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February 23, 2018 Posted in Landlord/Tenant Law Share

In New York, landlords are entitled to include a no-pet clause in the lease agreement that prohibits the tenant from keeping a pet in the unit (and in the larger development, generally).  It is often the case, however, that tenants attempt to hide their ownership of a pet or otherwise violate the contract — perhaps in the hopes that the landlord will simply resign themselves to the presence of the pet.

February 9, 2018 Posted in Landlord/Tenant Law Share

In New York, a tenant who creates a noise nuisance — same as any other nuisance — may give their landlord the right to evict them from the property (or at least to compel the tenant to stop the nuisance).

January 31, 2018 Posted in Landlord/Tenant Law Share

Landlords are often put in a complicated position with regard to problematic tenants.  As a New Jersey landlord, you may be concerned about whether one of your tenants is breaching the rental contract, or whether they are causing permanent damage to the unit that will require significant repairs.  In some instances, other tenants may complain about the activities of one tenant, and may request that you resolve the matter.

January 17, 2018 Posted in Landlord/Tenant Law Share

In New York City alone, there are a substantial number of rent-regulated apartment units, with roughly 27k rent controlled apartments and 1.03M rent stabilized apartments as of a 2014 housing survey, and many more such units scattered statewide.  The regulations surrounding rent control units (and more generally, rent regulated units) can be quite complicated to understand for the layperson.  Due to the regulations affecting rent-regulated properties in the state of New York, ownership of a rent-controlled property is seen as a liability by some landlords.

December 29, 2017 Posted in Landlord/Tenant Law Share

When a tenant vacates their rental property (and the tenancy ends), some personal property may be left behind.  In New Jersey, however, the Abandoned Tenant Property Statute applies certain restrictions to what landlords may do with such property.  Fundamentally, a landlord may not dispose of personal property left by a tenant without first allowing the tenant to recover their abandoned personal belongings — and this requirement is applicable in situations where the tenant was legally evicted or otherwise is not current on rent payments.

December 29, 2017 Share

In New York, there are a number of differences between commercial and residential leases that are worth noting.  As a landlord, your duties and obligations to the tenant may be substantially affected by the nature of the lease (commercial/residential).

December 15, 2017 Posted in Landlord/Tenant Law Share

In the state of New York, commercial landlords do not have a duty to mitigate their damages when a tenant is delinquent in their payments, vacates their property, and breaks their existing lease.  This is an incredibly favorable state of affairs for the commercial landlord, as the tenant cannot undermine the damage claim of the landlord (in a lawsuit to recover unpaid rent) by asserting that the landlord failed to make reasonable efforts to find a suitable replacement tenant.

November 30, 2017 Posted in Landlord/Tenant Law Share

In New Jersey, landlords are subject to regulation when it comes to increasing rent.  Landlords are entitled to increase the rent for their tenants, of course, but there are certain processes that they must adhere to, and certain limitations that restrict the degree to which they can change the rent.

By Jennifer L. Alexander, Esq. November 17, 2017 Posted in Landlord/Tenant Law Share

As a residential landlord, there are all manner of nuisances that you may have to contend with as you navigate the state of New Jersey’s landlord-tenant legal landscape.  Particularly in situations where there are multiple people in close proximity of one another (i.e., an apartment building, or multiple tenants living together in a house), there is a high likelihood of potential nuisances.