Leaving a co-op to a sibling should be as simple as putting it in your will, right? Not exactly. While you do have a few options, you’ll have to get the co-op board’s blessing no matter what route you take, our experts say.​

The simplest way is, yes, to name her in your will. But check the language in your proprietary lease (the equivalent of a deed for a co-op). Almost all of these agreements require co-op owners, technically known as shareholders, to get board approval before assigning that lease and the corresponding stock in the corporation that owns the building—commonly called the “stock and lease”—to another person.

“Many leases exempt the shareholder from such consent requirement when there is a transfer to a spouse or child, but it is not customary to see such exemption for a sibling,” says co-op and condo attorney Scott Greenspun of Braverman Greenspun, hence, the advice to check the fine print.

However, most leases prohibit the board from “unreasonably withhold[ing] a bequest to a financially responsible member of the shareholder's family,” notes real estate attorney Jeffrey Reich of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz.