Public Housing Tenant's Son Engaged in Illegal Activities

LVT Number: 14201

Landlord NYCHA issued a ruling terminating tenant's lease based on her son's activities. Tenant's son didn't live with her and had broken down tenant's door one night demanding money to buy drugs. Tenant then got a protective order from the police for herself, and landlord made tenant sign an agreement putting her on probation. The agreement said that if the son returned to the apartment, tenant would be subject to eviction. Later, during a random inspection, landlord discovered tenant's son in the apartment. Tenant wasn't home, but her daughter had let the son in because he was sick.

Landlord NYCHA issued a ruling terminating tenant's lease based on her son's activities. Tenant's son didn't live with her and had broken down tenant's door one night demanding money to buy drugs. Tenant then got a protective order from the police for herself, and landlord made tenant sign an agreement putting her on probation. The agreement said that if the son returned to the apartment, tenant would be subject to eviction. Later, during a random inspection, landlord discovered tenant's son in the apartment. Tenant wasn't home, but her daughter had let the son in because he was sick. Landlord then ruled that tenant could be evicted. Tenant appealed NYCHA's ruling and won. The agreement that tenant signed was unreasonable. It wasn't based on any conduct of tenant's, her son didn't live at the apartment at the time of the incident, and he was there without tenant's permission.

Holiday v. Franco: NYLJ, 6/8/00, p. 25, col. 2 (App. Div.1 Dept.; Williams, JP, Lerner, Rubin, Saxe, Buckley, JJ)