Tenant's Sister Can't File

(Decision submitted by Patrick K. Munson of the Manhattan law firm of Kucker Kraus & Bruh, attorneys for the landlord.) Tenant and his sister shared an apartment. Tenant's sister filed a fair market rent appeal that named both her and tenant as co-tenants but only the sister signed the papers. Ten months later, tenant filed a form authorizing his sister to file the appeal on his behalf. Landlord argued that the sister couldn't file a fair market rent appeal because she wasn't a tenant. The DRA ruled that tenant's authorization corrected the defect in the fair market rent appeal. Landlord appealed, and the DHCR upheld the DRA's ruling. Landlord appealed again. This time, the court ruled for landlord. The sister wasn't authorized to act for tenant until 10 months after the fair market rent appeal had been filed. And the sister was clearly not a named tenant on the lease. So, the fair market rent appeal was defective because tenant didn't file it himself.

Wadsworth Venture v. DHCR: L&T Index No. 107513/94 (9/26/94) (Sup. Ct. NY; Friedman, J) [6-page document]