Hi All,

I have owned a Multi-family in Newark, NJ for about a year and have multiple tenants that share the property with me. I am very new to the process and am leveraging a property manager as I travel a ton and tend to airbnb my unit when I am gone. Given that I bought the property in the middle of the covid crisis, I did inherit some issues with an existing tenant who had payment issues. The property manager then brought in a new tenant who agreed to the rent and things were going great, until they werent.

Fast forward until now:
1) The existing tenant on one floor owes 4 months of rent. They filled out a DCA NJ form and the state says they will be sending me money, but I originally thought I would receive the money in December and time is steadily passing. I previously received DCA funds for this tenant in the summer. Do I evict now, knowing the state will be sending a payment for the money? Am I eligible to do that? Should I wait until the lease term ends or can I start eviction now? Tenant says they will make up arrears with their tax money and the DCA should cover the remaining period until lease term is met. Should I consider offering cash to tenant for them to move out immediately?

2) Tenant brought in by property manager is 2 months late on rent as of today. They have as of today put in documents for DCA rental payments. They are catching up, but are perpetually about a month late on rent. Their lease ends in 50 days, but have not indicated desire to renew and property manager did not send a notice before day 60 about renewing.

Evictions in Essex County have been taking over 6 months in the past. At risk of not alienating the tenants from handling their part on the DCA arrangement and knowing evictions would take months anyway, the property manager suggested we not move forward with evictions. However, I am at my breaking point with both the tenants and PM. What options do I have legally to handle the tenants at this point? In regards to the PM, the contract we signed falls on different terms than the lease agreements they have with tenants. Do I have options to break this and assume relationship with the tenants myself? Apologies if any of this comes off as elementary, I have tried to search the BP forums and reddit for all of this information but havent found much that is NJ state-specific. Any recommendations on lawyers for evictions would also be great.

I'm really looking to buying more properties in the future and would love to streamline that process now.

Thank you!