“2010 Condo Lottery: Previous participation may not yield additional tickets
Dear Plan C Member,
Ticket sales for the 2010 Condo Conversion Lottery have been announced by the city and will begin on Monday, November 23rd (additional information can be found here).
As you may be aware, it has been the practice of the City to issue additional tickets to buildings that can substantiate unsuccessful past participation. Specifically, the rules and instructions issued by the City’s Department of Public Works (“DPW”) for the 2009 lottery (ORDER NUMBER 177,881) stated, “Multiple tickets for any building will be sold based on the current 2009 lottery and proof provided for each year of past unsuccessful participation; that is one (1) ticket for the 2009 lottery, one (1) ticket for unsuccessful participation for any and all of the lotteries during the 1990-1994 period, and one (1) ticket for each year of unsuccessful participation in the 1995-2008 period.”
Recently we learned that the City may be denying additional lottery tickets to buildings that qualify with the minimum qualifications (summarized generally as: one owner-occupied unit for each of the last three years in 2-4 unit buildings, and three owner-occupied units for each of the last three years in 5-6 unit buildings). Historically, lottery priority and the issuance of additional tickets have required that one of the qualifying owner-occupants has been an owner (but not necessarily an occupant) during each of the previous lottery losses. The change for the last couple of years and for 2010 is that DPW appears to have a new interpretation of written law. To establish priority credit (additional tickets), DPW is requiring that each of the qualifying owner-occupants be the same original owner occupants that were unsuccessful in past lotteries.
Simply put, your building might qualify for the 2010 lottery and receive one ticket, but unlike in years past, may not be entitled to additional tickets based upon unsuccessful previous lottery participation.
We are reaching out the membership of Plan C to see if there are other TIC groups where this situation is likely to have an impact. If you’re facing the same issue, or would face this issue if one of your fellow TIC co-owners were to sell their interest, let us know and we will put you in contact with other similarly situated people. Send us an e-mail at, [email protected].
Collective action by affected TIC groups (including possible litigation) is more likely to succeed than individual efforts.”