Judge Steven Weissman
Tenant Santiago moved to vacate the judgment and warrant and stay the proceeding pending the outcome of her administrative hearing before the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) in this nonpayment summary proceeding. Santiago claimed she made a request to the agency for an interim recalculation of her monthly rental share in January 2011 as her income changed the month before. The NYCHA recalculated and made Santiago’s new share effective as of July 2011 instead of retroactively. An agency representative claimed the effective date was set based on Santiago’s late filing of required documents. The court gave no weight to the NYCHA’s claims stating, “from experience, NYCHA loses, misplaces, or any other term you wish to use, more documents than it retains, and has little, if any, credibility before this court.” The court stated it had the authority to stay proceedings before it pending the resolution of relevant issues before other tribunals, as here. Thus, it granted the requested stay pending NYCHA’s final determination of issues before it, and set Santiago’s rent at $499 from January 2011. The court noted that the NYCHA may move to vacate the stay in the event of a default in any payments.
