NYCHA Never Advised Tenant of Objection to Son

May 13, 2013

LVT Number: #24762

NYCHA denied the request of deceased tenant's son for a lease based on succession rights. NYCHA ruled against the son, finding him ineligible for his own lease. The son appealed and won, in part. Tenant had lived in the NYCHA apartment for 50 years before she died. Her son had been raised in the apartment before moving out in 1975 at age 21. In September 2004, tenant asked NYCHA for permission to add her son back into the household. She was now elderly and ill and needed his assistance. Tenant supplied all the required paperwork with her application.

NYCHA denied the request of deceased tenant's son for a lease based on succession rights. NYCHA ruled against the son, finding him ineligible for his own lease. The son appealed and won, in part. Tenant had lived in the NYCHA apartment for 50 years before she died. Her son had been raised in the apartment before moving out in 1975 at age 21. In September 2004, tenant asked NYCHA for permission to add her son back into the household. She was now elderly and ill and needed his assistance. Tenant supplied all the required paperwork with her application. NYCHA didn't act on the application within 90 days, as required by its internal rules. Tenant advised management that the son had moved in with her and listed him and his income on her 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 income affidavits.

In July 2006, NYCHA conducted a criminal background check on the son and found that he had a 10-year-old burglary conviction. Under NYCHA's rules, tenant should have been given a chance to show that her son was rehabilitated. Instead, NYCHA deemed the son ineligible due to a criminal conviction. But there was no proof that management ever advised the son within 15 days to vacate or face eviction proceedings as required by NYCHA rules.  

In May 2007, tenant died. The son promptly notified NYCHA and continued to pay monthly rent for the apartment. While NYCHA claimed that tenant never received its permission to add the son to the household, tenant took all required steps to have him added, and NYCHA violated a number of its internal rules in processing her request or its own objections to the son's eligibility. NYCHA knew that the son lived with tenant for a substantial period of time, and the son had caused no problem in the building. The case was sent back to NYCHA for a ruling solely on whether the son presented any danger to other tenants since he was a 60-year-old, psychologically disabled man who received continuing psychiatric and substance abuse counseling.

Gutierrez v. Rhea: 2013 NY Slip Op 02453, 2013 WL 1458598 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 4/11/13; Gonzalez, PJ, Acosta, Saxe, Gische, JJ)

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