Removing 1 tenant from rent stabilized lease - 20% lease increase.

I agree whole heartedly with Mr. Smollens - you cannot rely on this forum for real, effective and specific legal advise. That said, in my opinion, this scenario would not warrant a vacancy increase. Thinking about it logically, let's say you and your husband were on the lease and your adult child lived with you for that entire time. If you and your husband left, your child would be entitled to succeed to your tenancy (meaning they would step into your shoes as the new tenant under the rent stabilized lease), and so long as it was the first succession, your landlord would not be entitled to a vacancy increase. If this is true, then how can it be the case that when you, as one of the two rent stabilized tenants, leaves and surrenders your interest in the lease, that your husband, the other rent stabilized tenant, is subject to a vacancy increase? I just don't how, under the facts that you presented, that your husband staying on as the sole tenant on the lease counts as a vacancy lease.

Dear New York tenant: A few days ago, I suggested you consult an attorney. While is a great source for information, you should not substitute a response to a posted question with a face to face conference with an attorney. An attorney may spot issues you did not consider or quickly provide a solution for your problem. I gather the landlord intends to treat a lease with your husband alone as a vacancy lease and increase the rent by the 20% vacancy allowance, authorized by the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) as allowed by the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997. The 20% allowance for a vacancy increase previously was explicitly stated in previous orders of the RGB, but the current RGB order (leases made from October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014) makes the obscure reference to the vacancy allowances as allowed by the RRRA of 1997. See the explanation for the current RGB order at: http://www.nycrgb.org/downloads/guidelines/orders/aptES45.pdf This is a link to the current RGB order: http://www.nycrgb.org/downloads/guidelines/orders/AptOrder45.pdf Of course, if you take the plunge into the 1997 Act, the result is the same as provided before by the RGB. http://www.nycrgb.org/html/guidelines/vacancy.html As you see, nothing is plain and simple about the calculation of a rent increase allowed for a vacancy lease. The DHCR cannot tell you the landlord is allowed a vacancy increase at all in your situation, but if you take that information as the last word, you may leave your husband with a rent increase where he may not pay one at all for a change in the composition of the tenancy. You should not substitute an Internet answer with a conference in a face to face consultation.