Tenant's Daughter Lived in Section 8 Unit for Two Years

Landlord sued to evict occupant of HUD Section 8 housing after tenant died. Occupant was tenant's daughter and claimed pass-on rights. She asked the court to dismiss the case. Landlord objected and pointed out that neither tenant's original lease nor annual income recertifications filed by tenant listed daughter as an apartment occupant. Also, tenant never asked for permission to have daughter live with her and never told landlord that daughter lived with her. The court ruled for occupant. Occupant showed that she lived in apartment with tenant for at least two years before tenant died. So she had pass-on rights to the apartment. Although other courts had ruled differently on this question in the past, an appeals court had recently ruled in a similar case that a family member had pass-on rights to a project-based Section 8 apartment even though tenant never declared that the family member lived with her in the apartment.

Upaca Site 7 Assocs. v. Hunter-Crawford: NYLJ, 4/19/06, p. 19, col. 3 (Civ. Ct. NY; Martino, J)