Eviction: Final trial coming up
Hi BiggerPockets community,
I currently own a two-family property in Jersey City, New Jersey. In one of the units, I have been dealing with a non-paying tenants for about a year and a half.
The final trial is coming up July 27th, 2022 and I want to make sure I have my bases covered so that I can properly evict this person and move on from this stressful chapter of my life.
This tenant, as of June 2022, owes me rent from July 2021. She technically stopped paying rent February 2021 but was given five months of rental assistance from the NJDCA rental assistance program. I expressed to her the importance of paying the rent and not expecting rental assistance programs to pay the rent for you. But she continued to not pay.
At this moment she owes me $16,300.
Here is the math:
1 month of rent is $1,500. She owes me 12 months of rent so that equals to $18,000. She has made two payments of $1,000 each in February and one this month(surprising given that eviction trial is coming up). So that brings the total to $16,000.
Late fees are $50. Due to the laws, I could not charge late fees for last year's rent but I can charge them for this year. That is 6 months of late totaling $300.
SO she owes me $16,300.
Its more than likely that another $1550 will be added to the balance next month which would put her at $17,850. That is a lot of money!
Given she has made those payments, does that complicate things? Can the judge say that she is acting in "good will" can let her stay?
Going into the final trial, what should I bring to court so that I can ultimately be prepared to defend my case.
I really want this person out of my property, she lacks basic communication skills, she is highly disrespectful, and she breaks the lease all of the time by having an insane amount of people there.
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Have you been doing this without an attorney? Unfortunately the judge can say anything he/she wants. Don't worry about the money, focus on getting her out!
@Bjorn Ahlblad I have not had an attorney. I have been calling an attorney throughout the process and he continues to tell me that eviction for non-payment of rent in Jersey City is a slam dunk. I hope he is right
@Emmanuel Rosario Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most likely accepting payment this month will reset the eviction process. You should retain an attorney to handle the whole process.
It is up to the judge to determine what will happen. And even though you are not on trial I have always been told by attorneys to dress professional. Answer questions with short, direct answers. The questions will be pretty cut and dry.
Take your tenant ledger, lease agreement, and copies of any demand letters or correspondence.
The court will likely tell them they will have to move but it could be another few weeks before they actually serve the writ of possession. It is such a long painful process. It used to be so much easier before COVID. The lag in our court systems has been ridiculous. After you make it through the court system you are going to be waiting on the paperwork to be served to the property by a server.
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So is that a loophole tenants can exploit? Not pay rent at all and then make a payment a month before the eviction?
@Emmanuel Rosario Yes, it can be. You don't have to accept payment. When I accepted payment I had to redo the eviction process. Notice to pay or quit, get on the docket, present evidence, and get a notice to get your property back. You need to retain an eviction attorney so you don't have to go back and refile. You might have professional tenants that could string this out another year.
@Emmanuel Rosario
You say final trial. Have you had hearings in court before in this case?
@Emmanuel Rosario
As @Tim Herman said, accepting payment after initiating an eviction could imply a new arrangement agreement between you and the tenant. The tenant may have surreptitiously given you the $1,000 payment to suggest to the courts that you 2 have a new arrangement. Attorneys have informed me in the past to NEVER accept money from the tenants once the eviction has been started.
That being said, because of the length of time and amount of debt, I doubt most Judges would reset the time because of the recent paltry payment. As long as you have credited it to the tenant’s balance owed but in the future, it’s just not worth it.
Quote from @Emmanuel Rosario:
In my neck of the woods, the only thing stopping eviction would be payment in full. She owes far more than one month of rent, so that justifies an eviction for non-payment of rent.
She doesn't pay, and she's a bad tenant. Why did you allow her to stay? I suspect your hands are probably tied given where you live.
@Nathan Gesner If it wasn't for the moratorium, she would had been out of my property a LONG time ago.
@Quincy Lockett
That is what I am hoping. A measly $1,000 payment should not reset anything. Especially given how much I went out my way to work with her!
In Jersey City now an eviction case has two dates. One is the "remediation" and then final trial. She was a no show for the remediation. If she is a no show again, then its automatic eviction. Which I hope is the case. I am just tired of this person. I want to put this stressful chapter of my life behind me already.
@Erin Dreher Thanks for the advice! I will show up, virtually, looking sharp! Need as much going on for me heading into this pivotal day! This property is my baby!