Rent-Controlled Tenant's Daughter Is First Successor Tenant

Rent-controlled tenant's daughter sought succession rights to tenant's apartment when tenant moved out in 2017. The DRA ruled for the daughter, and landlord appealed. Landlord didn't dispute that the daughter had succession rights. But landlord claimed that the daughter was the second successor tenant in the apartment and that therefore she must pay a vacancy rent increase. Landlord argued that tenant, who was the daughter's father, was the first successor tenant. But tenant had lived in the apartment since before 1972. And prior to enactment on June 15, 1997, of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997, vacancy allowances weren't imposed when eligible family members lawfully succeeded the tenant of record. So, even if the father had become a rent-controlled tenant as a family member of the original rent-controlled tenant, he wasn't a successor tenant named in any prior order. The daughter was the first successor tenant, and no vacancy rent increase applied. 

25 Fifth Avenue Holdings LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. HS410017RO (3/26/21) [4-pg. doc.]