Son Gets Rent-Controlled Apartment

Rent-controlled tenant's son claimed succession rights to their apartment after tenants died. The DRA ruled for the son. Landlord appealed and lost. The 1972-73 Landlord's Order of Maximum Base Rent showed that tenant's parents were the original rent-controlled tenants. The son submitted copies of their death certificates, marriage certificate, his birth certificate, W-2 wage and tax statements, New York State auto insurance records, along with various pieces of correspondence showing that he was tenants' son and had lived in the apartment for at least two years before his mother died in June 2010. In fact, the son claimed that he had lived in the apartment since he was born in 1956 and had never lived anywhere else. Landlord argued that the son failed to prove that he took care of his mother or intermingled finances with her. But these factors mattered only if the person claiming succession was a nontraditional family member not otherwise defined as an immediate family member by the rent control regulations. Tenant also submitted sworn statements from different people who stated they had known him for many years and that he had lived in the apartment during that time.

Clay Deal, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. AP610040RO (1/31/14) [4-pg. doc.]