NJ Ejection of Family Members

[Elyse Parker]

Very long story, but my fiancé and I purchased his parents house (I know, good idea at the time). They were going through financial struggles and wanted to downsize. We wanted to upgrade from our previous house as we are ready to start a family. Anyway to avoid both parties using a realtor and paying taxes, etc, etc, we bought the beautiful house and were in love. However, his parents asked if they could stay a few months until they found another house. We never agreed on a length of time and since the closing, his mother who is mentally unstable has gone crazy. Cops have been called numerous times and they have been asked to leave several times. We finally filed for a writ of possession being that they are not tenants and we have a court date for one month from today. We still are very confused about some things. They are claiming they sold us the house at a good deal and now we owe them money (which was never discussed prior to the closing). With that being said they are refusing to leave and said they have rights to stay. We legally own the house now and all of the bills are in our name. Weve tried to reconcile with them to avoid going to court and paying an attorney but my fiancé does not have a "normal" father/mother/son relationship with them. Anyway, if the ejectment is ruled in our favor our attorney said his parents would have 7 days to leave the premise before we can change the locks. After the 7th day and change of locks, are we allowed to dispose of their personal belongings left behind? I ask because they are hoarders and we know there will be a lot left behind, things of value included. Also, could they sue us for selling the house well under market value, even though they both signed the intial contract and the closing papers knowing the price they were selling it to us for?

[Jon Holdman]

Wow, talk about a mess!

First, I don't know exactly how this process works in NJ, so can only speak in general terms.  Great that you have an attorney assisting you with this.  Post your questions to your attorney.

I'm going to ignore the fact this is family. 

You seem to have two issues.  You bought a house and now the seller is claiming the price was too low.  And then the sellers  became tenants, you want them out, and they won't leave.

Can they sue you?  Of course.  Anyone can sue anyone for anything.   Question is, do they have a case they might win?  Impossible to say from what you've written.  Assuming you used an attorney to close the transaction (I think you use attorneys rather than title companies in NJ), it was properly documented and recorded, then you have a legitimate transaction.  If not, then there's a problem.  You say you wanted to avoid paying taxes, which is a red flag to me that maybe the transaction wasn't 100% above board.  If the transaction was done properly, then there might be a question of coercion.  The issue would be, did you convince them to do a transaction they really didn't want to do.  In other words, did you steal their house with a shady transaction?  I'm not actually asking you, just saying this might be the basis of a lawsuit.  An attorney might find other ways to try to unwind the transaction.  But you might think back to what was said and done when you bought this house and be sure everything was above board.  Ideally you would have had an appraisal, done all the proper paperwork, recorded the appropriate documents, and taken out a new loan or paid cash for the property.  The more shortcuts you took in the transaction, the more likely they will prevail in a lawsuit.

Assuming the purchase was legit, now you have tenants.  You want them out and they won't leave.  I assume the NJ process is the same as in other places.  You'll go to court and get a judgement in your favor.  After that, they have a certain time to leave.  If they don't, you do a "set out". That is, under supervision by (usually) the sheriff, you and your workers take all the stuff out of the property and set it outside.  No, you don't get to just keep everything in the house.  You get possession of the property, not the contents.  You have to move the contents outside.  If there is a lot of stuff, you'll need a bunch of helpers.  The sheriff (or whoever supervises setouts in NJ) isn't going to give you days to do this.  Just a few hours.  Once that's done, you change the locks and now you have possession of the property.  What happens to the stuff that you set out is not your problem.  The expectation is the former tenants deal with taking what they want.  I'd be cautious about you taking any of it.