After several years of work, a new alteration agreement form for condo units has been approved by both the New York City and New York State Bar Associations. 

Alteration agreements are used by boards to regulate and oversee any renovations or modifications made within individual co-op and condo units. Their primary purpose is to protect the building’s structural integrity, building systems, and neighboring units from damage or disruption that might be caused by a resident’s renovation or remodeling project. These agreements require shareholders or unit owners to submit detailed plans to the board, obtain approvals, and follow specific rules around contractor qualifications, insurance coverage, and on-site work hours. They also help ensure that projects comply with building codes and local laws. In short, alteration agreements reduce risk, assign responsibility for potential damages, and provide boards with a clear framework for managing construction activity in their building safely and fairly.

Prior to the completion of the new form, the only alteration agreement form approved by the NYC Bar Association was the form for co-ops, which was last updated in 2010. Further review and modification of the new form was done by a Joint Subcommittee of the New York City Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association. 

What’s New? 

A primary goal of the City and State Bars in approving the new form was for it to be an industry-standard template to help boards modernize and reduce risk, with the flexibility to be customized for the unique needs of individual buildings. “This should lead to a more efficient process for the submission and approval of alterations,” says William McCracken, a partner with Moritt Hock & Hamroff, a law firm based in Manhattan. 

While many condo associations already have their own alteration agreements, the new form represents a significant shift from the often vague, inconsistent language of those documents, spelling out submission requirements, tightening insurance and indemnification provisions, and giving boards clearer authority to monitor work—and halt it, if necessary. It also standardizes how fees and professional review costs are handled. While more detailed (and potentially more burdensome), the form ultimately aims to reduce disputes, protect buildings, and create a more predictable, transparent process for both boards and unit owners.

“Alteration agreements are complicated documents because they need to do multiple different things at once,” says McCracken. “Among other things, they need to include the essential legal provisions for the board, they need to provide step-by-step guidance about the alterations process for the unit owners, and they need to codify all of the building-specific construction rules for the contractors.  This form is very useful with respect to the legal issues, because it includes all of the state-of-the-art language on things like insurance, indemnities, and assignments.”

McCracken also notes that the newly-adopted form is best understood as a model framework, rather than a mandate. “Condo boards in NYC should approach it thoughtfully, rather than simply adopting it wholesale,” he says. “I wouldn’t necessarily use this form ‘off-the-shelf’ for any of my clients, because every building will have slightly different rules on the alterations process, or will have building-specific construction requirements—but it does provide a very clear framework that can be adapted as needed.”