownership share, and it outranks the bylaws. We’ll use the same terminology here.
Article 9-B Is Short. Your Bylaws Are Long. That’s the Whole Story.
Unlike Florida, where lawmakers built a thick and exceptionally detailed rulebook after the Surfside condominium collapse in 2021, New York has kept its Condominium Act purposefully minimal. The act defines a condominium, declares that units are real property, requires the creation of a board of managers, and provides that common charges create a lien. After this, the law allows condominium associations to set their own rules.
Rather than prescribing procedures, Article 9-B sets basic boundaries for New York condos. For example, while it states that a board of managers must be established, it offers no specific regulations on how many managers must serve on the board, how to run or notify unit owners of meetings, where to cap fines, or how to conduct a hearing.
The state also lacks a specific condominium regulating body. Instead, the Attorney General performs disclosure review, accepts the offering plan, and exits the process. Therefore, if a board fails to follow its own bylaws, the path to resolution is a lawsuit rather than an official complaint to a state agency.
All of this means that there are no safety nets for New York boards that are not well-versed in their own declarations and bylaws. These governing documents are the laws of your condo and must be enforced fairly and equally. The financial stakes of ignorance are significant. The one place in which New York condominium association laws speak clearly is in the common-charge lien statute. If a unit is foreclosed on due to unpaid fees, the first mortgage is paid before the board of managers.
New York Condominium Association Laws: A Section-by-Section Guide to Article 9-B
Article 9-B is loosely organized around how a condominium association is created, governed, and financed. We’ll look at the New York condominium association laws in the statute grouped by theme, though your own governing documents still do most of the work.
Governance
The Board of Managers and the Bylaws – §339-v | §339-u
Section 339-v of Article 9-B dictates what the bylaws of a condominium association must cover, and that list underscores just how many details the statute delegates to boards. Per New York condominium association laws, a condo’s bylaws must:
- Provide for the nomination and election of a board of managers.
- Set the number of managers to serve on the board.
- Ensure that at least one-third of manager terms expire annually.
- Set the vote required to amend the bylaws themselves, which cannot be less than 66⅔% of unit owners in both number and common interest, unless every unit in the building is non-residential.
Governing documents must also outline the board’s powers, duties, compensation (if any), and the approved methods for removing managers. Bylaws must additionally determine whether the board may hire a managing agent and which duties it may delegate to that agent, how unit owner meetings are called and what percentage of owners qualifies as a quorum, and provide procedures for the election of a president, a secretary, and a treasurer.
Section 339-v states that the bylaws must set out the process for adopting and amending rules governing the association’s common elements. Per state law, unit owner meetings may be held in person or, at the board’s discretion, fully or partially online.
What it means for COAs: Bylaws carry a great deal of weight in New York state. Board size, quorum, notice, voting thresholds, and rulemaking are all set by your association’s governing documents. A board operating from its actual bylaws as opposed to a vague memory of “how it’s always been done” is the best way to avoid challengeable decisions. Management software with built-in voting tools helps boards run compliant elections and document the staggered-term turnover §339-v requires.
Common Interest and Ownership – §339-i
Section 339-i gives every unit a permanent ownership stake in the building’s shared property, like the lobby, roof, hallways, and grounds. That stake is expressed as a percentage, called the unit’s common interest, and it’s set in the association’s declaration.
That share is permanent. It cannot be altered without the consent of every affected unit owner, expressed in an amended declaration duly recorded.
What it means for COAs: Common interest is the number that drives a unit’s share of common expenses, and it is not something a board can adjust on its own. Reallocating it — after a unit is subdivided, or to correct an error carried forward from the original declaration — requires an amended declaration and the consent of every affected owner, not a board vote.
Finances
Common Charges and Common Expenses – §339-m
Per Section 339-m, common expenses are shared among unit owners in proportion to their common interest, unless the declaration and bylaws authorize a special allocation. The statute permits those for non-residential units, for areas under a particular owner’s exclusive use or control, and for income-restricted units. The funds collected to cover those expenses are common charges. Each unit’s share is charged to its owner, and common profits are distributed or credited back to owners in the same manner.
However, the detailed mechanics of billing, collection, reserve funding, and budgeting are set by the association’s bylaws (§339-v(1)(f)), not a state statute. New York condominium association laws do not require boards to conduct reserve studies, set budget increase caps, or define a statutory budgeting process.
What it means for COAs: Bylaws and board discretion are the sources of requirements and processes for reserves and budgeting. Boards can rely on PayHOA’s user-friendly financial tools to track budgets, collect payments, and invoice owners.
The Common-Charge Lien and Its Limits – §339-z | §339-aa
Section 339-z states that a condominium association has a lien on each unit for unpaid common charges. But that lien ranks behind tax liens, any recorded first mortgage, and certain subordinate mortgages of record held by government housing agencies. Because of this law, if a unit is foreclosed upon and the proceeds barely cover the mortgage loan, the association will recover no funds.
Under Section 339-aa, the lien takes effect when the board files a verified notice with the recording officer and is in place up to six years from that filing. The law also allows individual board members to file notice if charges are due and the board has not filed within 60 days. Before starting a foreclosure, the board must give the owner at least 90 days’ written notice of its intent to foreclose, in fourteen-point type, sent to the property address and any other address of record. The lien may be foreclosed like a mortgage in the board’s name, and the board may bid at the sale to acquire the unit, unless the bylaws prohibit it.
What it means for COAs: Prevention is preferable to enforcement here, because the bank will collect on the mortgage first. While New York condominium association laws are specific in determining how liens are dealt with, the governing tools that actually protect a board’s finances, such as late fees, interest, attorney’s-fee recovery, and prompt lien filing, are established in the bylaws and best leveraged by acting quickly. Financial tools and violation tracking help boards catch delinquencies early and document the paper trail a lien filing requires.
Non-Occupying Owners and Rent Collection – §339-kk
This section concerns condominiums with investor owners who rent out their units. It defines what a “non-occupying owner” is and provides associations with recourse to recoup rent paid by tenants of delinquent non-occupying owners.
What it means for COAs: These laws protect buildings with significant investor ownership, as well as tenants who are stuck in the middle when non-occupying owners fail to remit the rent they’ve paid to the condominium. The specifics of when and how boards may begin accepting rent from those types of tenants are technical. Be sure to check the exact text of the statute to confirm whether your situation applies.
Enforcement
Compliance with the Bylaws and Rules – §339-j
This section is brief but crucial, mandating that all unit owners strictly comply with their association bylaws and the rules, regulations, resolutions, and decisions adopted under them. Failure to do so is grounds for the board (or, in a proper case, an aggrieved owner) to take action to recover sums due, seek damages or injunctive relief, or both. New York condominium association laws do not provide a specific fining process, hearing committee requirements, notice windows, or fine caps.
What it means for COAs: A New York condominium board’s power to fine, suspend privileges, or otherwise penalize an owner comes from its governing documents, not from Article 9-B. The statute does not provide the grounds to authorize a fine or specify a process, so a fine imposed without documentary authority is vulnerable. Violation tracking documents notices and the enforcement trail, which matters even more where the process is defined entirely by your own documents.
The Board’s Power to Bring Actions – §339-dd
Without a state regulator, litigation is the board’s primary enforcement mechanism. Section 339-dd states that the board can bring legal action on behalf of two or more unit owners in matters involving the common elements or more than one unit. When unit owners are sued collectively in those same matters, process may be served on the person designated in the declaration rather than on every impacted owner.
What it means for COAs: Unit owners do not have to band together to take legal action in certain situations. The board can act collectively on their behalf.
Waiver, Abandonment, and Conveyance to the Board – §339-x
The regulations in this section are rarely invoked but still worth mentioning. It states that unit owners are not exempt from owing common charges if they move out of the unit, stop using common elements, leave the unit vacant, or abandon the unit. The statute does allow one exception: an owner who conveys the unit and its common interest to the board of managers stops owing charges accruing after the transfer, subject to any conditions in the bylaws.
Records and Transparency
Books and Records – §339-w
Per Section 339-w, the manager or board of managers is obligated to keep (in chronological order) detailed, accurate records of receipts and expenditures from operating the property. Those records, as well as the vouchers authorizing payments, must be made available to unit owners during convenient weekday hours, and the board must send every unit owner a written report summarizing receipts and expenditures at least once a year. Beyond that, the statute sets no response deadline and no penalty for noncompliance. That’s left to the governing documents.
What it means for COAs: Owners have the right to inspect financial records and receive an annual summary of receipts and expenditures, but New York condominium association laws do not include penalties to enforce this transparency. Even so, the buildings with the fewest disputes tend to make their records easy to access voluntarily, and their boards of managers are forthcoming. Powerful document storage makes this right effortless to honor and signals good faith.
When State Law and Your Governing Documents Collide
New York is like every other state in this respect: Wherever an association’s declaration or bylaws conflict with state law, the state law takes precedence. The plot twist for New York condominium associations is that Article 9-B is so limited that genuine conflicts are quite rare. It’s more common that the documents govern matters that the statute does not address.
For other states, we advise boards to first read the statutes governing condominium associations and then review their governing documents to confirm compliance. For New York, the inverse process is more efficient. Board members should first familiarize themselves with their declaration and bylaws, then ensure that nothing in them violates the few mandatory provisions set forth in New York condominium association law. The boards that end up in court with unit owners are usually the ones that rely on assumptions about what the law requires rather than reading their own documents.
How PayHOA Helps New York Condo Associations Stay Compliant
New York state places the onus on boards to remain compliant with their own bylaws and rules. PayHOA management tools can help ease that burden.
- Document storage complies with the inspection right preserved by Section 339-w by maintaining access to the declaration, bylaws, financial records, and other relevant documents for all unit owners.
- Violation tracking helps enforce the right defined in Section 339-j of the board to take legal action against unit owners who fail to follow the association’s bylaws. This paper trail is critical in a state with no statutory fining procedure to fall back on.
- Financial tools handle the common-charge billing, budgeting, and reserves that Section 339-m empowers the board to manage on its own. They also help catch delinquencies early.
- Voting tools help run compliant elections and document the staggered, one-third-term board turnover required by Section 339-v.
- Mass communication tools automate the delivery of meeting notices according to the bylaws’ set schedule, while maintaining a documented delivery record. This data protects boards and unit owners in the absence of a state-specified schedule.
Is COA self-management right for your community? Try PayHOA for free for 30 days.
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