All Forum Posts by: John M Chludzinski

Hi, Ryan:  What type of property is it, and in what town?  

I am not a lawyer, but if you tried to enforce such a provision by evicting someone who wants to stay and has not broken any other provision of the lease, my opinion is that you will likely not prevail.  That is why the statute is there - to tell you what grounds for eviction exist.  "because I want them out" is not permissible grounds for eviction in NJ.  "because I want to do a more thorough background check" is not permissible grounds.  You as landlord get the permissible reasons for eviction as laid out in the Truth in Renting handbook AND NO OTHERS.  
The best approach is to inform the tenant that if they want to renew the lease for another year, the rent will increase by X amount - and it must not be an unconcionably large amount or violate the rent control laws - and if they agree to the increase, they stay.

Depending your state laws, normally you would find a bank account that is active for that company and then serve that bank with your copy of the judgement to levy the funds in the account.  One way to find out which bank the company was doing business under is to look at what bank cashed your check to the company.  The bank and account number should be on the cancelled check back.  Good luck!

Yikes - the new law forces landlords to accept tenants with a 500 credit core!  We usually do not accept anyone under 650!

I respectfully disagree that the "dueling report" scenario where you get your expert and she gets her expert  and they you get more experts will solve anything.  You should never "guarantee" anything.  In fact, I would go the other way IF you have tenants that purchase their own appliances,  have them acknowledge that your are specifically NOT responsible for provision of utilities like electricity.  But once you are in your situation, stop all discussion after giving her the "electrician's report that he checked the circuit and it is fine" and let her do what she wants - buy a new one, buy a used one, buy nothing and go to a laundromat.   

I recommend you consult your title company.  IF the encroachment is clearly shown on the survey that was done at the time you purchased the property, there will likely be an exception to your title coverage that you agreed to at the time of purchase, and this line of action will not help you.  BUT if the survey and title insurance policy did NOT show the encroachment at the time of purchase, and the encroachment was discovered AFTER the time of purchase, you MIGHT have an action against your title insurer.  In essence, you would make a claim on your title policy, and then the title insurer would take over negotiating with the neighbor, paying the cost to relocate the post, etc.  Good luck.

Hmnnn.. the sistering sounds right, the girder seems a bit high, but the columns seem too high to me.  Try E&G Contracting of South Amboy for another quote.  They are primarily a termite company, but they do contracting jobs too like this.  You can google them or pm me for contact info.

Abdul:

On the outside, your downspout extensions look good - they are nice and long.  

The deck is not really going to affect how much water comes down against your foundation, but the hill in the back is likely sending surface water and snowmelt towards your house, so if you pulled up the paver patio and added some fill, then poured a solid concrete patio sloped away from the house, that would help quite a bit.

Inside, you will NEVER get rid of the efflorescense no matter what you do in or outside of the foundation.  I would bet that block was tarred with a waterproof mastic coating before the ground was backfilled around it.  To confirm, take a trowel and dig down about 1-2 feet below the topsoil along the outside basement foundation walls (you might not have to go even this far). You will see a layer of black tarlike substance painted on the foundation.  I'll bet you a beer it is there.  That is sealing to SOME DEGREE your foundation from water intrusion. If this is in place, you will likely see no improvement from any other efforts outside.

I believe, knowing Monroe and most of the developments, your basement slab was installed with a french drain under the slab already.  Look around the basement and find out if you have a circular sump pump well already installed in the basement.  I think I can see in the photos you have the typical 1 inch gap between the floor and the foundation walls. If this gap is in place all around the basement, it was designed to capture any moisture that does penetrate the foundation walls.  The water rolls down into the 1 inch channel, and runs to the sump pump well, where a pump takes it out.  If you don't have that well installed, you can have a company come and cut one for a much smaller cost (like $1000 with pump) and in doing so they can confirm you have the french drain under the slab already installed.  it was common for your age house to have the pipe for the drain installed before the slab was poured.  It is only if your builder did not pre-install the drain pipe that the cost should climb up to the $8000-$12,000 figure you mentioned.  

Even with such a system, the efflorescense is going to be with you as long as you own the house, and you should just forget it is there once you install the finished walls in the basement. Block is porous and water will always be in it to some degree.

Good luck!

My condolences.  Not being a smartass here, but you were taken.  I always recommend you MEET your lender's rep face to face.  Trust is a big part of the process, and these online only lenders kind of make me leery. 

I like the waterproof vinyl for hallways and foyers where people track in snow and rain in these northern areas...