Mission

The Alliance of Condo & Co-op Owners aims to help owners achieve fair play, transparency, and accountability in condo and co-op governance and operations.

ACCO also works to help owners attain equity in housing policy.

Methods

  • Create awareness by building a grassroots activist owners’ movement
  • Lobby for city-wide and state-wide legislative change
  • Work directly for constructive change through advocacy, mediation, and intervention
  • Educate: Owners about their rights; boards about their duties; managers & professionals about owner issues and priorities

Sometimes we need help enforcing laws already on the books.

By-Laws. Proprietary Lease. House Rules. Business Corporation Law.  Since every aspect of co-op and condo life is governed by a plethora of laws, why doesn’t everyone just do the right thing?

In fact, most Board members, managers, and other professionals follow most rules, most of the time.  Yet, there are occasions when their actions don’t coincide with the interests of the owners’ Association.   Taking legal action in such cases should be a last resort for owners; among many reasons is the fact that owners fund both sides* of any courtroom battle with their building.   There must be a better way.
* for more detail on legal costs, see FAQs

Justice Louis Brandeis famously proclaimed: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” ACCO agrees.  We help educate Boards & professionals on being responsive and transparent, while we help owners communicate key facts and perspective to their community.

Sometimes we need new laws.

The evolution of apartment ownership in New York has been a long social experiment, which continues to this day.   Yet, the laws which govern owners, Boards & agents are often hopelessly out of step with the realities of our complex lives.

A small example is the law which entitles each owner to a list of all owners in a building.  Written before the internet was conceived, it does not stipulate email addresses; courts have held that this data need not be shared.   Boards & agents routinely use email for fast, low-cost communication with owners.   Yet, owners or groups looking to communicate with their neighbors must lose time &/or spend money if they want to have a building-wide discussion of issues.   The playing field is not level.

ACCO is dedicated to fixing this flaw, & many others, to improve & enhance the governance of our communities.