Tenant's Jailed Son Can't Get Rent-Stabilized SRO Apartment

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized SRO tenant's son after tenant died, claiming that the son was a licensee. The son claimed succession rights to the apartment. The court ruled for landlord, finding that the son didn't live with tenant for the required two-year period immediately before tenant's death in in May 2015.

The son appealed and lost. He began living with tenant in August 2012, but went to jail in November 2013 and will remain incarcerated until at least March 2021, his earliest possible release date. The court and appeals court rejected the son's argument that his 18-month absence from the apartment during the two-year period before tenant's death was a protected temporary absence under the safe harbor protection period of Rent Stabilization Code Section 2523.5(b)(2). This section permits temporary relocation of family members for school, employment, or military service so that they can preserve an apartment succession claim without interruption. Permitting succession here wouldn't serve the RSC's family succession purpose to allow "continuity in possession by a qualified family member" where the son lived in the apartment for a 15-month occupancy, followed by an 18-month absence and an anticipated continued absence for eight and a half years. The son also couldn't claim primary residence in the apartment under the RSC, which is intended to alleviate the shortage of affordable housing in New York by returning underutilized apartments to the marketplace.

528 West 123rd Street LLC v. Baptiste: 2018 NY Slip Op 28057, 2018 WL 1077398 (App. T. 1 Dept.; 2/28/18; Shulman, PJ, Gonzalez, Cooper, JJ)