Son of Rent-Controlled Tenants Is First Successor, Not Second

Tenant filed an application with the DHCR for an administrative determination (AD), claiming rights as a first successor tenant to his parents' rent-controlled apartment. Tenant said that his parents signed a vacancy lease with landlord. He also claimed landlord had overcharged him by incorrectly designating him a second successor. The DRA ruled for tenant. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord didn't respond to a notice from the DRA of tenant's AD application or file an answer. In any event, while the first page of the 1968 vacancy lease listed only tenant's father as the prior tenant, tenant's mother also signed that lease. So both parents were on the prior vacancy lease for the apartment, and the presumption was that the tenancy in effect during the lifetime of the parents, now both deceased, was that of cotenants. 

Park Lane Mosholu, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. IQ610001RO (10/21/22)[4-pg. document]