Loft Tenant's Estate Administrator Can't Take Possession

Deceased tenant’s estate administrator, who was tenant’s brother, sued landlord, seeking to be restored to possession of tenant’s apartment. Tenant had moved into the apartment in 1978, became covered by the Loft Law in 1982, and was a statutory month-to-month tenant at the time he died in the apartment in June 2015. In December 2015, shortly before the administrator started its case in housing court, landlord advised the administrator’s attorney that it had changed the locks, that the administrator had no right to possession, and that landlord would hold tenant’s property at the apartment for 30 days and allow the administrator access during that time for removal of the property.

The court ruled against the administrator, finding that he had no right to ongoing possession of the apartment. The administrator was never in actual possession of the apartment. The administrator’s claim to legal possession was based on the mistaken belief that as executor of tenant’s estate, he had a right to possession for purposes of winding up the affairs of the estate. The statutory tenancy ended upon the death of tenant, and there was no unexpired leasehold interest to transfer to the estate. The Loft Law provides at 29 RCNY 2-10(f)(2) that where an interim multiple dwelling tenant has died and there is no remaining family member entitled to succession, the premises is deemed abandoned. Also, landlord didn’t enter the apartment by force or unlawful means, and the administrator wasn’t in actual or constructive possession at the time that landlord changed the locks. The administrator claimed that he needed time to remove tenant’s possessions from the large loft. The court ruled that landlord should remove tenant’s property and put it into a storage facility by Jan. 31, 2016, unless the parties came to a different agreement.

Espositio v. 60 Beach LLC: 50 Misc.3d 1207(A), 2016 NY Slip Op 50009(U) (Civ. Ct. NY; 1/6/16; Kraus, J)