In a Converted Loft the First Question Is What the Unit Actually Is

It is a designation that can appear on a building's certificate of occupancy, recording that units were approved for combined living and working space for artists. Historically it carried an occupancy requirement, and although later rezoning in the SoHo and NoHo area changed the position going forward, the designation continues to appear in building records and can still shape what a purchaser or a board expects. For an estate it matters in two ways: it may bear on who can occupy the unit, and it affects marketability and therefore value. The starting point is always the actual certificate of occupancy for your building rather than a general rule.

It means the building's legalisation is not complete and that rights and obligations in the unit are governed by that framework rather than by ordinary condominium or co-operative law. For an estate the practical consequences are that succession to the unit, its value and the ability to sell during administration all depend on the building's status at the time, which can change. These matters need to be checked as they stand rather than assumed from how the unit is described in a deed or a will drafted years ago.

At minimum it should deal with three things separately and deliberately. Who receives the physical works. Who receives the copyright, remembering that it is separate property lasting for your life plus a further term. And who has authority to make decisions about the work over time — whether to sell, to lend, to authorise reproductions, to permit a catalogue raisonné. Many artists' plans use a single trust or entity to hold works and copyright together, with a named person or small committee empowered to decide, precisely so the objects and the rights do not become separated.

By qualified appraisal, and the central issue is that a large body of work by one artist cannot be sold all at once without depressing its own market. Valuation practice recognises this through a discount applied to bulk holdings, and the size of that discount is fact-specific and has been litigated repeatedly. It depends on the depth of the market for the work, how much exists, and how long absorbing it would take. A generalist appraisal that prices each work at its retail gallery price and adds them up will not survive scrutiny and will overstate the tax.

They can, and that is usually a mistake unless it is deliberate. Copyright is separate intangible property; the physical object and the right to reproduce it are not the same asset, and a sale of a painting does not transfer the copyright in it. If one child receives the works and another receives the copyright, neither can act without the other: the first cannot license images, the second cannot exhibit or sell. Where the intention is to benefit two people, a structure that holds both and divides the economics is far better than dividing the assets themselves.

Usually not, and the reason is basis. Property inherited at death generally receives a new cost basis equal to its value at that date, which erases the accumulated gain for capital gains purposes. Property given during life carries the original basis to the recipient. On a loft bought in the 1980s that difference can be very large, and a well-intentioned lifetime gift can hand the children a substantial capital gains bill they would not otherwise have had. There are good reasons to transfer during life — long-term care planning is the main one — but they should be weighed against this, not assumed to outweigh it.

The deed or the stock certificate and proprietary lease will tell you, and in a converted building it is worth checking rather than assuming. If you hold a deed to a unit, it is a condominium and it is real property. If you hold a stock certificate and a proprietary lease, it is a co-operative and you own shares in a corporation. The distinction determines whether board consent is needed to transfer the unit, whether a trust can hold it, and how the unit is treated in the estate. In older conversions the paperwork is sometimes incomplete, which is itself worth resolving before it is needed.

Everything depends on how title is held and on what the documents say, because New York gives an unmarried partner nothing by default. There is no spousal right of election and no intestate share; if there is no will, the property passes to blood relatives. Joint ownership with rights of survivorship passes the whole to the survivor, but tenancy in common does not — the deceased partner's share passes under their will or by intestacy to their family, who then co-own the loft with the survivor. Checking the deed and putting wills, powers of attorney and health care proxies in place is the whole of the protection, and it is entirely within reach.

Yes — the firm has a family law practice covering matrimonial matters, custody and support, and it is a separate team from the estate practice. If your question is about divorce, custody or support rather than about a will or an estate, the family law pages set out that work and the same office can direct you to the right attorney.