Articles Tagged with Middlesex

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We are in a difficult and uncertain time and I hope everyone is staying safely at home.  In the meantime, our office has been receiving daily updates from the New Jersey Supreme Court and the Legislature, concerning delays in Court dates and filing deadlines.  We have been trying to forward this information to our clients as it becomes available.  On March 19, 2020, Chief Justice Rabner signed an Order delaying the filing deadline for local property tax appeals from April 1 to a new date, which will be scheduled for 30 days following the determination that the state of emergency declared by Governor Murphy has ended.

Accordingly, if you believe your property is substantially over-assessed, and you are concerned that you may miss the April 1 filing deadline, you may still have plenty of time to file your appeal.  However, please note that the delay of the filing deadline will only apply to Tax Appeal filings where the filing deadline would have been April 1 or later.  It will not apply to those matters in which the due date for the filing was before the signing of the Court’s Order.   For instance, if your property is in Monmouth County, where the County Tax Board’s filing deadline was changed to January 15, you will not be able to file an appeal with the County Tax Board at that time.  However, if your property’s assessment exceeds $1 Million, we can still appeal the assessment directly to the Tax Court.

 
Coronavirus Related Valuation Arguments Will Not Be Successful In 2020 Tax Appeals

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Our office remains open and we are closely monitoring the quickly developing effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.  During the past few days, we have received several calls from our clients, who concerned about the effects of the moratorium on evictions.  As resources become available and new information is released, we will keep you up to date.  In the meantime, we are aware that there is a lot of seemingly conflicting information regarding delays in evictions.  In this article, we will explain the details of some of the new temporary laws that may affect our clients during the next few months. 

Filing and Scheduling Eviction Hearings

During this time, we can still file eviction actions and enter into payment agreements with tenants.  While eviction hearing dates have been slightly delayed during this emergency, these delays are precautionary due to social distancing requirements, and is not related to economic factors.  Therefore, we expect that the New Jersey Courts will resume conducting eviction hearings as soon as it is deemed safe to resume public gatherings.

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Tenants who smoke in their apartments and in the common areas of their apartment buildings presents a major problem for landlords of multiple dwelling buildings. Inevitably, the smoke from one apartment will leak into neighboring apartments, leading to complaints and possible move-outs from non-smoking tenants, who generally find the smell of cigarette smoke to be abhorrent.  This problem has been largely vitiated, however, as the use of cigarettes has declined substantially during last 30 years.  Unfortunately, the New Jersey legislature will soon create a new problem since it has introduced new legislation to legalize marijuana.  Unlike the other states that have enacted the similarly misguided legislation to legalize marijuana during the last five years, New Jersey has the unique problem of having a significant portion of its population living in multiple dwellings.  Marijuana smoke, like tobacco smoke, causes a substantial annoyance to those who do not choose to use these harmful products.

Historically, the legislature has allowed for the eviction of a tenant for the mere use of marijuana or any illicit drugs in the residential dwelling.  N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1(n) provides for the eviction of a tenant who “hasbeenconvictedoforpleadedguiltyto… anactwhich… wouldconstituteanoffenseundertheComprehensive DrugReformActof1987…involvingtheuse,possession,manufacture,dispensingor distributionofacontrolleddangeroussubstance.”  Similarly, N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1(p) allows for evictions for the same offense, even without a conviction, provided that the offense can be proven by the preponderance of evidence in the landlord tenant action.

However, when marijuana becomes legal, the curative provisions of N.J.S.A 2A:18-61.1, which have been designed, in part, to avoid the problem caused by tenants who use marijuana, will no longer be actionable.  Put simply, a landlord cannot evict a tenant for using a drug, which is no longer illegal.  Therefore, landlords must immediately consider writing new lease provisions in order to avoid these problems before they happen.

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