Rent-Controlled Tenant's Wife Gets Apartment

The wife of a rent-controlled tenant claimed pass-on rights to tenant's apartment. The DRA ruled for the wife. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that the 1984 marriage certificate didn't prove that the wife lived in the apartment with tenant for the two years before tenant died in 2003, and that the DRA's reliance on bank statements, telephone bills, tax returns, and other papers was improper. But the DRA decided the case based on credible documentary proof submitted by the wife. Landlord also had registered the apartment in the wife's name in 2006. And landlord failed to respond to five notices from the DRA requesting responses to tenant's documentation.

529 West 138th Street LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. YH420008RO (10/14/11) [3-pg. doc.]