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NJ LL problem

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NJ LL problem

Postby Vindicate » Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:27 pm

I hope LL's can post here.

So I have a tenant of a single-family house that I want to move out because my wife and I are getting divorced and she needs a place to live. My wife sent a notice that she was going to occupy the property, but didn't give any details. My tenant is also threatening to holdover because of registration issues and planning to claim bad faith because I only rented to him for a few months before telling him I was planning not to renew. I think he is planning to move out, but just wants some money to do so, believing he can make it a relatively expensive legal battle. I'm in a relatively expensive market for lawyers.

So the question is, how much would be worth it to just get him to go quietly?
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Postby TenantNet » Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:55 am

Why did you rent to him only a few months prior to telling him to get out? Can you imagine the cost and effort the tenant expends to move into a place only to be told -- for no reason that he caused -- that he must leave? How much to make him whole? How much must he expend to find a new place, move, make all sorts of changes associated with moving, perhaps higher rent?
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Postby Vindicate » Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:53 am

Well, I guess moving costs are between 3 and 5 thousand if you use a service, broker fee is 1 to 2 months rent, and I don't know how much to allocate to other things. He's also mentioned being bothered because he has 3 kids.

But really, is any of that relevant? I mean, the initial contract was for a year rent and I'm honoring that. It's not like I planned to have a divorce. So why should I have to pay really at all when it's part of the standard risks of the contract?
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Postby TenantNet » Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:05 am

You're not honoring the lease if you're forcing him out after only a few months. LL's are ever so quick to hold tenants up for the rent for the entire lease term if they move out early, this is the opposite of that.

It's a business contract. That you're having a divorce, that's completely irrelevant.

In terms of the impact on this person's life, there is likely to be a lot more than what you mentioned. What commitments did he make in his life based on having the lease? And in some NJ towns, they too have a form of rent regulation, and you might have more exposure.

More than that, there's the potential of litigation. I'm not mentioning it as a fear tactic, but the reality is that both sides would have substantial costs.

Might it be better to let the tenant live out the lease?
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Postby Vindicate » Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:21 pm

I am letting him live out the lease. The lease is for a one-year term; I'm letting him stay to the end of that. I just let him know after about 4 or 5 months that I wasn't going to renew it at the end of that term.
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Postby TenantNet » Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:48 pm

Well that's different. You made it sound as if you were forcing him out right away. (although on re-reading the original post, you did say renew.

So that may be OK legally, but even so you still may wish to negotiate that will make it easier for him to land somewhere with less pain.
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