Apartment Occupant Can't Get Succession Rights to NYCHA Apartment

In 2019, after a hearing, NYCHA denied occupant's application for succession rights to tenant's apartment as a remaining family member. The occupant then filed an Article 78 court appeal and lost. She then appealed further. The appeals court ruled against occupant. NYCHA's decision was supported by substantial evidence. The occupant and tenant had failed to comply with NYCHA's written consent requirement to be eligible for succession rights. And occupant didn't show a reasonable excuse for failing to comply. Occupant argued that NYCHA had knowledge of, and therefore implicitly consented to, her occupancy through conversations with housing assistants and through her membership in the tenant association since 2015. But there was no proof that any NYCHA representative verbally or impliedly consented to her occupancy, or that they knew of her membership in the tenant association prior to her nomination as an officer less than a year before tenant died in 2016. Also, tenant never listed occupant on her annual income affidavits. Occupant also provided proof of another address on her May 2016 permission request, less than a year before tenant died.

Matter of Adams v. NYCHA: Index No. 100681/20, App. No. 16515, Case No. 2022-01491, 2022 NY Slip Op 05943 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 10/25/22; Webber, JP, Singh, Moulton, Gonzalez, Pitt, JJ)