Building types in Brooklyn
HDFC co-ops in Brooklyn
Brooklyn’s HDFC buildings sit in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Clinton Hill and Bushwick, and many of them are small enough that the board is the whole building.
What is different about buying an HDFC co-op in Brooklyn?
Quick Answer
Brooklyn HDFC buildings are typically small brownstone or walk-up corporations in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Clinton Hill and Bushwick. Because the building is small and self-run, the governing documents, the reserve position and the arrears figure carry more weight in the review than the board interview does.
Which co-op buildings of this kind are actually in Brooklyn?
- Brownstone and small walk-up corporations formed from City in rem buildings in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and Bushwick
- Clinton Hill and Fort Greene buildings that came through tenant-interim-lease conversions in the 1980s
- A number of corporations of under a dozen units, where every shareholder is effectively on the board
- Buildings surrounded by market-rate sales that have moved far faster than the restricted resale price inside them
What do board approval and financing look like in Brooklyn?
- A very small corporation has no managing agent, so the income documentation and the governing documents come from a shareholder and take longer to produce
- Lenders apply the same HDFC overlays here as anywhere, and the small unit count adds a second concern about reserve adequacy
- An income cap plus a small building means a lender is underwriting both a capped value and a thin balance sheet
- Income verification is done against tax returns, and the household-size adjustment has to be confirmed against that building’s own governing documents
Which taxes and recording steps apply in Brooklyn?
- No mortgage recording tax and no recorded purchase instrument, because the security is a UCC filing
- New York State transfer tax and the New York City real property transfer tax apply to the share transfer
- The flip tax runs to the corporation in most Brooklyn HDFCs and is often the largest single figure on the seller’s side
- Judgment and lien searches run against Kings County records, and the corporation is searched as well as the seller
What pattern does a purchaser meet in Brooklyn?
- Small Brooklyn HDFCs frequently defer roof, boiler and facade work because the shareholder base cannot fund it, so an assessment history is the more revealing document than the reserve balance
- Open Department of Buildings permits and OATH (formerly ECB) violations against the building are common in this stock, and OATH judgments follow the property rather than the shareholder
- Where the corporation has a City loan or an ongoing tax exemption, the terms and the end date sit in the regulatory file and not in ACRIS
- The distance between the restricted price and neighboring market sales makes the income cap and the flip tax the questions a purchaser should ask first
What should you check first in a small Brooklyn HDFC?
The governing documents, the arrears figure and the building’s violation history. A corporation of under a dozen units has no cushion, so one shareholder in arrears or one open Department of Buildings item is a material share of the budget. Ask for minutes as well as financial statements.
Do Brooklyn HDFC buildings carry open violations?
Often. Much of this stock came to its shareholders in poor condition, and deferred work produces Department of Buildings and OATH items. An OATH judgment attaches to the property and outlives the shareholder who caused it, so the building’s record belongs in the review as much as the seller’s does.
What else should you read before closing on one of these?
In the glossary
- Flip taxA transfer fee charged by a co-op or, less often, a condominium when a unit changes hands. It is a creature of the building's governing documents, ...
- OATH Hearings DivisionThe City tribunal, OATH (formerly ECB), that adjudicates summonses from most New York City enforcement agencies. Unpaid or defaulted summonses beco...
- ECB judgmentThe judgment entered on an unpaid or defaulted summons heard at OATH (formerly ECB). It is a collectible City debt tied to the respondent and to th...
- Assessment (co-op or condo)A charge levied by a co-op or condominium board beyond ordinary maintenance or common charges, typically to pay for a capital project. It is disclo...
- Violation (cited against the premises)An agency record that a condition at a property does not comply with a code or rule. It attaches to the premises and follows the property through a...
Questions this raises
- What are HDFC co-op income caps?HDFC co-ops cap purchaser household income under the Private Housing Finance Law, against an area median income ceiling. How the cap is measured an...
- Who pays a co-op or condo assessment at closing?A NYC co-op or condo assessment is allocated by the contract of sale, not by custom. How installments and lump sums get split between seller and pu...
- Can you resell an HDFC co-op at market price?HDFC resale is limited by the building’s own documents: a purchaser income cap, a flip tax to the corporation and, where one exists, a resale price...
Building types
- HDFC co-opAn affordable cooperative formed under Article XI of the Private Housing Finance Law, with an income cap on purchasers and a flip tax that runs to ...
- Standard co-opThe ordinary New York City cooperative: you buy shares in a corporation and receive a proprietary lease to occupy a specific apartment.
- Townhouse and 1-4 family condo declarationA small building divided into condominium units, where outdoor space, party walls, multiple-dwelling registration and the certificate of occupancy ...
- Mitchell-Lama co-opA limited-equity cooperative in the State and City Mitchell-Lama program, sold from a waiting list at a formula price rather than on the open market.
This building type, borough by borough
- HDFC co-ops in ManhattanManhattan’s HDFC stock came out of the City taking title to abandoned buildings north of 96th Street and on the Lower East Side, then selling them ...
- HDFC co-ops in the BronxThe Bronx holds a dense band of HDFC buildings through Mott Haven, Highbridge, Morrisania and the Concourse, most of them formed out of the City’s ...
- Standard co-ops in BrooklynBrooklyn co-ops split into two very different populations: small self-managed brownstone corporations, and the very large post-war complexes along ...
- Mitchell-Lama co-ops in BrooklynBrooklyn’s Mitchell-Lama co-ops cluster along the southern shore near Coney Island and Brighton Beach, and several of them have already left the pr...
- Townhouse condo declarations in BrooklynBrooklyn produces more two- and three-unit condominium declarations than anywhere else in the city, because the brownstone stock lends itself to th...
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