DHCR Orders Landlord to Add Tenant's Wife's Name to Renewal Lease

Rent-stabilized tenant complained that landlord failed to offer a proper renewal lease. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to add tenant's spouse's name to the lease. The DRA also advised landlord that it couldn't add a late fees provision to tenant's renewal lease because there was no late fee provision in tenant's vacancy lease.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord argued that tenant's spouse must occupy the apartment as her primary residence in order to be named on the renewal lease, and that tenant didn't submit sufficient proof of his wife's primary residence. Tenant proved that his wife and he were legally married. In the absence of any proof that the tenant's wife isn't actually living with him, the DRA correctly presumed that a legally married couple are living together and that the tenant's wife must therefore be added to the renewal lease. In this case, there was no proof that tenant's wife didn't live with him in the apartment. The DRA didn't request, and tenant didn't submit, any proof of his wife's primary residence, and, in this case, none was needed.

Kaplan & Duval LLP: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. FW410012RO (9/14/18) [4-pg. doc.]