Adult Children Claim Succession Rights to Rent-Controlled Apartment

Landlord sued to evict the adult children of rent-controlled tenant who had entered a nursing home in 2010. Tenant's son and daughter claimed succession rights. Landlord claimed that they weren't entitled to make this claim and asked the court to rule without a trial. The court ruled against landlord, who appealed and lost. The children lived in the apartment their entire lives. Tenant father went into a nursing home in 2005 and died in 2012. Tenant mother entered a nursing home in 2010 and surrendered her tenancy rights via an Article 81 guardian in 2015. The fact that tenant mother entered the nursing home in 2010, leaving her children in possession until she surrendered possession in 2015, didn't as a matter of law make the children any less entitled to succession rights. The children had lived in the apartment with tenants for decades, and there was no showing that they remained as a subterfuge to protected tenant mother's continued possession of the apartment. A trial was needed to determine the facts.

90 Elizabeth Apt. LLC v. Eng: Index No. 570694/16, NYLJ No. 1202791672817 (App. T. 1 Dept.; 6/23/17; Lowe III, PJ, Shulman, Ling-Cohan, JJ