Verbally Abusive Tenant in NJ

[Abigail K.]

Hi There,

I have a tenant who has been having issues with his air conditioning on and off since last summer. Each time, we send our super to check the controls and if we need to, we call the air conditioning tech to come as soon as he can. Each time this has happened, the tenant calls and harasses me by call and text incessantly, cursing me out, calling me a slumlord etc, threatening to withhold rent if it is not fixed within 24 hours. The latest instance has been this week (where the weather has not exceeded 75 degrees and mostly has been in the 60’s). I have stopped answering phone calls and resorted only to written communication (for my records) but have noticed a pattern of very emotional and aggressive behavior from this tenant (as well as extremely unreasonable expectations about what the timeline is to have something fixed). Do I have any grounds not to renew his lease or evict him on account of his constant harassment? Or can anyone offer how they would handle the situation. New Jersey laws make evictions near impossible it feels. 

I’m getting 50-60 text messages and 5-6 phone calls in a row if he does not receive an instant response from me. I calmly respond with only the relevant maintenance information and then he continues barraging me with personal info and threats. I do not want to ignore real maintenance requests from him (as it is my job to react to those) but if I could I would block his number completely. 

Thanks in advance.