IN RE: 200 CLAREMONT AVENUE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FUND CORPORATION (2025)

Order, Appellate Term, First Department, entered on or about March 12, 2024, which affirmed the order of the Civil Court, New York County (Karen May Bacdayan, J.), entered on or about July 12, 2022, denying petitioner's motion for a default judgment against respondent Estate of Elsie Lewis and dismissing the petition without prejudice to recommencement following appointment of an executor or administrator for the Estate, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The Appellate Term properly determined that the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (L 2019, ch 36) amended Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law § 711(2) to preclude the former practice of seeking a judgment of possession in a summary proceeding against an unrepresented estate after three months.  As the amendment reflects, the current version of RPAPL 711(2) no longer permits landlords to seek a judgment of possession against an unrepresented estate.  An estate is a legal fiction which can only be sued through its personal representative (see EPTL 11–3.1).  Relief against an estate cannot be obtained without the appointment of an executor or public administrator and the statute cannot be read to permit petitioner to obtain a judgment of possession until the estate may be properly sued (see Westway Plaza Assoc. v. Doe, 179 A.D.2d 408, 409–410 [1st Dept 1992]).

Further, as a statutory construct, summary proceedings must strictly comply with the provisions of RPAPL article 7 (see Dulberg v. Ebenhart, 68 A.D.2d 323, 328 [1st Dept 1979]), under which there is no longer any authority to award a judgment of possession against an unrepresented estate.  Petitioner's contention that a nonpayment proceeding's relationship to real property permits courts to provide relief in rem is meritless.  Residential leases appurtenant to shares in a cooperative corporation, are personal property rather than real property (see Matter of State Tax Commn. v Shor, 43 N.Y.2d 151, 154 [1977]).

We have considered petitioner's remaining arguments and find them unavailing.