The Hindu : International : The almighty cooperative

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 22, 2005

International

International

The almighty cooperative

NEW YORK, JAN. 21. Imagine buying a new home where your neighbours can decide how it is decorated, what you cook for dinner, how big your dog is and what kind of love life you have. And they can toss you out if they do not like it.

You have got a problem with that? Millions of New Yorkers live with it every day.

Residential life in New York is ruled by the almighty cooperative, whereby apartment owners form a board to run their buildings and decide who may live there and who may not.

The city is filled with tales of such nightmares. A first-time buyer bidding on a tiny studio might well be rejected over an overlooked bill paid late years ago. At the other end of the scale, the media baron Rupert Murdoch is paying a record $ 44 millions cash for a multi-floor spread in a Fifth Avenue building where all buyers must pass muster before a very choosy cooperative board. Mr. Murdoch was not even the highest bidder. Someone else wanted to offer a million dollars more but only had $100 millions in assets, said a real estate agent. ``We knew he wouldn't get through the board,'' she said.

The structure

By law, a board is free to reject anyone, so long as it does not discriminate on such factors as race or religion. ``Of course, they go too far,'' said the agent. ``And the more money there is, the more difficult it is.'' Cooperative board residents buy shares in a company that owns the apartments and then pay fees for repairs, taxes and such. Such entities make up around 80 per cent of privately owned housing in Manhattan.

``They're almost a unique institution to New York,'' said a real estate attorney, who said they help the urban middle class to own rather than rent their homes.

Celebrity tales

In an oft-told tale, the former U.S. President Richard Nixon was rejected by a board after his resignation from the White House. Other famous rejections have been handed to entertainer Madonna, heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, singers Carly Simon and Mariah Carey and designer Calvin Klein. Actors Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith were just turned down for a duplex in the Dakota building, which has been home to such celebrities as Lauren Bacall, Leonard Bernstein, Rudolph Nureyev and Mia Farrow. Beatle John Lennon was slain at the building's gates; his widow Yoko Ono still lives there.

Not just celebrities get such tough treatment. Along with insisting on background checks and financial reviews, some boards have been known to interview prospective buyers' dogs.

Rules for anything

Once buyers move in, board's rules can determine the hours one may do the laundry and what noises and smells can waft out of the doors. Loud love-making is frowned upon, as is cigarette smoke.

Pets are a persistent issue, with boards determining what they are, how many there are and how big they are. A cooperative board overlooking Central Park caused an uproar in December when it evicted a red-tailed hawk that had nested on a cornice for more than a decade. Protests from bird lovers including celebrity resident Mary Tyler Moore forced the board to back down and allow the bird called Pale Male back. — Reuters

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section

Maleeha Lodhi accuses West of `double standards'

Israel, Palestinians move towards peace

Cheney admits to Iraq mistakes, yet harps on Iran

Record high pilgrims at Haj

Bush begins on a "combative" note

India-China strategic dialogue on Monday

Maldives goes to the polls

The almighty cooperative

To rock house and cradle

For and against more time at the pub

Court martial: judge rebukes Blair