Owning and renting properties can be a lucrative primary or side business, but being a landlord comes with its challenges, particularly troublesome tenants. Perhaps you purchased a piece of real estate with the intention of renting it out to make some extra income but are having problems with your tenant and want to know your options.
The eviction process in New Jersey is generally the same whether you are renting to a commercial or residential tenant. You must follow specific rules and procedures to terminate a lease and evict a tenant. The first is giving the tenant notice before terminating the lease.
Why notice is so important
The type and length of notice you must give depends on various factors, such as the reason you want to evict and the specific terms of the lease. Your lease may require you to give a certain notice before filing for eviction with a court.
However, New Jersey law allows you to go straight to court and file for eviction without notice for the tenant’s failure to pay rent. To succeed at an eviction hearing for failure to pay rent, you should show that you have not habitually accepted late rent from the tenant in the past, as the tenant could assert this as a defense.
Additionally, lack of proper notice is a commonly asserted defense against landlords. You might be able to prove a tenant’s breach of the lease, such as repeated late rent payment, but your case could still be dismissed if you did not give proper notice under the law.
Generally, cases dismissed for lack of proper notice are dismissed without prejudice, meaning that you can serve the client proper notice and then file for eviction again.
As you can imagine, this is a huge waste of time and money. If you are unsure of what type of notice you must provide, talk with a professional to make sure your eviction is legal from the start.
Next steps after an eviction hearing
If you win your eviction hearing, you do not get to physically remove your tenant that same day. There are time periods you must wait out, such as an appeal period. If no appeal is filed, you may request an eviction order.
Your tenant is served with the order by a law enforcement officer, who also physically removes the tenant on the date and time specified in the order.
The one step you should never take is simply locking out your tenant or evicting them on your own without a court order. This is called a “self-help” eviction and is illegal.
Although your tenant may have legitimately breached the lease or the lease term has terminated, you must still go through the above steps and obtain an eviction order before the tenant can be physically removed from your property.
If you engage in self-help eviction, the tenant has a right to file an injunction against you. A court can grant the injunction, requiring you to allow the tenant back into the property unless and until you go through the legal eviction process and obtain an order for possession against them.
A self-help eviction could come with a huge cost
Although not all tenants may know of their right against self-help eviction, you should not count on this, especially with commercial tenants who are running a business.
A tenant may sometimes just leave if you lock them out or prevent them from accessing the property, but if they file an injunction against you, this is going to cost you more time and money than if you had just gone through the legal eviction process.