All Forum Posts by: Victor Kao

 I'm also in NJ and understand personally how much havoc that the eviction moratorium can wreak on the landlords in the state. When it was lifted at the beginning of the year a lawyer said the backlog was at 15 months for Middlesex County. I ended up chasing down the rental assistance avenue which ended up paying at month 10. However, they then transitioned to Temporary Rental Assistance which requires the tenant to work or go through their job placement program. The tenant refused and of course terminated his assistance. Now the only recourse is eviction and I hear backlog is still at 6+ months. He refused cash for keys multiple times and is very good at pushing the limits of tenant rights. Un/fortunately he purposely damaged property and now I can evict him for that reason which hopefully puts the case higher up in the backlog.

 Is there legal avenue to force him out before the eviction judgement using the mitigation as a reason?

 He doesn't have insurance, which is the whole reason why he's trying to push the cost of moving his stuff on everyone else.

Unfortunately he never gave me permission to enter. He was supposed to meet us to let us in but because the insurance adjuster and water mitigation company couldn't wait we had to enter without permission.

Everyone is right: It is time to evict. I have already given 3 days Notice to Quit for Destruction of Property. Filing for eviction will happen on Thursday when the deadline to quit expires. There were many reasons why eviction wasn't started earlier. The main one being that the eviction moratorium was still in place. And then there was temporary rental assistance which was paying part of his rent but also required me not to file for eviction. But now that the eviction ban is over, there is no more rental assistance and the unit is uninhabitable so I can't collect rent anyways, this may be the opportune time to do it.

The main problem now is still that eviction may take several months and he is purposely blocking the water mitigation process which is making things worse every day. Does anybody know if I can legally have a moving company move his belongings to self storage and then not release the contents until he pays for the cost of moving and storage? This sounds like a reasonable option if all else fails.

I have a troublesome tenant who has a history of causing issues and non-payment in a condo on the second floor. The condo is located in NJ.

Just 2 weeks ago the condo above my unit had a failing washing machine that caused excessive flooding in my unit. We immediately called the HOA to contact the owner of the upstairs unit to shut off water and investigate the issue and had a water mitigation company (ServPro) come. They did emergency mitigation. However they said that the tenant's furniture was in the way and preventing them from completing work necessary to eliminate moisture. The tenant demanded that all his furniture be moved at someone else's expense even though he is required by the lease and HOA bylaws to have renters insurance which would normally cover these expenses for him. He keeps saying that it should be the HOA insurance, landlord insurance, or the owner of the unit upstairs that should cover these expenses for him and refuses to pay to have his personal belongings moved to allow work. ServPro quoted $3000 to have his items moved into a pod while work is done and to have his items moved back, but he refuses to pay a penny for anything (including rent for a year and a half I might add).

To make matters worse, he threatened to unplug all water mitigation equipment left running in the condo used to remove moisture and possible contaminants from the air. I immediately advised him that such actions may cause mold to grow and may be considered Willfull Destruction of Property. He ignored this warning saying maybe this will incentivize the insurance companies to pay to move his belongings. I also asked him in later conversations if he unplugged any equipment and he told me no, all equipment is still plugged in and running.

It is now 2 weeks later and the HOA insurance adjustor came to do an inspection to determine damages and possible coverage. ServPro also came to check on their equipment. Of course the tenant refused to cooperate and didn't show up to let us in even though he had agreed to do so just 2 days ago when making the appointment. Upon entry we found that all of the water mitigation equipment had been unplugged. The adjustor and ServPro noted this and measured moisture in the area, walls and ceilings stating that moisture levels were above levels necessary to grow mold and that his actions may have resulted in secondary damage (mold growth) that might not be covered by insurance. Unfortunately this cannot be confirmed until further work is done which still requires the tenant's furniture to be removed. I recorded a video of our entry that shows all of this in evidence.

The question now is: is this considered Destruction of Property either Willful or through Gross Negligence? If so, I would like to proceed with providing a 3-Day Notice to Quit for such reasons. And then proceeding with eviction proceedings under this premise along with non-payment and breaking lease terms by not having renters insurance. What do you guys think? What's the best way to proceed with evicting the tenant and removing his furniture to allow for work to continue?

I know one possibility is that I pay the $3000 out of pocket to move the tenant's belongings but that I'm not inclined to do so since this tenant has been beyond horrible since day 1 and I do not wish to help him in any way unless insurance can help financially.

What do you guys think?

 Thanks Nathan for the response. I agree with what you've said. But I guess the question is evict now? Or Later? I guess the best option would be to file for eviction now and get in line for a hearing while collecting the portion of rent paid by the state until I finally get scheduled hearing in court. But I guess the question is are there any legal ramifications for doing that? 

I currently have a tenant living in my condo in Middlesex County. When he moved in in March 2020 we did a walkthrough inspection and he confirmed everything was fine. He paid the security deposit and first month's rent. And that's when he became a headache literally since day 1. 

Here is a summary of issues with the tenant
1. Made a dozen bogus claims of issues in the property starting with the day he moved in even with a walkthrough inspection the day before
2. Refused entry multiple times for attempts to address said issues
3. Stopped paying rent since day 1. I offered cash for keys be he refused.
4. Threatened me with lawyers for not addressing issues with the property (both of which resigned when they found out that he is full of it)
5. Has his gf and daughter housed with him even though he told me it was just him before move-in and they are not on the lease
6. Housed several pets including a dog and birds even though they are against the terms of the lease
7. Incurred HOA fees charged to me as the owner for his gf not pick up after walking their dog
8. Verbally abusive and consistently lies about everything
9. Claimed that he wanted to return the microwave included in the lease, but then gave me a smaller, broken microwave (I have proof that the microwave is different with pictures from the pre-move-in inspection and the lease lists the brand)

So of course we have a whole mess exacerbated by COVID & the eviction moratorium.  Now that the moratorium has finally ended, I'm told that the wait time for an eviction claim to be heard is over a year. Now with the semi-good news: He ended up getting rental assistance. With the alternative being losing rent for a whole year on top of the year that he owes already, I agreed to lower his rent so that the temporary rental assistance program would accept him.

Now the problem is the temporary assistance program is paying part of his rent but he still refuses to pay his part. So now I'm losing about $150/month. I've told him that he is required to pay his part or he will lost rental assistance. But he outright said that he doesn't care, supposedly because his lawyer told him that he has to pay all of that money back afterwards. Does anybody know if this is true?

Unfortunately as part of an agreement with the program, I'm not allowed to evict him for 60 days.

So my questions are:
1. Can I still file for eviction now since he's not paying his part while still collecting the portion received from rental assistance?
2. If not, should I start an eviction anyways at the risk of losing $1800/month for a year instead of $150/month? I suspect I will eventually have to evict him anyways because he has proven to be consistently difficult. But should I wait until the eviction wait time lessens?
3. Are there other alternatives?

 Unfortunately no luck here yet. I had a tenant do a walkthrough inspection, sign a lease, and move in the next day. That next day they started complaining about how everything was broken and needed to be replaced. And refuses to let me on the property to confirm and address the complaints and said he will not pay rent until everything is replaced.

I offered $700 plus unused rent plus security deposit back and he still refused. He KNOWS he can't be evicted because of the moratorium in NJ.

CLEARLY a case of moratorium abuse. Unfortunately all lawyers I spoke to said there is nothing they can do even if  the tenant clearly has the means to pay and chooses to not pay starting day 1. I'm at a complete loss as to what to do.

I am a small landlord with only 2 properties. And less than 2 weeks ago I signed a lease with a new tenant. There are a few red flags that I see quite clearly now but kind of turned a blind eye when I signed the lease and am completely regretting it now. In the future I know I need to be more selective and not just "give a chance" to people with bad history. But that's a whole separate issue.

Before signing the lease, I personally inspected and tested everything to make sure nothing was broken or less than working condition. I also had the township inspect everything to get the CO.

Upon signing the lease, the tenant and I did a complete walkthrough of the property and everything was in complete working condition. No complaints. Said everything was fine so I handed him the keys.

The very next day he started calling and texting complaining about how everything was broken and he would need me to pay for a new washer, fridge, CO detector, thermostat, shower faucet, screen door, and blinds.  I told him that everything was working fine before he moved in; That I personally inspected everything including all of the items he complained about and even had a township inspector approve everything for rental. But if he had any complaints I could come to take a look and address them. He said "you need to send out a professional to fix or replace everything today" and I told him I need to verify all of these complaints first. 3 different times he said I could come and then when I said I was heading over he would say that he wouldn't allow me anymore. On day 3 he said he will just hire a professional and deduct all costs from rent and I told him he would need to let me verify and address any issues first so he told me to talk to his lawyer. He gave me a first name and phone number saying that I needed to call them because his lawyer refused to call me. This to me sounds fishy. Can anybody confirm if this is normal or bogus behavior from a lawyer?

On Day 4 I offered him a $700 plus a refund of unused rent plus all of his security deposit back to move out in a week since he seemed so unhappy. He said he'd start looking. Today was the day he was supposed to move out and then he said "Talk to my lawyer  if you want to know everything that is going on".  

I looked up the name and number and there are old records of them being a registered attorney. But the websites and other listed numbers were all inactive. I even called the number and the person who picked up sounded unprofessional saying "Is this important? I'm at the gym".  Again, red flag.

At this point I'm pretty sure he's a veteran rent-dodger. I already tried cash for keys, no luck. He just used it as a stall tactic.

Does anybody have any suggestions on what else I should do?

I think my next step is to start the eviction process by sending Notice to Quit and filing for eviction if he does not quit. I'm also considering hiring a lawyer to do these things but am tight on funds due to multiple factors. I also used a lawyer for an eviction in the past but was not happy with the outcome (the tenant was allowed to stay after paying back rent without penalty or having to pay legal fees). Any recommendations on parts of the process that are DIY-able and what parts should be done by a lawyer? 

In parallel, I was also thinking of filing in small claims court for unpaid rent. On that topic, does anybody have any experience with collecting rent owed going through small claims court?  What's the success rate of actual collecting after a judgement?

Any input is greatly appreciated!

I see that Lowe's has a card that offers 5% off all purchases but nothing like 10%.  I only know of occasional 10% off coupons they offer for moving.

One way I have