My First Eviction in NJ

[Rizwan Halim]

So the moment I have always dreaded has arrived, I have to file for eviction for an otherwise great tenant who has been with me for 3 years of on time payments. She is already 6 days late and the reason I filed is because she has stopped responding to my texts.

I really wanted to work something out with her but realized that I don't want to be at her mercy should she decide to not live upto any agreement we come up with. So anyway here I go with my questions:

1) I filed with the court today for eviction and it was surprisingly easy (for e.g. no notice requirement) for non-payment of rent. I think the average timeline in 1.5 months from the date of filing. What happens next, are there any gotchas and do people here think I need an attorney?

2) If she simply cannot pay and is willing to move should I offer her cash for keys? How should I structure this?

3) How soon should I start advertising for new tenants? I am thinking a move in date of 11/1/2013.

Thanks everyone.

[Dawn Anastasi]

Originally posted by Rizwan Halim:

Tom, Ibrahim, thanks for your insights. This is my first time doing this so I may have made some mistakes.

Just to outline again what happened. I started texting her on the 8th about the rent since she was late last month and short. She said the rent would be there on the 10th as we agreed. On the 10th it was the 12th. On the 12th it was the 16th. On the 16th she said she is trying to get the rent, at which point I filed for eviction.

Again I think she is a genuinely nice person but I do think I put in a lot of time with the friendly reminders. Right now I would also like to avoid the eviction process but there have been no further texts.

Maybe she was offended by the word eviction but I thought I was very reasonable in all the texts that I did send so far.

I am trying to call her now and send a letter. I am just not sure what else I should have done?

You kind of left out that part about multiple requests for payments and that the tenant HAD responded to you in your initial post. I think that's why people responded the way they did to your question.