Can I go live in a condo or even sell if it is essentially abandoned?

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Can I go live in a condo or even sell if it is essentially abandoned?

Lifetime rights is attached to the owner’s deed for the tenant. Tenant was put in a nursing home and declared not able to live alone; they cannot come back. Tenant is 98 years old. Tenant is my father but we have not talked or seen each other for 3 years. Is that considered abandonment?

Asked on April 2, 2012 under Real Estate Law, New Jersey

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 11 years ago | Contributor

From what you write, you are not the tenant--your father is. Tenancy rights only apply to the tenant him/herself--the tenant's family members do not gain the right to live in the unit simply because they are family. There is also no law stating that once a unit is "abandoned"--or has not been resided in for a certain time--that other people can move into it; and certainly, there is no right to sell someone else's property simply because it has not been lived in (and lifetime tenancy rights do not provide any right, even for the tenant, to sell  the unit).

From what you write, you appear to have no right to either live in or sell the unit.

 


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