Following the co-op conversion boom of the 1980s, New York City has seen a shift from the conversion of existing housing stock to cooperative ownership to new construction condominiums. Although many of these newly constructed buildings have been developed by well-known companies, the condominium’s “sponsor” is almost always a single-purpose entity that assembles the land, builds the building, issues the offering plan, and sells the units to the buyers.
When there are construction defects or other problems with the condominium’s common elements, the condominium board, acting on behalf of the association’s unit owners, can bring claims against the sponsor entity. In an article for the New York Law Journal, Braverman Greenspun principal and managing partner Rob Braverman and of counsel William Geller explore the circumstances in which the condominium board, after the expiration of the sponsor’s initial control period, can assert claims for construction defects or mismanagement against the sponsor’s parent companies and principals.