Rent-Stabilized Tenant's Daughter Can't Get Apartment

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant's daughter after tenant died in 2015. The daughter claimed succession rights to the apartment. The court ruled for landlord after trial. The daughter appealed and lost. The daughter lived with tenant for 20 years, then moved out in 1994. She later moved back into the apartment with her daughter in 2005. Tenant remained in the apartment until 2009, then moved out when she enrolled in school in the fall of 2009. She again moved back into the apartment in May 2015, after graduation and a month after tenant died. Tenant claimed that she had moved out temporarily in 2009, to a rent-stabilized apartment across the street, so that she would have a quiet place to study while she was a full-time student. Rent Stabilization Code Section 2523.5(b) couldn't be read so broadly to allow succession rights under these circumstances. The daughter didn't co-reside with tenant for the two years immediately prior to tenant's death. Tenant had live-in home health aides during his final years. The purpose of the RSC is to allow temporary relocation so that a family member can live in student housing or attend a non-local school while retaining succession rights. The daughter couldn't claim succession where she lived separately from the apartment for a reason unrelated to her full-time student status.

Shore Towers, Inc. v. Abt: Index No. 2017-1935, 2019 NY Slip Op 1511112 (App. T. 2 Dept.; 3/29/19; Pesce, PJ, Weston, Elliot, JJ)