The board is the obstacle

New York: the co-op interview is not a test you must pass

Nowhere else does so much housing sit under a board that interviews applicants and votes on them. That process is real, and it does not license the questions boards routinely ask when a creature is mentioned.

A row of brownstone houses on Kane Street, Brooklyn
Brooklyn brownstones, much of it co-operative or rent-regulated Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0

Six things boards say

All six come up constantly. None of them survives contact with the rules.

“The board interviews every applicant, and we will ask about the animal”
An interview about your suitability as a resident is one thing. Using it to question your health, or to have you justify the creature in front of a room, reaches well past what may be asked.
“Our proprietary lease forbids animals outright”
A proprietary lease is a contract, and contracts are exactly what an exception request asks to have relaxed. Its age and formality change nothing.
“Shareholders would need to vote at the annual meeting”
A committee's meeting schedule excuses nothing. Deferring a petition to the yearly shareholders' gathering constitutes indefensible delay.
“We require a letter from a doctor on our form”
A template may be offered; it cannot be made the only route. Material you provide in a different format covering the identical pair of questions has to be judged fairly.
“There is a move-in fee and a processing charge”
Charges every resident pays are neutral. A sum that exists because of the creature, or to consider the request, is precisely what approval abolishes.
“Boards do not have to give reasons”
Broad discretion over admissions is not discretion to refuse on a prohibited basis. A rejection landing immediately once an impairment was mentioned makes a chronology worth documenting with care.

Three bodies can hear your matter

Which one depends on where the building stands.

Inside the five boroughs The city commission New York City runs its own human rights body under an ordinance drawn more broadly again than the state's. Closest to the building and usually quickest.
Anywhere in the state New York State Division of Human Rights Covers all sixty-two counties, protects a longer list than the national statute, and sets its own filing window.
Nationwide Region II - New York The federal floor, twelve months from the incident. Best suited to one owner repeating the same conduct across a portfolio.

Several counties outside the city also operate their own commissions. Should one serve your neighbourhood, approach it before the others on the same logic: nearness.

Where rent regulation meets the request

A rent-stabilised or rent-controlled tenancy is governed by its own body of law about renewals, increases and succession. That system and this one run in parallel; neither overrides the other.

They meet at one point. Declining renewal, or a rise surfacing soon after your approach, is open to review under the rent rules and as reprisal for claiming these entitlements. Raise it under both rather than choosing.

Practically: do not surrender a regulated tenancy to end an argument about a creature. Those tenancies are extremely difficult to recover once given up, and the exception request does not require you to move anywhere.

The state is not one market

Manhattan and Brooklyn Co-operatives and condominiums dominate. Refusals here typically issue from the governing committee rather than a proprietor, and the preceding section covers such quarrels.
Queens and the Bronx A deep stock of rent-regulated apartment buildings with professional management, where denials arrive as policy rather than as a personal decision.
Long Island and Westchester Suburban associations and single-family letting, with several counties operating their own human rights commissions.
Upstate cities The western and capital-region cities, holding aged buildings and modest proprietors, where a no reflects inexperience rather than any settled rule.
College towns Ithaca, Binghamton and similar places where academic-year tenancies let weak screening practices survive year after year.
Rural counties Thin supply and private owners across long distances. Straightforward correspondence resolves most cases with no official body engaged.

What to put in front of a board

Four sentences in writing, addressed to the board and copied to the managing agent: that you are disabled, that the creature relates to that, which rule you are asking to have relaxed, and the date by which you would like an answer.

If your circumstances are not evident on sight, enclose a brief corroborating line from whoever provides your care. Enclose it at the outset instead of waiting for a demand; doing so eliminates the excuse for a broader investigation before one is composed.

Keep the managing agent copied throughout. Agents generally understand the position better than volunteer directors do, and they are frequently the ones who explain it to the board.

Questions from New York

Must I attend the board interview?
An admissions interview is a normal part of buying into a co-operative. What is not normal is being asked there about your health, or to demonstrate why you need the creature. Answer the ordinary questions and decline the rest in writing afterwards.
I am a renter in a co-op building.
Your sublandlord and the governing committee may each owe you a response. Address each of them within the same twenty-four hours while keeping the correspondence distinct.
Does a pied-à-terre or short sublet count?
Residing somewhere for a season makes it your dwelling. A few nights follows innkeeper standards no matter how the advertisement describes it.
The board has been fining me weekly.
Fines mounting during a period of silence make an already poor situation worse. Itemise each one when you file; cancelling them is part of the remedy you are asking for.

New York State Division of Human Rights

The state agency that receives and investigates housing discrimination complaints in New York, alongside HUD.

Agency guidance

42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619

The federal statute prohibiting housing discrimination, including on the basis of disability. Refusing a reasonable accommodation that a person with a disability needs to use and enjoy a dwelling is a form of discrimination under this Act.

Federal law

24 CFR § 100.204

HUD's regulation implementing the reasonable accommodation duty, including the example of waiving a no-pets rule for a person who needs an assistance animal.

Federal law

24 CFR § 100.202

Sets out the general prohibitions on disability discrimination in housing and limits inquiries into whether a person has a disability.

Federal law

HUD Notice FHEO-2020-01

HUD's central guidance on assistance animals in housing: the difference between a service animal and a support animal, what information a housing provider may request, and how requests should be assessed.

Federal law