Rent-Stabilized Tenant's Daughter Gets Apartment

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonprimary residence. Tenant’s daughter, also named in the proceeding, claimed succession rights. At trial, it was established that tenant moved to Pennsylvania in 1999 to be closer to her job, leaving her young adult children and a grandchild in the apartment. Tenant testified that she returned to the apartment several times a month, continued to pay rent, and signed renewal leases until her last renewal expired on June 30, 2011. Tenant’s daughter had lived in the apartment since 1984, and her granddaughter had lived in the apartment since she was born in 1995. The court ruled for the daughter, finding that she had lived with tenant in the apartment for at least two years before tenant vacated in 1999.

Landlord appealed and lost. The appeals court based its decision on a different reason than the trial court. Tenant must be deemed to have moved out of the apartment on June 30, 2011, not in 1999. But the court found that Rent Stabilization Code (RSC) Section 2523.5(b)(1) does not mandate, or even allow, a finding of nonentitlement to succession rights solely on the ground that the tenant of record hasn’t maintained her primary residence in the apartment during the two-year period prior to her permanent vacating of the apartment. The applicable RSC provision focuses on whether the succeeding family member lived in the apartment for the two years before tenant moved out, not on whether tenant primarily resided in the apartment. 

Mexico Leasing, LLC v. Jones: 2014 NY Slip Op 51456(U), 2014 WL 4958215 (App. T. 2 Dept.; 9/29/14; Pesce, PJ, Aliotta, Solomon, JJ)