![]() ![]() Mitchell Lama has the legal right to downsize the apartment of a successor. Succession does not guarantee the same apartment If succession is granted the equity automatically transfers to the new shareholder, Roberts says. Any further dispute between other family members about equity does not involve the co-op, he adds. ![]() ![]() "Oftentimes, when it's only for a few thousand dollars and the parties are well known to the co-op, there is a decision to simply release the small payments for simplicity's sake," he says. The co-op always has control of the equity and is the one that releases it, Roberts says. If no one is seeking succession, he recommends filing a small estate proceeding. He says he's seen equity values in the region of $35,000. Hershey-Webb points out, if there is no succession there will be deductions in the equity for maintenance and renovation costs. So a will could identify who would receive the equity in the apartment but it cannot assign shares or provide for any occupancy rights. "Wills can be set up to bequeath the shares but that results in the beneficiary receiving the equity value for the apartment, not the right to possess the apartment," Roberts says. If you are identified in a will as the sole beneficiary of someone who lived in a Mitchell Lama co-op, you don't get the right to live in the apartment unless you can meet the succession requirements. Neither do you technically inherit shares in the building. A will can only transfer equity not shares or occupancy This will either be NYC's Housing Preservation & Development or New York State's Division of Housing and Community Renewal. The application is filed with management and if your application is denied, you have a right to appeal to the building's supervising agency. The other important documents you'll need to provide include voting records, your driver's license, and bank and credit card statements. "If you have not filed New York State tax returns at the address where you are seeking succession, you will not get succession," Hershey-Webb says. The management will also crucially review your New York State tax returns. "It could work against you if you are not listed in the income affidavit," Hershey-Webb says. To determine residence, the annual income affidavits filed with management by the primary resident will need to identify the successor as living in the apartment. The requirement that you've lived in the apartment for two years prior to the primary resident's permanent departure or death is reduced to one year if the person seeking succession is 62 years or older or disabled. "That means someone who has an emotional and financial interdependence as if they were family members," Hershey-Webb says. So your relationship with the tenant must either be as an immediate family member or what's called a non-traditional family member. In order to get succession rights to the apartment you need both a family-like relationship with the tenant who has died and to have lived in the apartment for two years before the tenant's death or permanent move. You can only apply for succession after the death or permanent departure of the person you have been living with in the apartment. "These apartments are meant to go to New Yorkers who go through the normal application process-so if a person that's not entitled to succession gets succession, they are bumping someone else who has been on a waiting list for years," says attorney David Hershey-Webb, a partner at Himmelstein McConnell Gribben & Joseph. Most Mitchell Lama apartments have very long waiting lists, with some applicants waiting a decade to be allocated a place. Mitchell Lama apartment buildings were set up to provide housing to low- and moderate-income city residents and to ensure they continue to serve that population, there are ownership restrictions and you need to live in the apartment as your primary residence. Long waiting lists for Mitchell Lama apartments "These cooperatives have a primary residence requirement and may be transferred to a family member only by succession which is a regulated process with legal standards," says Dean Roberts, partner at Norris McLaughlin. The only way a Mitchell Lama apartment can be transferred to someone else is by a legal process called succession but not through a will, our experts say. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |