Tenant's Grandson Is First Successor Tenant

The grandson of rent-stabilized tenant complained to the DHCR that he had succession rights but that landlord refused to offer him a renewal lease after tenant died. In response, landlord claimed it did offer the grandson a renewal lease as the second successor tenant. Landlord claimed that the grandmother had been the first successor tenant. Landlord said that the grandmother's husband was the previous rent-stabilized tenant of record.

The DRA ruled for tenant and found that he was the first successor tenant. According to DHCR rent registration records for the year 2000, the grandmother had been added to the grandfather's lease as a cotenant.

Landlord appealed and lost. With its PAR, landlord submitted a copy of the 2000 lease that the grandmother had signed after crossing out tenant husband's name and writing "he does not live here." The grandmother also wrote on that lease that she was "the first successor." Landlord claimed that the 2000 rent registration identifying the grandmother as a co-tenant was in error. The DHCR determined that the 2000 renewal lease submitted by landlord was insufficient proof that the grandmother was a successor tenant. The grandmother was listed as a co-tenant in both the 2000 and 2001. And the presumption that the grandmother, as tenant's wife, was entitled to be a cotenant, wasn't rebutted by landlord. So the grandson was entitled to first succession rights.

149th Street, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Dckt. No. KN110013RO (4/21/22)[2-pg. document]