Closings glossary
Co-op lien search
The search performed on a co-op purchase covering UCC filings, judgments, liens and unpaid building charges tied to the shares and to the selling shareholder. It supports no policy of insurance, so the protection comes from clearing what it reports before the closing rather than from insuring around it.
What is a co-op lien search?
Quick Answer
The full definition
The search performed on a co-op purchase covering UCC filings, judgments, liens and unpaid building charges tied to the shares and to the selling shareholder. It supports no policy of insurance, so the protection comes from clearing what it reports before the closing rather than from insuring around it.
Which related terms should you know?
These are the terms that come up alongside co-op lien search in the same file.
- UCC search
- A search of UCC filings for security interests in personal property, run against the seller and, on entity deals, against the entity itself.
- Stock certificate (co-op)
- The certificate evidencing the shares allocated to a co-op apartment. Shares and the proprietary lease travel together and cannot be sold separately from each other.
- Proprietary lease
- The occupancy lease a co-op corporation grants a shareholder for a specific unit. It is assigned at closing together with the stock certificate for the allocated shares, and its amendments, rather than the original text, carry the building's current rules.
- Judgment lien
- A lien created by docketing a money judgment against the owner. It reaches real property in the county of docketing and is a routine payoff item at a closing.
- Maintenance (co-op)
- The monthly charge a co-op levies on each shareholder, covering building operations plus that shareholder's share of real estate taxes and the underlying mortgage.
Where does co-op lien search come up in a New York City closing?
A Bay Ridge co-op seller still has a UCC-1 on file from a 2011 loan, and it has to be terminated before the buyer's lender will release funds.
What else should you read before closing?
Questions this raises
- Do co-ops have title insurance?A NYC co-op purchase transfers shares, not real property, so no owner’s policy issues. What the lien search and UCC search do in place of a title p...
- How long does a title search take?Three to five business days for a clean NYC house or condo, longer for co-ops, estates and multi-parcel files. What slows a New York title search d...
Building types
- Standard co-opThe ordinary New York City cooperative: you buy shares in a corporation and receive a proprietary lease to occupy a specific apartment.
- 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 ...
- Sponsor co-op unitAn unsold share allocation still held by the building’s original sponsor, sold under the offering plan rather than through the ordinary board process.
- 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.
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Legal Disclaimer: This page is general information about New York practice. It is not legal advice, it does not account for the terms of any particular contract, building or transaction, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. This is attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.