Occupant Fails to Prove Succession Rights to Rent-Controlled Tenant's Apartment

Landlord sued to evict rent-controlled tenant and additional apartment occupant, claiming tenant no longer primarily resided in the apartment. Tenant had moved into a facility without a discharge plan when the case commenced and died while the case was pending. The occupant claimed succession rights as a nontraditional family member.

The court ruled for landlord after trial because the occupant didn't show the level of emotional and financial interdependence that characterizes a family relationship. The tenant was 82 years old when occupant moved into the unit in 2009. The occupant was then 34 years old. The occupant showed some of the elements of a nontraditional family relationship, such as a joint bank account with tenant for about 20 months and tenant's designation of occupant as a beneficiary of tenant's life insurance and designation of occupant as a health care proxy. However, no single factor is solely determinative and the relationship between tenant and occupant raised questions. Occupant did not make tenant a beneficiary or health care proxy for occupant. Tenant also named other family members on his will, living will, and durable power of attorney, and named occupant merely as an emergency contact.

The court found that the dynamic between the two was "asymmetric" and family members who testified were concerned that the occupant was interested merely in taking over the apartment.  All together, the proof presented showed a younger person making attempts to be deemed a family member of an older person who tolerated it at best but wasn't on board. A one-sided relationship as such didn't show the kind of interdependence in a familial sense that characterized a nontraditional family relationship.

957 Park Avenue LLC v. Ordonez: Index No. 61282/2018, NYLJ No. 1728959462 (Civ. Ct. NY; 10/7/24; Stoller, J)