Owner occupied room evicton - NJ

[Drew Slew]

2 family unit, second floor 4 room 1 bath has 3 rooms rented, 1 room landlord lives in:

some complications appeared and landlord wants them all out, as 2 tenants are withholding march rent (had some HVAC issues, no CO detectors etc but all that got fixed within 3-5days). Tenants claim Jersey City came out and inspected things, shut off gas and told them to not pay rent. Landlord never received any of this notice.. seems tenants are making things up to not pay rent?

Question - how to evict them fastest or have them legally stay and mitigate any arguments against landlord:

ISSUE

1) Issue is the room rental, there is ambiguos rooming house permit issue that is sometimes needed, sometimes not, JC doesnt really handle any of this and generally 2 family houses seem to not be considered for rooming houses. Tenants are trying to attack that their lease is illegal etc - which still makes them a month to month lodger or tenancy at will, no?

2) Tenants might argue against landlord due to hvac heating, gas leak etc fixes, say it is landlord negligence etc etc. Not sure how it works, but this has been all fixed by licensed contractors, so they would have to attack 1-2 weeks of bad living conditions? Seems comical.

SOLUTIONS:

- this is an owner occupied unit (landlord lives in 1 room), so he can send Notice to Quit to anyone anytime and have them out in 30days? One reason it seems cannot be countered is simply: sorry guys, landlord decided he doesnt want tenants in his unit anymore and will occupy all rooms from next month. Please vacate asap. 

- put all 3 room tenants under 1 lease so all the "illegality" and the rooming house question disappears: now its a legal lease that has 3-4 tenants on it sharing one unit. Not roommate lease, one single lease w everyone on it, or one person on it and they divvy up the rent. Have them sign this, then asap evict all of them or serve them a notice to quit - because it will still be owner occupied and again owner decided he will actually now live in all the rooms.

Or is there something landlord is missing and is not seeing? and will have to pay major fines around 5k, get sued in civil court, pay 6months of relacation expenses to EACH tenant etc etc.

[Theresa Harris]

Can't help on the legal aspect, but if there is a contract, what does it say.  If I was the landlord living in the unit, I'd want the tenants with the problem out ASAP.  Similarly if I was a tenant, I'd also want out.  Give the tenants the option of leaving at the end of the month.  I don't know what your role is in this.