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

After rent-stabilized tenant moved out of her apartment, her son claimed succession rights and complained that landlord refused to offer him a renewal lease for the apartment. The DRA ruled for tenant's son. Landlord appealed, claiming that the son didn't prove that he lived in the apartment with tenant for two years before she moved out. The DHCR ruled against landlord, finding the son's documentation sufficient. Landlord then filed an Article 78 court appeal, claiming that the DHCR's decision was arbitrary and unreasonable. The case was sent back to the DHCR, who ruled for landlord. Tenant then filed an Article 78 court appeal, and the court sent the case back to the DHCR for reconsideration.

The DHCR ruled for landlord. The son claimed that tenant moved out on May 24, 2010. And even if tenant moved out on April 1, 2001, as later claimed, her son didn't submit evidence that he lived with tenant for two years before that earlier date. He graduated high school in 1998 and his college transcript lists no address for him other than the address he listed in 2017. And from April 2001 onward, tenant was the rent-stabilized tenant of record of the apartment claimed by her son, as well as of another rent-stabilized apartment where she accepted Section 8 benefits. Given that fact, the subject apartment was no longer her primary residence, and this prevented the son's succession rights claim.

560-568 Audubon Realty LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. ER410006RP (1/11/18) [5-pg. doc.]