Landlord, Tenant's Stepson Tangle Over Apt.

No one likes giving up a rent-stabilized apartment - except landlords. The family of an 84-year-old woman who has a two-bedroom apartment in Windsor Terrace that costs $587.96 a month claims that the landlord tricked her out of her apartment - by going to her nursing home and making her sign a surrender letter. The Post reports that Catherine Burke's stepson is leveling the charge against landlord Philip Meoli. Meoli has a signed letter from Burke dated March 6, and Bob Burke, who had lived in the apartment since 2001, was locked out.

Though Bob Burke has managed to stay in the apartment after calling the cops, Meoli voiced his suspicions to the Post: "The truth was, his mother called me from the nursing home to surrender the apartment to me because she knew her stepson was illegally squatting there. He's playing the role of a grieving stepson of a woman he didn't take care of."

Illegally squatting? There are specific lease succession rights when it comes to family members, and if Burke had been living there since 2001, he has a pretty good case - which is probably why Meoli allowed him to stay. We feel bad for Catherine Burke: "When asked if she felt as if she had been tricked, Catherine said from the Augustana Lutheran Home in Brooklyn, 'I don't know what is tricky. I am 84 years old, and this is the worst problem in my life.'"

And the NYC Rent Guidelines Board will be having public meetings to discuss the proposed rent hikes for rent-stabilized buildings.

Map from the Park Slope Reader