By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 00:20 EST, 31 March 2013 | UPDATED: 04:58 EST, 31 March 2013

A woman is accused of lying to a co-op board and claiming her dead aunt was still alive, so she could keep her rent controlled apartment in a desirable Brooklyn neighborhood in New York.

Brenda Williams, 55, was paying just $287 a month while she fooled the building’s co-op board into thinking her aunt Debbie Vaughan - who died at age 93 in 2007 - was still alive.

Whenever residents and management at the co-op building at 673 Vanderbilt Ave. near Prospect Park inquired after her elderly aunt she would say, ‘Fine,’ or, ‘Not so good today.’

Brenda Williams has paying just $287 a month in rent at a Brooklyn co-op while she fooled the building's board into thinking her aunt Debbie Vaughan was still alive

But her scam unraveled when co-op board president Diane Hansen-Young had to go into the apartment with a plumber to fix a major leak in 2010, only to find a totally vacant apartment and a mattress.

Williams has now moved into the apartment, and it is not known why she kept it vacant for so long.

Hansen-Young brought the alleged scam to the attention of landlord Phil Cramer. He claims he has kept Vaughan’s rent low and even paid her co-op maintenance charge because she was elderly.

He now wants to evict Williams from the pad, which is now worth $2,200 a month, and has filed a $405,000 suit in Brooklyn Supreme Court for back rent.

Williams, who also maintains her own apartment around the corner, has told the New York Post that she intends to fight to stay in the building.

'I’ve been living here since 1985. He knew I was there - he met me there,' Williams said. 'They think since she passed away that I can’t stay.'

Brenda Williams has been paying $287 a month for an apartment worth $2,200 on the current market

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