Unrelated Caretaker For Now-Deceased Elderly Sisters Hijacks Their $291/Month 3 Bedroom, NYC Rent-Controlled Apartment; Landlord Expresses Objections With Action To Give Her The Boot

In New York City, the New York Post reports:

• An East Village woman claims she can take over a $291-per-month rent-controlled three-bedroom apartment because she tended to its two elderly inhabitants for four years — even though she’s not related to them.
  
  Now the landlord is trying to boot her.
  
  Margaret Hearn, 48, began living at 345 E. 12th St. in 2008, when she became a full-time caretaker for sisters Margaret and Josephine Ruta, whom she met at church. Josephine died in March. Margaret died last year.
  
  When Hearn returned from Josephine’s funeral, the apartment was padlocked. Her brother cut the lock, and she has moved in. “I was emotional. I had just been to a funeral, and I felt I was losing it, and this happened,” Hearn said, adding the landlord “wants to remodel the apartment and charge more.”
  
  Similar pads in the building go for $4,400 in rent.
  
  Hearn — who also keeps a rent-controlled $747-a-month studio in Gramercy Park — says the landlord, 339-347 East 12th Street Investor LLC, filed to evict her in May 2012. Phillip Wartell, a lawyer for the landlord, did not return calls.

Source: Caretaker fights for $291-a-month rent-controlled pad.