Rent-Stabilized Tenant's Daughter Concealed Tenant's Vacatur

LVT Number: #30675

(Decision submitted by Leonard Kaplain of the Garden City law firm of Kaplain & Duval, LLP, attorneys for the landlord.)

(Decision submitted by Leonard Kaplain of the Garden City law firm of Kaplain & Duval, LLP, attorneys for the landlord.)

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonprimary residence. Tenant's daughter appeared in court and claimed succession rights to the apartment. The trial court ruled for landlord. The daughter appealed and lost. Tenant had "retired" to the Dominican Republic in 1998, without notifying landlord of this change in circumstances. The daughter continued to pay rent in tenant's name and signed at least one renewal lease in tenant's name. In a prior 2012 illegal sublet proceeding, tenant returned to the United States and, despite residing elsewhere, signed a so-ordered probationary stipulation stating that she lived in the rent-stabilized apartment as her primary residence and would continue to do so. So, since they continued to represent that tenant was still primarily residing in the apartment, tenant can't be found to have "permanently vacated" the apartment at any time prior to the expiration of her last renewal lease on Dec. 31, 2012. During the two-year period immediately preceding that date, there was no showing that the daughter lived in the apartment with tenant, since tenant obviously wasn't residing there. The appeals court noted that higher appeals courts in both the First and Second Departments had issued similar rulings concerning the issue of when a rent-stabilized tenant actually vacates an apartment. And, in this case, tenant and her daughter engaged in an "extended persistent and systematic pattern of deception to conceal" tenant's vacatur between 1998 and 2012. The daughter waived her succession claim due to "years of deceit."

Diagonal Realty LLC v. Arias: 2020 NY Slip Op 50283(U) (App. T. 1 Dept.; 2/26/20; Shulman, PJ, Cooper, Edmead, JJ)

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