When Did Tenant Who Died in Nursing Home Permanently Vacate Apartment?
LVT Number: #30156
Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant's daughter after tenant died. Tenant's daughter moved into the apartment in 1988. Tenant was hospitalized in June 2007, then moved into a nursing home where she died in May 2013. While at the nursing home, tenant continued to sign renewal leases for the apartment. The trial court ruled for landlord, finding that the daughter failed to show that she lived with tenant in the apartment for two years before tenant's death in 2013.
Tenant's daughter appealed, and the case was reopened. The relevant co-occupancy period for tenant and her daughter was the two years before tenant's permanent removal from the apartment in June 2007. There was no fraudulent conduct here by tenant or her daughter. The daughter claimed that tenant intended to return and that her circumstances were unclear. The uncertainty of the situation made it difficult to identify a precise permanent vacatur date. The case was sent back for a new trial on when tenant permanently vacated the apartment and whether the daughter had lived in the apartment for two years before that point.
EB Bedford LLC v. Lee: Index No. 2017-1293, 2019 NY Slip Op 29153 (App. T. 2 Dept.; 5/24/19; Pesce, PJ, Aliotta, Elliot, JJ)