Tenant's Wife Gets Rent-Controlled Apartment

Landlord sued to evict apartment occupants after tenant died in 2009. Landlord claimed that the apartment was rent stabilized. Occupants claimed succession rights as tenant’s wife and son, and said that the apartment was rent controlled. The court ruled against the son after a trial, since he presented no documentary proof of his succession claim. But the court ruled that tenant’s wife proved her succession claim. She married tenant in 1971 and moved into the apartment with tenant at the outset of his tenancy in 1972. Between 2000 and 2009, tenant was employed in Baltimore, but never established residency there and never gave up his primary residence at the apartment. He received Social Security benefit checks at the apartment for two years before he died and paid utility bills for the apartment. He also listed the apartment as his address in bankruptcy proceedings. The court also found that the apartment was rent controlled, not stabilized, due to a CAB expulsion order. The apartment remains subject to rent control until the order is either revoked or superseded by a subsequent DHCR order.

92 Allen LLC v. Chan: 48 Misc.3d 1221(A), 2015 NY Slip Op 51178(U) (Civ. Ct. NY; 8/13/15; Kraus, J)