We are landlords. Not by choice. We couldn't sell our house without losing money so we had to rent it. We had a 1 year lease agreement with our tenants. After the year was up there were signs problems with the police coming to the house 3,4 times a month. Neighbors complained constantly. It's a nice neighborhood, we lived there 7 years so we are close with everyone. And also seemed like other things were going on. Was hard for them to pay bills. So we came up with a month to month lease with 30 day notice to vacate upon us ending the agreement. Also stated we did not need reason to evict. Back in February they could not pay all the rent. Could not pay for 2 full months. Came to an agreement with them to pay 1500 on the first of the month and 500 each week after. They could not stick with the agreement. Multiple time one of them asked if I could take the other off the lease. Complete disfunction. He said she cheated on him with his boss so he got fired. Well I gave them a written notice to come up with past due funds within two weeks. Keep in mind they never gave a security deposit. Always would say next month, or when I get taxes. When two weeks was up they gave less then 20% of what was needed. So from there we issued 30 notice to vacate. We filed it with the court. Posted it on door and registered mail. Court date is August 23, 2017. Since then I was not allowed in my house to show it to a perspective tennant. They backed out of the lease cause they felt something was wrong with the current tenants. When I was finally allowed in the house I saw they turned my living into a rental room. The house was open and all connected. They built a room out of my living room with a dead bolt sand I was not allowed access. Also noticed some rooms had electric and some didn't. Called electric company and they said power was shut off June 20. They went to investigate and found they were illegally stealing electric from ac electric. I will have to have an electric inspection to allow someone to move in. They could have burned my house the down. There is so much more to explain. Please contact us asap

@Jameson Cesar

It sounds like a bad situation.

There are a few lessons here. First what kind of screening did you do when you got this tenant? You need to improve your screening process. In February when they did not pay initially you should have began eviction proceedings. Instead you went months without your money and put your personal finances at risk. You should have regularly inspected the interior of the property and you would have noticed the subletting and illegal electrical hookup.

Overall you can't change what happened, but you need to make critical changes to your landlord business or you will lose your property.

I tried to work with him. I did do inspections. I notified him in writing to fix the property and listed everything. Just found out about the electric today from electric company. But I definitely learned a lesson. But does he have a chance in court?

A chance in court to stay?   Hardly.  Make certain you bring up the power stealing business in court. 

And speaking of that, what do you plan on doing about this now?   The electric company should be shutting off the power until the tenant can pay what they owe.

Gail

Well with the electric I known I can't do anything now but I wanted to use it to help my case for eviction. I have to get an electrician out there to make sure the house isn't gonna burn down. I Just known in New Jersey tenants have more rights. I know I'm an idiot but I just want to know if there is anything else I can do to ensure they have to leave and there are no loopholes I am gonna be blindsided by.

Get you checkbook out, unfortunately this one is going to cost you. Sounds like they are trashing the house and won't leave until forced out. Sorry this happened to you.

This situation might be a good candidate for cash for keys. There are quite a few forums and articles on this site regarding cash for keys, read into it and see if its an option.

@Jameson Cesar No cash for keys please. That just teaches them they can do this stuff, and get paid for it. Get a lawyer or whatever it takes to get them out for nonpayment of rent. Shut that power off!! Your insurance may balk on a claim if they find out you let the power stay on with substandard wiring in place. Tell the electrical company there is un-inspected wiring in the house, and your worried about a fire. After they are gone you will need to get it rent ready. When it's ready go find a Property manager to place your next tenants. Proper vetting might have saved you a bundle here. You would have a damage deposit had a professional handled this from the start. The school of hard knocks is expensive. You should learn from this as much as you can because its costing a bundle. RR

You still have insurance right? That will be handy should anything worse happens. I hope you win your case and these fleabags can leave.

@Jameson Cesar there is a lot of good advice here but please take the time and do some research yourself. Not everyone here seems to be aware of NJ laws, I would suggest you contact an attorney to make sure you are covered. 

I'm a landlord here in New Jersey myself and these are some of the things I abide by for all my rental properties:

1. Never take a tenant without a security deposit.

2. File for eviction the day after their rent is considered late - My goal is not to evict tenants but to cover myself in case situations like this arise. Court takes months at times so it is wise to file right away and if the tenant is able to come up with the full rent amount prior to the court date, then I cancel the court day and move on. 

I also make sure I tell them my process during my screening process this way they are aware what till happen if they are late. Once you provide some flexibility to a tenant, not all, but I feel many will take advantage of that. 

There is so much going on in your case that I would just recommend you to go to court with an attorney to make sure this is taken care of the proper way, there are things that some tenants can use against you to convince the judge to stay for longer.  

Wish you best of luck! Hope everything goes well on your court day.  Whatever you do, don't miss the court day, or everything gets reset, and you have to start the process all over again.  At least that's how it is here in Newark, Bloomfield, Essex county - NJ. 

I agree with @Moises Mari get an attorney. It's not worth it at this point, since it is so close to the 23rd, but you could call the city and tell them what is going on. They then can send an inspector out to condemn the house. It will require you to do some work to the house once they are gone, but desperate times they are!

They are in a month to month lease and it stipulates that we only need 30 days notice to take back property.

@Jameson Cesar , month to month, 1 year lease, in my experience, in court, there is not much difference when a tenant decides to not pay rent.  I evicted 1 year lease tenants and month to month tenants with very similar approaches.  They both require you to file for eviction, they both take just as long to show up in court, same attorney fees, same eviction fees, and in my experience, same outcome in similar time-frames.  As I said, get an attorney, they would know NJ law better than anyone investor here.  Good luck!

Thanks for the help and advice everyone.

@Jameson Cesar I feel your pain and hope everything works out for you.

@Moises Mari If you don't mind me asking, approximately how much are attorney fees and eviction fees in a case like this?  Just want to have an idea in case it happens to me.  Thank you in advance.

@Jameson Cesar

While you do have a lot going on, it sounds like you filed for non payment of rent correct? This is the most cut and dry eviction there is in NJ. And this is what you will need to evict them for when you go to court. Everything else is in material for your court date. I would provide proof of what is going on inside your home and present this in court as well but hopefully you won't need to go there. If they show up you will meet with a mediator who will try to work out resolution at which time you should state you do not want to work anything out. HOw much back rent do they owe you? Please be aware in theory if they show up to court will full back rent Etc. judge and or mediator can allow them to stay in which case you should then show them the illegal activities taking place and damage to your house

They most likely won't show up to court (hopefully) and you will automatically win the judgment for possession. You than will have to wait 3 business days to file the warrant for removal (assuming they will not voluntarily move on there own....

Once the Warrant for removal is filed you will get a call to schedule lockout and hopefully can put this behind you and start to repair your house.

Good luck and keep us updated on the 23rd.. IF you need further advice fel free to PM me I have been through the eviction process for non payment a handful of times....

thx,

Chris

@Andres M. eviction attorney fees vary, some charge $500 all the way to $1,300.  I'm sure you can find even higher fees, but that's what I have seen around here, (Essex, Hudson, Bergen County NJ).  I have never had to go back to court a second time but I heard some attorneys charge another $200-$400 for second appearances, others incorporate a few appearances in their original fee. 

@Moises Mari Thank you for the info.

Stop working with the tenant. Send them a notice to quit and file eviction with the county. Bring a copy of the lease and other evidence of their breach of contract. You should be fine.

@Moises Mari

I had a question regarding your eviction filings. You state that you file for eviction the day after rent is late. It is my understanding that you cannot file for eviction for habitually late rent payments without first serving 2 prior notices to tenants.

Can you clarify your process?

thx!

Chris

Hello @Jameson Cesar .

That is a rough one.

Just a clarification - you said the power was shut off in June so were they stealing it from another line to the home/another home/jumper around the meter?

If getting them out is critical, don't risk doing this yourself.  Get an eviction attorney involved and make sure you don't waste the day in court on the 23rd (and maybe start the clock ticking again).

In the end, it will just be a costly lesson.

Bob

@Chris Mason  quick question, whats the time-frame on sending these notices? How far apart do these notices have to be? Just trying to understand where this information came from.

As I have disclosed several times in this thread, it's good to get an attorney to clear up any questions you guys may have as they will know much more than any investor here about NJ landlord and tenant law.

  
I'll be glad to clarify, I start the process, paperwork, attorney selection, etc.. You have to have a system in place so you are not scrambling to get things in order at that stage.  Many start asking what to do 2 months into the late rent. The day is late I text and leave a voicemail, if I get any response I usually reach out to see what realistic outcome we can come up with, but I usually require some type of full payment within a few days otherwise I proceed further.  I have never allowed it to expand 1-2-3 weeks without having started any type of process. As I mentioned, please reach out to an attorney to deal with evictions as they can get messy if you make a wrong turn in the process.    

Originally posted by @Moises Mari :

@Chris Mason quick question, whats the time-frame on sending these notices? How far apart do these notices have to be? Just trying to understand where this information came from.

As I have disclosed several times in this thread, it's good to get an attorney to clear up any questions you guys may have as they will know much more than any investor here about NJ landlord and tenant law.

  
I'll be glad to clarify, I start the process, paperwork, attorney selection, etc.. You have to have a system in place so you are not scrambling to get things in order at that stage.  Many start asking what to do 2 months into the late rent. The day is late I text and leave a voicemail, if I get any response I usually reach out to see what realistic outcome we can come up with, but I usually require some type of full payment within a few days otherwise I proceed further.  I have never allowed it to expand 1-2-3 weeks without having started any type of process. As I mentioned, please reach out to an attorney to deal with evictions as they can get messy if you make a wrong turn in the process.    

 @Chris Masons

the power was shut off June 20th. The electric company went out there the other day cause there was usage when it should be off. Tenant took the meter off and jumped it.

The electric company should file charges for theft of electric .