New Jersey Tenants Lease NEVER ends?

Question

I have 3 properties lease out, great tenants, though i am considering selling based on the appreciations.

I started to read about end of lease, and how to approach the sale.

I read something that stated, even if the lease is not renewed, the tenant can stay month to month indefinitely.  The only way to evict would be if they stop paying.

Now, I might have read it in a way that you cant just evict if you want to re-rent, what If i want to sell the property, the lease states i will give the tenant 90 days notice if the property sells.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Shawn Mcenteer · Answer

@Michael P.  When the leases expire do not renew them.  In NJ any lease that is not renew goes month to month with existing lease terms in place.   When you market you property having tenants month to month will be enough to make your property desirable for investors. You can give notice to let tenants know you plan to not renew and ask them to leave, I have only had to do this once and it was tenants I acquired they already were month to month.  I made sure to get my attorney involved, we gave them 60 days notice and they left.

Are these properties multi family?

Andrew B. · Answer

There is a short list of reasons that you must use to justify asking a tenant to leave your property in NJ. I recommend googling "NJ Truth in Renting" and reading up some of that material. It should outline when you're able to end lease.

Anjali L. · Answer

@Scott M. I don’t think this applies to Nj

Scott M. · Answer

30/45/60 days prior to lease end (Whatever your state requires or more) serve notice to the tenant that you are not going to renew their lease and at the end of the term they must vacate.

If you don't vacate you evict for possession, not money.

Patrick M. · Answer

And that ladies and gentlemen is why a successful NJ landlord is the best damn screener in the US.

Notify them that you are moving in at the end of the month.

Tchaka Owen · Answer

@Michael P. - there's some decent advice below but I'm not convinced they're fully accurate. The suggestion to Google is probably the best. Here's my experience with NJ (from the beginning of this year). A good friend (who is also a real estate client here) had a non-paying tenant in his NJ home. She found every excuse in the book....job, Covid, etc, etc....and even though my friend had a ratified sales contract, she legally did not have to leave. Ie, someone buying it did not mean she had to move out....NJ is THAT tenant-friendly. Then I read in that she'd have to move out if the buyer intended to occupy (which was the case). I state this because I'm not convinced the current owner can kick out the tenant if intending to occupy; I just know that it applies upon sale. In your case, just be sure to let any buyer know that s/he must be an owner-occupant and you're golden. Good luck!

Ishmael Johnson · Answer

NJ is also under rent control so it can only be raised to a certain amount. Even if raising to market rate which is always ideal the units have to resemble the other units in the area which are at market rate. Which is the difficult part cause you can’t make renovations while the tenants are occupying the space. Dion McNeely prob has one of the best methods with his Binder technique.

Michael P. · Answer

unconscionable, is understood, i read the laws, raising rent is the way.  basically says if they agree, or disagree, if disagree they have to specify when they are vacating the home.

Matt M. · Answer

@Michael P.

In my leases it states 30 says notice if we decide to sell.

And I’m literally 6 minutes from Nj into Pa, and NJ laws are why I won’t buy anything there. Not to mention the taxes..

Scott Carlson · Answer

Michael, you are correct. In NJ if the tenant does not wish to vacate after their lease expires and continues to pay, you cannot remove them from the property. They either need to stop paying or violate the terms of the lease. If you did want a tenant out, you could try raising the rent which only requires 30 days notice if they are month to month. But you do have to be careful, somewhere there in the law is a section that says the raise in rent cannot be 'unconscionable'. There is no further definition as to what will be considered unconscionable.

As Ishmael pointed out the only exception to this (that I am aware of) is for owner occupants.

Of course cash for keys is always an option as well.

New Jersey Tenants Lease NEVER ends?

Most Popular Reply