Landlord-Tenant Law in New Jersey

[Nick Louie]

Hi BP community,

I am a first-time home buyer. I am going under contract for a property in New Jersey after giving up my search in New York. My property is a 3 family plus garden unit. So, I'm going to be a landlord soon! 

I know New York is notorious for its tenant friendly laws. Evictions are hard to complete and there's not much recourse for landlords. I was wondering whether New Jersey is the same. I'm still early in my own preliminary research, so I'd love to hear some first-hand landlord experiences of collecting pass-due rent, removing tenants from the property, evictions, and overall impressions of the landlord-tenant environment. 

To give some background, the seller wanted to deliver my property with 3 existing tenants paying within the lower 25% percentile of rent. I intend on charging the higher 75% percentile for rent. So, I requested the property be delivered vacant. My agent said the tenants are all month-to-month, so removing the tenants wouldn't be an issue. I could just simply notify them and they will leave (or the sheriff will remove them immediately). But coming from New York. It's not that easy. And I know that the very last thing I want to do is inherit tenants, even if they timely pay their rent because they won't be happy with my sudden rent increase.

So, I countered to the seller, that the seller either: (1) deliver vacant; or (2) arrange for the tenants to agree to my new licenses, which will have quite the rent increase.

Thoughts? 

[Joseph Guzzardi Jr]

@Nick Louie most people would agree that NJ is a tenant friendly state. Having said that if you have tenants who are cooperative the best shot at getting them out would be to be reasonable with your requests and timeline. Since they are month to month you can increase the rents sooner rather than later, but this is a business and you don't want to create a bad business relationship. Keep them month to month, talk with the tenants, inform them you plan to get the rents to a certain number and give them a time frame so they can find another place to stay. Now if the units are in rougher shape it's will be tough commanding a higher rent obviously. I'm sure others will have their opinions as well but I don't mind breaking even or even going into the negative for a few months if it means getting the property stabilized and in a much stronger position for the long term.