Tenant's Mother Gets Rent-Stabilized Apartment

Rent-stabilized tenant's mother claimed succession rights when tenant moved out of the apartment and complained to the DHCR that landlord wouldn't give her a renewal lease. The DRA ruled for the mother. Landlord appealed, and the DHCR reopened the case for further fact-finding by the Rent Administrator. The Rent Administrator then ruled for tenant, the DHCR affirmed, and landlord filed an Article 78 court appeal. The case went back to the DHCR, which then ruled against tenant's mother. The mother then filed an Article 78 court appeal. The court ruled for tenant's mother, and the DHCR, as well as landlord, appealed.

The appeals court ruled against landlord. It was undisputed that tenant's mother lived with tenant for one year immediately prior to the time that tenant permanently ceased residing in the apartment in 2008. So tenant's mother was entitled to succession rights under Rent Stabilization Code Section 2523.5(b)(1). The DHCR's prior ruling to the contrary was incorrect as a matter of law. Landlord had argued that although tenant moved out of the apartment in 2008 and never lived there again, she didn't "permanently vacate" the apartment at that time because she continued to pay the rent and signed another two-year renewal lease in September 2009. Since tenant didn't live in the apartment when that renewal lease expired on Dec. 31, 2011, her mother couldn't claim that she lived in the apartment with tenant for at least a year before tenant vacated. But the court interpreted the Rent Stabilization Code to mean that the "permanent vacating of the housing accommodation by the tenant" meant the time that tenant permanently ceased living in the apartment, and that tenant's signing of another renewal lease and continued payment of rent didn't change the date. In this case, tenant didn't commit fraud. The execution of one renewal lease after moving out of the apartment didn't necessarily indicate an attempt to deceive landlord.

Jourdain v. DHCR: 2018 NY Slip Op 00556, 2018 WL 635858 (App. Div. 2 Dept.; 1/31/18; Mastro, JP, Hall, Cohen, Iannacci, JJ)