Tenant's Ex-Wife Gets Vacancy Lease with New Husband

Tenant complained of rent overcharge. Among other things, she said that landlord improperly gave her a vacancy lease instead of a renewal lease when she got remarried and asked to add her new husband to her lease. The DRA ruled against tenant, who appealed and lost.  Tenant’s ex-husband was the prior tenant from 1995 to 2010. There was no proof that tenant wife had lived in the apartment before signing her name to the February 2010 renewal lease. The July 2008 divorce judgment showed that tenant lived in Nassau County and that she had no succession rights in 2010 because she was already divorced from prior tenant. So the DRA correctly determined that a new tenancy was created when tenant requested a lease for herself and her new husband in June 2010. Under Rent Stabilization Code Section 2522.8, landlord was entitled to issue a vacancy lease.

Tapia: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. CT410024RT (3/31/15) [7-pg. doc.]