The New York Times-20080127-Will Offering Plans Be Online-- -Question-

Return to: The_New_York_Times-20080127

Will Offering Plans Be Online?; [Question]

Full Text (196  words)

QCan the offering plan for a condo be found on the Internet?

A Not yet, said Alfred M. Taffae, a Manhattan co-op and condo lawyer.

Under the New York State's General Business Law, co-op and condo sales must be made under the terms of an offering plan filed with the Law Department.

The law also requires that prospective purchasers (and tenants in residence in a building being converted) be provided with a true copy of the plan.

That's usually interpreted as meaning a physical printed-and-bound copy, not a virtual copy.

In addition, the law provides that unless a purchaser has had at least three business days to review the plan, he or she has seven days to back out of the purchase.

Providing the offering plan online would create difficulties in establishing compliance with these disclosure requirements and timelines, Mr. Taffae said. To date the attorney general's office has not approved the idea, and until it does, it won't happen.

An additional concern, Mr. Taffae said, is ensuring that the online copies are, and remain, true copies.

Providing these materials online could result in unintentional alterations through programming mistakes or deliberate alterations by hackers, he said.