Did Tenant Reside in Apartment for One Year Before She Permanently Vacated?

Rent-stabilized tenant’s son complained to the DHCR that landlord wouldn’t give him a renewal lease when tenant moved into a Florida nursing home in 2013. Tenant died in 2015. The son claimed that he had lived with tenant in the apartment since 1997. Landlord’s super stated that the last time he saw tenant in the building was in 2006. Therefore, landlord argued, tenant’s son couldn’t have lived in the apartment for at least two years before she vacated. Tenant also signed a 2014 renewal lease. So tenant never surrendered possession. The DRA ruled for tenant’s son, finding that he had succession rights. Tenant’s son was a senior citizen and proved that he had lived in the apartment with tenant for at least a year prior to her admission into the nursing home in December 2013. Landlord appealed and lost, then filed an Article 78 court appeal.

The DHCR agreed to take back the case and then reopened the case for further review by the DRA. Landlord argued that the son hadn’t proved that tenant lived in the apartment with him during the year before December 2013. Landlord pointed out that Medicaid wouldn’t assume senior care payments in December 2013 for someone who hadn’t established Florida residence. Letters from tenant to her son also indicated that she gave the apartment to the son as early as 2002. Alternatively, since tenant signed the 2014 renewal lease, she couldn’t have formally vacated in December 2013. The DRA needed to reconsider the question of tenant’s occupancy of the apartment.

35-50 81st Street Realty LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. ER110008RP (7/6/16) [4-pg. doc.]