SoHo's loft co-ops are the sharpest concentration of surcharge exposure anywhere in the city, and it comes down to arithmetic nobody chose. There are 84 co-op buildings on the roll in 10012. The median one has 7 units. 61 of them have ten or fewer. When DOF values a whole cast-iron building by its imputed rent roll and divides by the share ledger, a seven-unit building hands each shareholder a seventh of a Greene Street loft building.
The result: 80 of the 84 co-op buildings here have at least one exposed unit, and in 49 of them every unit is over the threshold.
Work through the following in order. Skipping ahead is how people end up filing the wrong thing.
Did DOF publish a value for your specific unit?
For the July roll, DOF published imputed per-unit values for 36,677 co-op units across 764 buildings — most of Manhattan's co-op stock. If your unit is one of them, that published figure is the number the surcharge runs on, and you do not need your share percentage for anything.
If it isn't, the statute's formula applies: the building's DOF market value multiplied by your shares divided by the corporation's total shares. That is Tax Law §1351's "imputed cooperative phase one market value," and it is the only definition.
If you're doing the share math, read the certificate correctly
The single most common error we see, and it is not close. Proprietary leases and stock certificates usually express the allocation as a decimal fraction. A ledger entry of 0.0526 means 5.26% of the corporation, not 0.0526%. Enter it the wrong way and a $2.4M loft comes back as a $24,000 studio.
Check the stock certificate, the proprietary lease and your annual maintenance statement against each other. If two of them disagree, resolve it with the managing agent before anything gets filed.
Is the number over $1,000,000?
310 of SoHo and NoHo's 755 co-op units are under it and owe nothing under Phase 1, regardless of who lives there. If yours is one, you are done. If not, keep going — the median exposed co-op unit here carries a DOF value of $1,658,125, which is $66,325 a year at the 4% rate.
Was it somebody's primary residence on January 5?
The test is a snapshot as of the taxable status date: the January 5 immediately preceding the fiscal year, so January 5, 2026 for fiscal 2026-27. Three occupants qualify: you, an immediate family member (spouse, child, sibling, parent, grandparent, grandchild) using it as their primary residence, or a tenant on a bona fide arm's-length lease of not less than one year who uses it as a primary residence.
If one of those was true, the exemption is claimable and the deadline is September 18, 2026. It is not automatic. Nobody grants it to you. The filing and the proof standard →
If you're reaching for the lease exit, check the sublet policy first
This is where loft co-ops differ from every other building type, and where most SoHo shareholders stop. Your building's sublet rules were written by a board of five to nine people, in a building that has spent decades trying to stay owner-occupied. They commonly include a waiting period before a shareholder may sublet at all, a cap on how many years running, a sublet fee, board interview and approval of the subtenant, and in a meaningful number of small loft buildings, an outright prohibition.
None of that is negotiable in the abstract. Some of it is negotiable now. A board looking at four exposed shareholders out of seven has different incentives than it had in 2019. Read the proprietary lease and the house rules before you price a rental, and find out how many of your neighbors are in the same position.
And check who is legally allowed to occupy it
A lease answers the tax question. It does not answer this one. If your certificate of occupancy describes Joint Living-Work Quarters for Artists, or the building sits under Loft Board jurisdiction, lawful occupancy is governed by the Zoning Resolution and the Multiple Dwelling Law. Solving the tax problem by creating a certificate-of-occupancy problem is a bad trade. The two-regime checklist →
If the number itself looks wrong, there is one door, not two
Co-op values can be wrong in two distinct ways: DOF's valuation of the building, or the share fraction attributed to your unit. During rulemaking DOF was asked to create a separate mechanism for challenging share ratios and expressly declined, noting that the share-ratio method is set by state statute and that the existing valuation-challenge framework covers it.
Both grievances travel the same route: the NYC Tax Commission, Form TC107, due March 1, 2027 for class 2. DOF's ordinary Request for Review is not available for this fiscal year. Two things worth knowing before you file — the cooperative corporation may file on a shareholder's behalf, and a Tax Commission determination of market value for one co-op unit will be considered in determining value for other units in the same building for the same fiscal year.
So in a nine-unit building, the shareholders should be talking to each other before anyone files.
None of the above applies
Then it is a carry decision, and for most SoHo shareholders it is a smaller one than it feels like. Rent it, sell it, or pay it →
SoHo and NoHo's most exposed co-op buildings
Ranked by combined maximum annual surcharge across over-threshold units, before any exemption is claimed.
| Building | Units on the roll | Over $1M | Median DOF value | Max surcharge/yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 429 West Broadway | 8 | 8 | $3,832,800 | $1.74M |
| 94 Thompson Street | 9 | 9 | $3,076,836 | $1.44M |
| 513 Broadway | 25 | 25 | $1,405,568 | $1.41M |
| 148 Greene Street | 10 | 10 | $2,577,036 | $1.40M |
| 141 Prince Street | 5 | 5 | $4,579,951 | $1.39M |
| 140 Prince Street | 9 | 9 | $2,134,846 | $1.32M |
| 421 West Broadway | 9 | 9 | $2,557,666 | $1.32M |
| 112 Prince Street | 5 | 5 | $3,714,426 | $1.01M |
| 101 Wooster Street | 11 | 11 | $2,043,435 | $0.97M |
| 131 Prince Street | 7 | 7 | $2,030,161 | $0.96M |
If you're on the board, this is now your problem too
Four things a small loft co-op board should have done by now.
- Find out how many shareholders are exposed. The roll is public and building-level. In 49 SoHo co-op buildings the answer is "all of them," which changes what the sublet policy is for.
- Treat the sublet policy as a tax instrument. It is now the mechanism that decides whether a shareholder can reach a statutory exemption. That is not an argument for changing it. It is an argument for deciding deliberately rather than by inertia.
- Understand that the surcharge is a lien on the property. DOF was asked during rulemaking to protect cooperative corporations from shareholder-level non-payment and declined, suggesting instead that co-op corporations could consider amending their proprietary leases to accommodate these charges. For a seven-unit building that is a live governance item.
- Coordinate any value challenge. One TC107 determination gets considered for the building's other units in the same year. Nine uncoordinated filings is the worst version of this.
Get your building's roll picture.
Free emailed report: DOF's published value for your unit where it exists, the statutory share calculation where it doesn't, the surcharge test, and the building-level view of how many of your neighbors are in the same position. Usually within the hour.
Check My Unit — FreeDisclaimer. This page is educational information from Conquest, a licensed New York real estate brokerage. It is not legal, tax, zoning, or accounting advice, and no advisory relationship is created by reading it. Zoning, certificate-of-occupancy and Loft Board questions are matters for a land-use attorney; surcharge liability is a matter for your tax counsel. Deadlines and figures reflect DOF's published rules and roll as of the "last updated" date above. DOF extended the exemption-application deadline to September 18, 2026, superseding the August dates printed on its July letters — confirm any date here against DOF's own page before you rely on it.