Tenant's Nephew Can't Get Mitchell-Lama Co-op Apartment

(Decision submitted by Gregory Vail of the Manhattan law firm of Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler, Nahins & Goidel, P.C., attorneys for the landlord.)

Mitchell-Lama co-op, as landlord, sought permission from HPD to evict tenant’s claimed family member after tenant moved out of the apartment.  The family member in turn claimed succession rights. HPD ruled for landlord and issued a certificate of eviction. Tenant said that the family member was her nephew and she wished to transfer her apartment shares to him. But the family member submitted no documentation to prove that he was tenant’s nephew, that he shared a financial and emotional commitment and interdependence with tenant, or that he had lived in the apartment for at least two years with tenant before tenant moved out. There was no proof that tenant and the family member intermingled their funds in any way, shared or relied on each other for payment of household or family expenses, engaged in family activities, formalized legal obligations to each other in any manner, or held themselves out as family members. Although the family member was included as an occupant of the apartment on tenant’s income recertifications for 2004, 2005, and 2006, for at least two of those years he was described only as “other family member.” And tenant’s Social Security records for 2004 through 2006 listed tenant’s address as Ocala, Fla. 

East River Landing-1199 Housing Corp./Arroyo: HPD; 9/15/15; Lippa, AHO [8-pg. doc.]