You pay the maintenance. You are entitled to see where it goes.

NY BCL § 624

Why you might need the records.

Shareholders and unit owners ask for records for practical reasons. The maintenance or common charges just jumped and no one explained why. An assessment is proposed for a project no one saw bid. A sublet application was denied and you suspect others were approved. A director's company seems to be getting the contracts. You are selling and the buyer's lawyer wants the minutes. Or you want to organize a slate for the next election and need the shareholder list.

All of these are proper purposes, and in a co-op most of them are covered by statute. If your dispute is about a specific failure to act, such as a leak or an application, the records request is often the first step that shows you what the board actually decided and when; see the hub, co-op or condo board won't act.

Co-ops: Business Corporation Law § 624.

A cooperative is a corporation, and its shareholders have the inspection rights of any New York shareholder. Under BCL § 624, a shareholder of record may, on written demand stating that the inspection is not for a purpose unrelated to the business of the corporation, examine the minutes of shareholder meetings and the record of shareholders, and make extracts. The statute gives the corporation a short period, measured in business days, to comply. The corporation may require an affidavit confirming the proper purpose and that the shareholder has not sold or offered to sell shareholder lists in the recent past. Separately, on written request, the corporation must provide its most recent annual balance sheet and profit-and-loss statement, and any interim statements distributed to shareholders.

If the corporation refuses, the statute authorizes a court, on application by the shareholder, to order the inspection. That proceeding is summary, meaning fast and without a full trial, and boards know it. The threat of a court order is why a properly drafted demand is usually honored.

The statute's list is narrower than what many shareholders want. Board meeting minutes, contracts, bids, invoices, and bank statements are not named in § 624. For those, shareholders rely on the common-law right of inspection, which New York courts have long recognized and which extends to books and records reasonably related to a proper purpose, subject to the court's discretion. Bylaws sometimes broaden access as well. A good demand invokes both the statute and the common-law right and explains the purpose, so the board cannot hide behind the statutory list.

Condos: the bylaws and the condominium statute.

A condominium is not a corporation and a unit owner is not a shareholder, so § 624 does not apply. Condo owners' rights come from two places. The Condominium Act requires the board of managers to keep detailed, accurate records in chronological order of receipts and expenditures affecting the common elements, including the maintenance and repair expenses and any other expenses incurred, together with the vouchers authorizing the payments, and to make those records available for examination by unit owners at convenient hours on working days. We describe that rule in words rather than by section because it is the principle, not the number, that the letter relies on. The bylaws then typically require annual financial statements to owners and often expand inspection rights to minutes and contracts.

Condo boards that stonewall are therefore breaching the bylaws and the statute's recordkeeping rule, and a unit owner can sue to compel compliance. The path is less summary than a co-op shareholder's, which is one more reason to make the written demand precise and the refusal unmistakable.

How to write a demand that works.

The boards that ignore requests are usually responding to informal ones: an email to the managing agent, a question at the annual meeting, a text to a director. A request that triggers the statute looks different.

• In writing, to the corporation. Addressed to the board and the corporation's secretary, delivered by a method you can prove (certified mail, overnight courier, and email to the managing agent).
• Identify yourself as a shareholder of record or unit owner, with your apartment and, for a co-op, your share count if known.
• State the purpose and that it is related to the corporation's business: reviewing the basis of an assessment, evaluating the board's handling of a repair, communicating with other shareholders about an election.
• List what you want, specifically. Shareholder-meeting minutes for a date range, the record of shareholders, the last annual balance sheet and profit-and-loss statement, board minutes for a date range, the contract and bids for the roof project, the general ledger for a period.
• Cite the authority. BCL § 624 and the common-law right for co-ops; the bylaws and the condominium statute's recordkeeping rule for condos.
• Offer the affidavit the statute allows the corporation to require, and propose a date and place for inspection.
• Set a deadline consistent with the statute and state that you will seek a court order if it passes.

What the board may lawfully withhold.

Not everything. The board may withhold records covered by attorney-client privilege, personal information about other shareholders beyond the shareholder list (financial applications, for instance), and records sought for a purpose unrelated to the corporation, such as a personal vendetta or a commercial mailing list. It may require you to inspect at the managing agent's office rather than mailing copies, and may charge a reasonable copying cost. It cannot refuse because you are "adversarial," because you are in a dispute with the board, or because the managing agent is busy. A board in litigation with a shareholder sometimes argues the request is really discovery; courts have generally held that pending litigation does not extinguish the statutory right.

A worked example.

A Queens co-op announces a $6,000-per-unit assessment for "facade work." A shareholder emails the managing agent asking for the engineer's report and the bids and gets no reply. She sends a formal demand under § 624 and the common-law right, stating her purpose (evaluating the basis for an assessment she is obligated to pay), listing the shareholder-meeting minutes for two years, the current financial statements, the board minutes concerning the facade project, the engineering report, and the bids, and offering the affidavit. The board's counsel responds within the statutory period, produces the statutory items, and negotiates production of the board minutes and the bids with some redactions. The shareholder learns that only one bid was obtained, raises it at the next meeting, and the board rebids the project.

That is the typical shape of a successful records demand. It rarely ends in court. It does end with the board's counsel involved and a shareholder who knows what the board knows.

What a demand letter does here.

Our records demand letters are drafted to satisfy § 624's formalities so that the board's only lawful response is to produce. They state the proper purpose, list the records with precision, invoke the statute and the common-law right (or, for condos, the bylaws and the condominium statute), include the affidavit language, set the deadline, and state that a court order will be sought if the deadline passes. Coming from counsel, they are routed to the board's lawyer, who knows the summary proceeding is available and what it costs to lose one.

When a letter is not needed: if your request is for the annual financial statement alone, a simple written request to the managing agent citing § 624 will often do, and we will tell you to try that first. When a letter is not enough: if the board has already refused a proper written demand, the next step is the court application, not another letter. See how our flat-fee demand letters work and, for the litigation options, demand letter vs. court.

If the board ignores the demand.

For co-ops, the shareholder applies to the court for an order compelling inspection. The proceeding is quick, the board's defenses are limited to improper purpose and the affidavit requirements, and courts routinely grant these applications. For condos, the unit owner brings an action to enforce the bylaws and the statute. In both cases the refusal itself becomes evidence of the board's conduct in any related dispute, whether a challenge to an assessment, a damages claim over a leak the board failed to fix, or a claim that an application was denied for an improper reason.