Apartment Occupant Has No Succession Rights

(Decision submitted by David M. Berger, Esq., of the Brooklyn law firm of Tenenbaum Berger & Shivers LLP, who represented the landlord.)

Landlord sued to evict apartment occupant after rent-stabilized tenants moved out. Occupant claimed succession rights. The court ruled for landlord. Tenants sent landlord a letter in March 2013, stating that they had moved out. Landlord's investigation then showed that the tenants hadn't lived in the apartment since 2008. Landlord also discovered that occupant lived elsewhere in 2008 and didn't move into tenants' apartment until March 2013. So occupant couldn't have lived in the apartment with tenants for two years before they moved out. Occupant also never presented any proof that he was a family member of the former tenants.

456 LLC v. Patterson: Index No. L&T 074322/2013 (Civ. Ct. Kings; 2/6/14; Sikowitz, J) [2-pg. doc.]