Rent-Stabilized Tenant's Stepson Gets Apartment

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant in 2012 based on nonprimary residence. In 2015, while the case was pending, tenant died and her stepson claimed succession rights. The trial court ruled for the stepson and dismissed the case.

Landlord appealed and lost. The relevant one-year period--based on the stepson's disability--during which the stepson must have resided with tenant was the one-year period immediately prior to when the tenant stopped living in the apartment. The stepson showed that he had been living in the apartment with tenant and tenant's husband, who was the stepson's father, for decades until tenant and her husband temporarily vacated due to illness in 2008. It wasn't relevant that tenant may not have resided in the apartment with her stepson in the year prior to the expiration of the final renewal lease in 2012 because the stepson lived in the apartment with tenant for the year prior to when tenant ceased residing in the apartment.

1150 Brighton Co. v. Persits: Index No. 2019-1711 KC, 2021 NY Slip Op 50668(U)(App. T. 2 Dept.; 7/9/21; Elliot, JP, Toussaint, Golia, JJ)