Rent-Controlled Tenant's Grandson Is Rent Stabilized

Tenant asked the DHCR to rule on the status of his apartment. Tenant claimed he was rent controlled because he moved into the apartment with his grandmother in 1980, and had remained there since she died in 1994. Landlord claimed the apartment wasn't rent regulated at all because the building had been converted to a cooperative under Article XI of the Private Housing Finance Law and tenant's grandmother had bought the shares to her apartment. The DRA ruled against tenant because he didn't submit sufficient proof that he lived with grandmother for at least two years before she died. But tenant was rent stabilized. Tenant appealed, claiming that it was hard to find documents proving he had lived with grandmother before 1994, given the passage of time. The DHCR ruled against tenant. Tenant waited 12 years to claim he was rent controlled, and can't use this as an excuse for failing to prove he lived in the apartment with grandmother before she died. Landlord, on the other hand, didn't prove that grandmother ever bought the shares to her apartment, and gave tenant a rent-stabilized lease. So tenant was rent stabilized.

Ruiz: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. UF420017RT (1/10/07) [3-pg. doc.]