Rent-Stabilized Tenant's Wife Gets Apartment

The wife of a rent-stabilized tenant complained that landlord refused to offer her a renewal lease after tenant died. Landlord questioned the spouse's right to the renewal. The DRA ruled for the wife. Landlord appealed and lost. Rent Stabilization Code Section 2523.5 requires landlord to offer tenant's spouse a rent-stabilized renewal lease after tenant dies or permanently vacates an apartment if the spouse has lived with tenant in the apartment as her primary residence for at least two years before tenant leaves the apartment. Here, tenant's wife showed that she was married to tenant when he died, that her 2014 and 2015 W2 tax forms, as well as HRA and other records listed the apartment as her address, that her medical bills went to the apartment, that Verizon and Con Edison billed both tenant and his wife at the apartment, and that the wife was registered to vote from the apartment. While tenant had received SCRIE benefits in 2011 based on a claim that he lived alone and that his wife was his ex-spouse, had never asked landlord to add his spouse to the lease, and his death certificate listed him as divorced, this wasn't enough to outweigh the proof that the wife was entitled to a renewal lease as a successor tenant.

Barcov Holding LLC: Adm. Rev. Docket No FT410048RO (2/21/18) [7-pg. doc.]