Rent-Stabilized Tenant's Elderly Son Proves Succession Rights

Rent-stabilized tenant’s son claimed succession rights after tenant died in 2011. The DRA ruled against the son, who appealed and won. The son claimed that he moved into the apartment in 1970 and never lived anywhere else. He didn’t submit tax returns because, he claimed, he didn’t file any. He was unemployed and had no credit cards or cell phone. The driver’s license he submitted was issued in 2012 and therefore didn’t prove that he lived with tenant before she died. Before she died, tenant didn’t list the son on her SCRIE application. The son did submit bank records going back several years, as well as a letter from tenant’s doctor. That letter stated that the son accompanied tenant to many doctor’s appointments and that she couldn't have lived alone given her ailments. The DHCR ruled for the son, who himself was elderly, finding that he had sufficiently proved that he lived with tenant for at least one year before she died.

Keary: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. DM110005RT (10/14/15) [6-pg. doc.]