Tenant's Brother Gets Project-Based Section 8 Apartment After Tenant Dies

Landlord sued to evict apartment occupant after tenant died, claiming that occupant was tenant's live-in aide and licensee who no longer had a right to remain in the project-based Section 8 apartment. Occupant claimed that he was tenant's brother and had succession rights.

The court ruled for the brother after trial. Credible testimony showed that the brother moved into the apartment in 2015 to care for the ill and elderly tenant and that he was known to building management. The management office was in the building, tenant's brother visited there to make monthly rent payments for tenant, and landlord repeatedly denied tenant's requests to add her brother to the lease. The brother's 2023 driver's license listed the apartment as his address, and the brother obtained medical prescriptions at a local pharmacy. The brother was not employed but was retired. Landlord didn't dispute that the occupant was tenant's brother or that he had lived in the apartment with tenant for at least two years before tenant died. Landlord also hadn't followed rules set forth in the HUD Handbook. When a tenant made numerous requests to add an occupant to the recertification of a project-based Section 8 apartment, and landlord didn't properly address those requests, landlord couldn't invoke the absence of the occupant's name on the household composition as a basis to deny succession rights. Landlord claimed that the brother was merely a live-in aide as defined by the HUD Handbook and wasn't entitled to succession rights. But landlord never verified through a medical professional that an aide was needed to provide necessary support services to tenant, and the brother made no claim that he was a live-in aide.

Polyclinic Owner LLC v. Castillo: Index No. 300759/2020, 2024 NY Slip Op 32444(U)(Civ. Ct. NY; 7/16/24; Stoller, J)