Ask Altagracia: How do I succeed a relative in a NYC rent-stabilized apartment?
- Only spouses can be added to an existing lease if the tenant is still in occupancy
- To succeed a relative, you need to have lived in the apartment with them for two years
New York's succession laws require your friend to have lived with his mother for two years before she vacates, or passes away, or only one year if the successor is disabled or over the age of 62.
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A friend recently moved into his elderly mother's rent-stabilized apartment. Can he have his name added to the lease? What are the rules for succession in rent-stabilized apartments?
It’s unlikely that a landlord would agree to add your friend’s name to his mother’s lease, according to Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, attorney and founder of Outerbridge Law representing residential tenants, condo owners and landlords. “Legally, he can move in, but only spouses have the right to be added to an existing lease if the tenant is still occupying the apartment,” Pierre-Outerbridge said.
But assuming your friend wants to continue living in the apartment once his mother passes, he may want to start preparing to make a case for lease takeover, or what’s called succession in legal terms.
The two-year rule
New York State’s succession laws require your friend to have lived with his mother in her rent-stabilized apartment for two years before she vacates, or passes away, or only one year if the successor is disabled or over the age of 62. Your friend will need to support this claim with documents like a driver’s license corresponding to his mother’s address, or tax returns, voter registrations, credit cards and employment documents.
“We would have to paint a picture showing that your friend’s primary residence is his mother’s apartment with a robust paper trail of the two year period before succession,” said Pierre-Outerbridge. “If you can do this, your friend’s path to becoming a legal tenant will be pretty straightforward.”
If your documents are messy, or all but missing, Pierre-Outerbridge has a tip. “Let the landlord know in writing now that you’re co-occupying your mother’s apartment,” she said of the friend. “That way, it would be much harder for a landlord to dispute your right to succeed. It’s almost like he’s time-stamping his official occupancy, making it easy to establish when that two-year window began.”
Keeping it in the family
It’s important to point out that succession laws only apply to family members. “I often encounter clients that have a pretty broad definition of who is seen as a “family member,” said Altagracia. “But the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DCHR), which oversees low- and moderate-income housing in New York State, doesn’t give much leeway to those beyond immediate family,” said Pierre-Outerbridge.
This means that nieces, nephews, cousins, and even unmarried couples, don’t qualify. But since your friend is the tenant’s son, which falls under DCHR’s definition of family member, he’s eligible to succeed.
When the time comes for your friend to succeed, he will have to send the landlord a letter or an email stating that as the former tenant’s son, he intends to succeed.
“It’d be a prudent step to, within that letter, ask the landlord what kind of documentation they would like to see,” Pierre-Outerbridge said. “I’ve seen some lawyers ask for a laundry list of documents, while others are a bit more vague, just requesting whatever the co-occupant thinks would prove their residency.”
This is where that email stating your co-occupancy comes back in, along with any other collateral that proves your residency. “If the landlord were to challenge your friend’s succession request in court, it would be on him, as the successor, to prove his right to succession. It’s not on the landlord to disprove it.”
Preparing for battle
You may be wondering why something as simple as taking over a parent’s lease could end up in a court battle. Before you start sweating, take comfort in the fact that it usually does not get that far.
In 2019, rent law reforms eliminated vacancy deregulation, which had permitted landlords to raise the rent significantly on rent-stabilized apartments when a tenant moved out. “You can see why going all the way to court was a battle many landlords were willing to fight,” Pierre-Outerbridge said, adding: "Previously stabilized units could jump right back up to market price.”
The good news is that, unless in the case of a condo or co-op building, rent-stabilized units stay regulated after tenants leave, meaning that the measly 3 percent on one-year leases and 4.5 percent on two-year leases is the most a landlord can raise their rent by (and for the next two years, rent-stabilized units will not see their rents increase thanks to the new freeze passed in a historic vote by the Rent Guidelines Board). “Most landlords won’t bother taking tenants to court for such little payoff,” Pierre-Outerbridge said.
Your secret weapon
But if the landlord is stubborn or insists on playing by the rules, or has the advantage of deregulating a rent-stabilized unit as condos and co-ops do, they have the option to bring an eviction case against your friend. Pierre-Outerbridge encourages tenants to stay calm in the face of any intimidation from a landlord and, more importantly, stay put.
“It’s always baffling when a landlord tries to evict a tenant who is clearly requesting succession,” said Pierre-Outerbridge. “Clients often worry that if they don’t have a clear enough record of their tenancy, they won’t be able to fight an eviction, so they balk instead of asserting their rights. That’s when I show them how little they actually have to lose if they refuse to back down.”
For many, navigating a landlord’s fearmongering on their own is untenable, so having an attorney check your case out and outline your options can provide some peace of mind.
“A lot of tenants don’t know that in succession cases, the successor can often get their legal fees repaid if the tenant’s original lease had an attorney’s fees clause,” Pierre-Outerbridge said. “So as a tenant if you lose, you’re not liable for any fees, because they’re not bound by the lease. And if you win, you inherit the lease.”
Succession can get thorny, and oftentimes, a tenant’s desperation to hang on to an apartment after their loved ones have passed on can cloud their judgement, making it difficult if they run into resistance in their quest for tenancy.
Your home, particularly a rent-stabilized apartment, is a precious asset, and it’s every tenant's instinct to protect it at all costs. Applying the force of a seasoned attorney can help create an iron-clad path for succession, keeping your friend’s mother’s home in the family for the next generation.
Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, Esq. is the owner of Outerbridge Law P.C, focusing primarily on tenant representation. The firm represents all sides in landlord-tenant litigation and transactional matters such as month-to-month holdovers, nuisance cases, licensee cases, harassment claims, repair cases, tenant buyouts, succession claims, DHCR overcharges and rent reductions and more. Pierre-Outerbridge has 15 years of experience litigating in Supreme, DHCR, and Housing Court. To submit a question for this column, click here. To contact Outerbridge Law P.C. directly, call 212-364-5612 or 877-OUTERBRIDGE, or schedule a meeting today.
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