Spouse's Name Must Be Added

Rent-stabilized tenants, who were husband and wife, complained that landlord didn't renew their lease. Landlord sent a renewal lease offer, but named only the wife as tenant. The DRA ruled for tenants and ordered landlord to offer a renewal lease to both. Landlord appealed, arguing that the husband had been a cotenant at one time but that he had separated from his wife and moved out. The last prior renewal lease was in wife's name only. The DHCR ruled against landlord. Tenant can't waive his rights under rent stabilization. And a spouse's name can always be added to a renewal lease. The fact that husband and wife might be separated didn't matter. Tenants had the right to have husband's name added back to renewal lease. There also was no proof in the record of a divorce or of husband's absence from the apartment.

121 8th Avenue Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Dckt. No. SA210032RO (7/8/05) [3-pg. doc.]