How to become the successive leaseholder on a rent control or rent-stabilized apartment + Available rent-stabilized listings
According to New York State, a “family member” can be a spouse, son, daughter, stepchild, parent, step-parent, sibling, grandfather, grandmother, grandson, granddaughter, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law or daughter-in-law of the tenant or permanent tenant. But these direct relations aren’t the only people who may count as family.
A New York State Fact Sheet on succession rights clarifies that “family member” may also include “any other person(s) residing with the tenant or permanent tenant in the housing accommodation as a primary resident, who can prove emotional and financial commitment and interdependence between such person(s) and the tenant.” In other words, you’ll need to be sharing a lot more than a frying pan and the occasional six-pack with your roommate to qualify. Courts consider the following factors when determining “emotional and financial commitment and interdependence” between tenants and other occupants:
- Longevity of the relationship;
- Sharing of household expenses;
- Intermingling of finances such as credit cards or bank accounts;
- Engaging in family type activities together;
- Formalizing legal obligations through such things as wills, powers of attorney, domestic partnership declarations etc.;
- Presenting as family members at public activities (e.g., if you grew up with someone you’re not related to but this individual used to attend the parent meetings at your high school, this would stand as evidence in this category);
- Regularly performing family functions for each other.
While counting anyone with whom one has an “emotional and financial commitment and interdependence” may appear to make succession rights murkier than they need to be, there are compelling reasons succession rights eventually came to account for all types of relations. For example, in the late 1980s to early 1990s, at the height of the AIDS crisis, hundreds of rent controlled and rent stabilized apartments were lost, mostly in Chelsea and the East Village. Unfair succession rights were largely to blame. As people died—and in New York City, thousands of people did—their rent-controlled and rent-stabilized units were often reclaimed by landlords and put back on the market at market rent. In some cases, this happened despite the fact that an intimate partner had been living on the premises with the primary tenant for years.
