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Mitchell Lama, Succession

NYC Rent Regulation: Rent Control/Rent Stabilized, DHCR Practice/Procedures

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Mitchell Lama, Succession

Postby redheadedsims » Wed Apr 06, 2022 11:59 pm

Hi, new to the forum! Hope to get help. My aunt and uncle have a Mitchell Lama apartment and held it for several decades. My aunt died and my uncle is still living but wants to have his daughter take over the apartment. I have been living there for over a decade helping my family there. My utility bills (like phone bills) list this as my place of residence. The building complex has changed hands several times in the past ten years but we have paid our maintenance/rent and have been quiet, respectful tenants. The issue is now that if one stockholder/leaseholder has died and the other has moved out, does their daughter, who also lives here, have a right to succession? So far we have gotten letters demanding we show proof of who we are, the lawyer for the complex went so far as to outright state that the daughter is "alleged" and that the father is dead. Both were untrue and proven with documentation and us showing up. Now that the moratorium on the rents is over we are getting threats to evict (the complex got their money every month during the pandemic and they took it no problem). The lawyer from their side got nasty and sent an email threatening that the daughter (my cousin) will regret trying to fight it, when they found out my cousin went to the courts and the courts waived the pricey fee to fill out, file and process the paperwork to fight it. Now we have legal aid involved. The very same day we got a hearing to get a new date in court made, (we had to physically show up while their lawyer phoned it in on zoom) we came home to get a message that the bank electronic transfer of this month's rent was sent back by the complex. It had been accepted earlier this month but is now sent back. My cousin re-sent it back -- there was never a problem before with sending rent and they always took it. What should we anticipate next? Can this ML building evict us after all of this and without us having our day in court? And if we win succession, does the ML have to provide us with a lease? How else can they go about making life difficult besides delaying paperwork on their end or asking for more "time" to "investigate" us?

Thank you all in advance for your advice.
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Re: Mitchell Lama, Succession and Section 8

Postby TenantNet » Thu Apr 07, 2022 12:36 am

Not intending to be snarky, but we're backed up on other posts. You say you have Legal Aid involved. What do they say about all this? Succession can be very tricky and it's not always clear if Succession applies in ML or Sec 8 cases. We would have to do some research.

And your post isn't clear. As far as I can tell, you are an occupant, a roommate, not a direct family member. So YOU might not have a clear right to succession - even in a RS apartment. (I'd have to check to see if the 2019 law allows nieces and nephews).

You say your uncle is still alive. Does he still live there (the most important questions and you haven't made that clear)? If so, then none of this makes any sense.

It also sounds as if the LL and the LL's lawyer have created a campaign of harassment and retaliation. Those are things you can use in your defense.

Seems you have to deal with:

a) proving the father is still alive and living there
b) daughter's right to succession (if allowed in ML). She should probably assert it ASAP, even if he is still there. Consider using the DHCR form 23.5 at https://hcr.ny.gov/system/files/documen ... llable.pdf

Ask your Legal Aid attorney if filing the form is appropriate for ML cases. Also understand that going to DHCR isn't the only way to assert succession; it can be done in the courts. But it's a judgment call.

In addition to not telling us the father's status, although you said you have been to court and have an attorney, you haven't said what kind of case the LL has filed against you, the status and stage of the case, and in which court? At a minimum, we need to know those things to really comment on this whole situation.

You should be getting these answers from your LA attorney, as presumably he/she knows all the details and nuances of this case.
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Re: Mitchell Lama, Succession

Postby TenantNet » Thu Apr 07, 2022 1:12 am

Follow-up. A quick IM from a tenant attorney suggests that succession might be available in ML or S8 situations, but we'll have to wait for details. In the meantime, see https://hcr.ny.gov/system/files/documen ... 1-2019.pdf
which looks at succession for rent stab tenants (although succession for ML or S8 might have different rules, if allowed).

Apparently nieces and nephews are not included in the automatic list, but there are cases where they can be considered as non-traditional family members. That's not always easy to do, especially with active opposition from a LL.

Then you get into the issue of the daughter's rights as a primary succession candidate. Her rights and your rights (if available) do not always coincide.
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Re: Mitchell Lama, Succession

Postby redheadedsims » Wed May 25, 2022 12:18 pm

Hi TenantNet,

Thank you so much for responding! Greatly appreciate it! I did write in the original post this line: " The issue is now that if one stockholder/leaseholder has died and the other has moved out, does their daughter, who also lives here, have a right to succession?"

The other stockholder/leaseholder that moved out is the dad. And no, he does not live there. The parents divorced but he kept the place under his name so the mother (my aunt) would raise their children there. I also identified myself as a family member (cousin). I guess my next question is: Succession rights in NYC for Mitchell Lama do not include extended family just immediate family?

What the landlord has filed is for eviction.

Here's my update: Legal Aid has been kind of lukewarm -- my cousin was able on her own to get a stay on the eviction and to get a new court date. Beyond that, Legal Aid has advised they can "try to negotiate" to give us some time to find a new place because otherwise if my cousin applies for an appeal, (which is within her legal rights to do so), Legal Aid says they are not going to help her. The focus seems to be that the daughter to the stockholder, my cousin, is being denied based on her simply having an apartment elsewhere. My cousin did not hide this and reported it in her paperwork.

The ML landlord hired a private investigator and the landlord from her apartment backed my cousin and stated that they were aware daughter was staying at ML to care for her mom and was at ML most of the time! That's it. Never mind the other details the private investigator also found true of her being there and caring for her mother and showing the paperwork of her birth certificate, having their private investigator FIND my cousin's father alive and well despite the ML lawyer state outright in their letter to the court that he was dead, her driver's license, her voting card, her passport, her bills, her being handicapped, the fact she grew up there and has ties to the community, everyone knows her, the complex knows her as the one who paid the bills under her name for decades there, despite her submitting succession paperwork to the landlord a month before her mother passed that the landlord sat on that she then had to resubmit to the city, and paying for the uptick in rent by the Landlord's order after she passed, etc. Everything my cousin provided was what ML says they require for proof of succession, she more than proved it. The last three years she has been in the ML caring for her mother along with me.

Is all lost? What's the point of succession rights if you have all the paperwork and decades tying you to a place but instead it all hangs on whether one lives there?
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