My Co-op’s New Rule Is Unfair. What Can I Do?

Q: My husband and I own a pied-à-terre in a Manhattan co-op. We have new house rules, which essentially say that no one can be there without the owners. I was told that even my children, ages 17 and 20, cannot be in our apartment without either my husband or me, since only our names are listed as owners. This rule is not specific to people with pieds-à-terre, it’s for all shareholders, which makes no sense: If we lived there full-time, there would of course be many times when our children would be in the apartment without us. Is it a legal rule?

A: Co-op boards like to know who is in the building, which is why they screen new shareholders with a rigorous application and interview process. In that same spirit, boards place restrictions on guests’ comings and goings. But your children might not be considered guests.

“Almost all proprietary leases provide that the apartment can be occupied not only by its owner, but also by the owner’s immediate family, including the owner’s spouse, children and other relatives,” said William J. Geller, a partner who practices real estate law at Braverman Greenspun in New York.

Be sure to check your proprietary lease. If children are listed as family members allowed to occupy the apartment, this new house rule will not affect them, because house rules cannot abridge your rights under the proprietary lease, Mr. Geller said. Changes to the proprietary lease typically require approval by shareholders, while house rules are easier to change, requiring only approval by the board of directors.

If the co-op is trying to subject your children to the guest rules, but they are not guests under the lease, tell the board that these rules don’t apply to them.

Perhaps your proprietary lease has a clause that does not allow anyone to occupy the apartment without the named shareholders. In that case, calmly speak with some of the board members to see if they would agree to an exception, allowing your children to occupy the apartment without you and your husband, advised Lisa A. Smith, a partner who practices real estate law at Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, in New York.

If that doesn’t work, adding the children to the title or transferring the apartment into a trust would allow you to continue to have your adult children occupy the unit alone and not violate the building’s rules, Ms. Smith said.