Westchester County is about to make it more difficult for cooperative boards and their managers who will have strict deadlines when it comes to sales applications.  Assuming the County Executive George Latimer signs the bill into law on December 14th, cooperatives boards and managers have to be ready to comply.

The Westchester County Board of Legislators overwhelmingly approved this transparency bill giving cooperative boards only 15 days to notify buyers if their applications are complete. Once an application is complete, a board then has 60 days to accept or reject it.

If a cooperative board rejects an application, it has to notify the Westchester Human Rights Commission, which has the authority to investigate any discrimination charges.  Cooperatives have only 15 days to notify the Commission of a rejection.  Cooperatives that fail to notify the commission in 15 days face a $1,000 fine for the first offense, $1,500 for a second offense, and $2,000 for each subsequent offense.

This is a lot better than the original proposal which would also have required boards to give a reason for rejecting any application. However, the time limitation and notification obligation put pressure on management and boards to move applications along, stay organized and make sure notifications are timely. This will put even more pressure on self managed cooperatives whose board members have to do all the work themselves.