News & Events Archive | Smith Buss & Jacobs LLP

Join Eric Blaha on Tuesday, April 29th at 5:00PM, to complete your Fair Housing training requirements!

To All Board Members and Property Managers,

If you need to fulfill your mandatory Fair Housing training requirements under Westchester County law, please register for free by clicking the link below:

CLICK HERE to register for Fair Housing training on Tuesday, April 29th, 2025, at 5:00 pm.

Eric will cover important topics such as:

Introduction to Fair Housing Laws
Housing Discrimination
Emotional Support Animals
Reasonable Accommodations
Purchase Application Disclosures
Complaints and Lawsuits
Fiduciary Duties
Q&A, and much more …

To attend a remote training session, you must pre-register by clicking on one of the above links and providing your full name. Plan to attend approximately 2 hours of online training using the Zoom webinar platform to obtain your certificate of completion. Course materials will be made available upon completion of your attendance. Non-Westchester County residents check your local jurisdiction’s training requirements.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Please reach out to info@sbjlaw.com if you have additional questions!

COOP EXPO New York, Spring 2025- Thank you for attending!

A huge thank you to everyone who attended the Co-op, Condo & Property Management Expo at the New York Hilton Midtown on March 4 and participated in our discussion on Dealing with Delinquencies – New Ways for Boards to Speed Up the Collections Process with Ken Jacobs, Eric Blaha, Ryan Houck, and Vanity Muniz.

With the lasting effects of the 2019 Housing Stability Act and the pandemic still impacting co-op and condo arrears, this conversation was more timely than ever. Given ongoing court backlogs, it’s essential for boards to utilize all available tools to uphold their fiduciary duty and maintain financial stability in their communities.

Our discussion explored key challenges and practical solutions, including:

Strategies boards can use to accelerate collections before full foreclosure
Bylaw changes that can strengthen enforcement options
Available resources to help boards navigate the process successfully

We appreciate everyone who joined, engaged, and contributed to this valuable discussion. Looking forward to more insightful conversations ahead!

View our presentation here: Dealing with Delinquencies New Ways for Boards to Speed Up the Collection Process

CTA Update: Treasury Department Permanently Pauses Enforcement Of Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements Against Domestic Companies

On Saturday, March 1^st, the Treasury Department issued a press release permanently pausing enforcement of the contentious Beneficial Ownership Information reporting requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act against domestic companies or individual U.S. citizens. Only foreign companies will now be required to report BOI filing information.

The release provides, in part:

“The Treasury Department is announcing today that, with respect to the Corporate Transparency Act, not only will it not enforce any penalties or fines associated with the beneficial ownership information reporting rule under the existing regulatory deadlines, but it will further not enforce any penalties or fines against U.S. citizens or domestic reporting companies or their beneficial owners after the forthcoming rule changes take effect either. The Treasury Department will further be issuing a proposed rulemaking that will narrow the scope of the rule to foreign reporting companies only. Treasury takes this step in the interest of supporting hard-working American taxpayers and small businesses and ensuring that the rule is appropriately tailored to advance the public interest.”

For the full text of the Press Release, see HERE.

Hopefully this will be the last time we will need to report on the CTA. As Shakespeare might have put it, “The BOI reporting requirements were a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Join Us at the Co-op Expo on March 4!

We will be discussing: Dealing with Delinquencies – New Ways for Boards to Speed Up the Collections Process with Ken Jacobs , Eric Blaha & Ryan Houck

📅 Date: March 4, 2025
⏰ Time:2:00 pm – 3:00pm
🔗 Event: Co-op Expo- Register here

The 2019 Housing Stability Act caused major delays in collecting co-op arrears, and the COVID pandemic quintupled the problem. With the courts still backlogged and every shareholder entitled to an attorney, boards need to understand what tools and recourse they have to uphold their fiduciary duty and speed up collecting the monies owed.

Condo boards have fewer tools than co-ops but still must pursue arrears and keep their communities financially solvent.

This seminar will outline:
✔️ The leverage boards can use to speed up collections before full foreclosure
✔️ Bylaw changes that can provide more help
✔️ Resources available to guide boards to a successful outcome

Learn more at Co-op Expo and join us on March 4! No alternative text description for this image

CTA Filing Requirements Back On Pending Decisions on Appeal; Filing Deadline Extended to March 21, 2025

On February 18, 2025 a second federal District Court lifted its nationwide injunction against enforcement of the Beneficial Ownership Information (“BOI”) reporting requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”), reinstating the BOI reporting requirements for small businesses and Boards. See its uninformative order HERE. The court’s decision makes sense, since the Supreme Court had just lifted the injunction in an identical case.

FinCEN has now extended its BOI filing deadline for 30 days, until March 21, 2025. See FinCEN’s formal announcement HERE. Accordingly, the principals of all small businesses – including the Boards of all community associations — that had failed to file until now will now have 30 days to submit their personal information to FinCEN.

Please note that unless all Board members are in compliance, technically the association is also non-compliant. If an individual Board member with other connections does not want to file multiple times, he or she can also procure a “Personal Identification Number” from FinCEN and use that number for all of their filings.

You can start the filing process on your own by going to FinCEN’s BOI filing website HERE. If you have not yet filed, your management company, accountant or counsel may be able to assist you. If you would like to file through this law firm, please email Vanessa Martinez at vmartinez@sbjlaw.com to get started.

For those intrepid readers who have been following the CTA’s progress through the courts: In our last episode, the Supreme Court had allowed FinCEN to reinstate the Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirements in the Texas Top Cop Shop case, pending a decision on FinCEN’s appeal of the nationwide injunction granted by one Texas federal District Court. However, FinCEN was still prohibited from requiring BOI filings because of another nationwide injunction issued by a different Texas federal court in the Smith case.

FinCEN appealed the Smith case and requested that the federal court injunction in that case be released as well pending the Government’s appeal, i.e., reinstating the BOI reporting requirements. As reported, the District Court judge in Smith granted the Government’s request (likely avoiding an embarrassing reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court as well).

As always, we will continue to keep you posted on the progress of both the cases and the bills pending in Congress as the CTA winds its way through the system.

CTA Update: House Passes One-Year Delay Bill; FinCEN Appeals “Smith” Decision Barring Enforcement

On Monday, February 10^th, the House unanimously passed the “Protect Small Businesses from Excessive Paperwork Act of 2025.” The bill includes a one-year delay in compliance with the CTA’s filing requirements for businesses formed before January 1, 2024.

In the meantime, FinCEN has filed a Notice of Appeal of the Smith case (which had imposed a nationwide injunction against enforcement of the Beneficial Ownership filing requirements of the CTA), and requested a “stay” of the injunction. Imposition of a stay by the Appeals Court would effectively undo the injunction and force companies to file their Beneficial Ownership Information Reports with FinCEN. However, FinCEN stated that if the stay was granted, FinCEN would allow at least 30 days for businesses to comply.

If the appeal follows the same path as the other case, the 5^th Circuit appeals court will deny the stay, the government will appeal, and the Supreme Court will grant the stay pending a decision by the justices. Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s position (already striking a nationwide injunction that barred enforcement of the CTA), the political momentum appears to be shifting against the more onerous requirements of the Act. We would not be surprised if the Senate passed the House bill by a similar margin and the President signed it into law.

New York City “Fair Chance” Housing Act signed into Law

New York City legislators have not been idle. The NYC “Fair Chance” Housing Law took effect on January 1, 2025 prohibiting most housing providers from discriminating against both renters and purchasers based on the applicant’s arrest records, convictions and other criminal history.

The Fair Chance Housing Law amends the Human Rights Law by limiting the types of records that “covered” housing providers may request and consider from applicants. The law applies to nearly every housing provider in NYC with three or more units for rental or sale, including cooperative and condominium sales and (proprietary) leases.

Commencing on January 1 of this year, all brokers, licensed salespeople, housing owners, property managers and all individuals with authority to approve or deny a rental or sale of housing (including cooperative and condominium boards and managing agents) are prohibited from treating applicants differently or changing the terms of a sale or lease because of the applicant’s criminal history. (It appears that for purposes of the Act, the decision of a condominium whether to exercise a “right of first refusal” also would be deemed subject to the Act.)

Housing providers who choose to perform criminal background checks must first review the application, determine that it meets the general eligibility standards and make a conditional offer to the applicant. A housing provider may not ask an applicant whether they have a criminal history either orally or in writing, and may not search for criminal history in publicly available records including websites, until a conditional offer is made to the applicant and the applicant is provided with a copy of the Fair Chance Housing Notice of Rights.

The housing provider may then perform a criminal background search, but that search may report only: (a) convictions that require registration on a sex offense registry at the time of the background check, regardless of when the conviction occurred, (b) felony convictions where the actual release date or sentencing date (if no jail time) occurred within the last 5 years or (c) misdemeanor convictions where the actual release date or sentencing date (if no jail time) occurred within the last 3 years.

Housing providers must ensure that the scope of the background check they choose to run does not exceed the limited types of convictions permitted by the statute. If the housing provider then wishes to revoke a conditional offer, it must provide a copy of the criminal history it received to the applicant, explain in writing the reason behind the withdrawal of the conditional offer, and notify the applicant that they have 5 days to point out any errors or inaccuracies or to show that the housing provider inappropriately considered a part of the criminal history and to provide supporting information that explains their history.

Additional links:

The Fair Chance Housing Notice of Rights can be found at:

The Fair Chance Housing Notice

Helpful Questions and Answers about the law can be found at:

Fair Chance Housing Campaign

FinCEN states that CTA reporting requirements remain voluntary Government interprets Injunction Issued in a Different CTA Case to apply Nationwide as well

Earlier today we reported that the Injunction in the “Top Shop” case (which the Government had appealed to the Supreme Court) had been overturned by the court. We expected FinCEN to reinstate the filing deadlines today.

We had been ignoring a parallel case, Samantha Smith and Robert Smith v. U.S. Department of the Treasury et. al. (U.S. District Court, E.D. Texas), which the Government had not appealed. The court in the Smith case also had deemed the CTA to be unconstitutional and also issued an injunction against enforcement of the CTA against the plaintiffs. However, we had interpreted the concurrent temporary stay of the “Reporting Rule” (requiring the filing of Beneficial Ownership Information by companies) granted by the District Court in the case, to apply only to the plaintiffs in that case as well. See the full case HERE.

Apparently FinCEN disagrees. This morning, FinCEN stated:

“On January 23, 2025, the Supreme Court granted the government’s motion to stay a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in Texas (Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc. v. McHenry—formerly, Texas Top Cop Shop v. Garland). As a separate nationwide order issued by a different federal judge in Texas (Smith v. U.S. Department of the Treasury) still remains in place, reporting companies are not currently required to file beneficial ownership information with FinCEN despite the Supreme Court’s action in Texas Top Cop Shop. Reporting companies also are not subject to liability if they fail to file this information while the Smith order remains in force. However, reporting companies may continue to voluntarily submit beneficial ownership information reports.” [Emphasis added.]

As a result, compliance with the Reporting Rules in the CTA remains voluntary. We still recommend that at a minimum, companies send their reporting information to any third party filing agents whom they have retained. That way, if the Smith injunction is similarly overturned, you will be ready to make the necessary filing. But as of today, we are countermanding our instructions from yesterday’s report. Compliance with the Reporting Rules in the CTA remains voluntary.

CTA Reporting Requirements Restored! The Supreme Court grants Government’s request to vacate the stay of enforcement of the CTA

In our last episode, the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court had reinstated the nationwide injunction against enforcement of the CTA pending the court’s consideration of the merits of the Government’s appeal of the injunction initially granted by the District Court. The Government filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court to lift the stay.

On January 23, 2025, the Supreme Court granted the Government’s motion, lifting the injunction until the Fifth Circuit has ruled on the Government’s appeal and the Supreme Court has either granted or denied a “writ of certiorari” (motion for a further appeal) by the losing party. The Court’s decision appears HERE. The appeal process could take several months.

This means that the Beneficial Ownership Information reporting requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act are reinstated for the foreseeable future. We expect FinCEN to set a new, short filing deadline very soon. We will advise you when it is announced.

As detailed in our E-blasts from [August 2024] [October 2024], companies that wish to file independently can do so by going to https://boiefiling.fincen.gov/. Individuals who wish to obtain a personal identification number if they need to make multiple filings can do so by going to FinCEN’s step-by-step instructions for filing HERE. Your managing agent and other third-party companies may also offer their services for filing for a fee. Companies that wish to use our firm’s services to file may contact Vanessa Martinez [vmartinez@sbjlaw.com] to compile and submit their filings.

Thank you for staying connected with us. As we wrap up the week, we hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead. Stay warm, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or need further assistance.

Join Eric Blaha on Tuesday, March 4th at 5:00PM, to complete your Fair Housing training requirements!