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Move. Once it has gotten ugly with the landlord, there is no winning. Best case: you reduce the amount of rent increase... but you're still stuck living in a bad atmosphere.
I would be surprised that the OP can't fight for this. Almost all things can be pro-rated. For example, if you have no cable service for 4 days, your cable provider must pro-rate your monthly bill to take this into account -- same with gas, electric, etc.
No service = no charge. If the property was inhabitable, then the OP should have a legal right to get credit towards this. I wonder if the OP was forced to stay in a hotel, that those hotel bills could be submitted for payment by the landlord. At least in theory. Though "law" and theory" are often two different things...
Except leases are viewed differently by the law then contracted services. If you lease a car and the engine blows up under warranty they don't reimburse you for loss of use while the engine is being replaced beyond any coverages for loaner/rental vehicles provided by the manufacturers warranty. When you lease a property, you are not contracting a service, you are basically "purchasing use of the property" for a set time period.
The landlord certainly has obligations to uphold and those can be legally enforced and can include the witholding of rent until a situation is corrected. However, none of that supercedes the basic contract without extreme cause, like the building burned down and is completely destroyed. Even then, if the tenant caused the fire, they must still pay what they owe on the lease. If the fire did not destroy the unit completely the tenant may still be held to the provisions of the lease including term and payments. While in that situation, the landlord would have to pay for alternate housing until repairs were completed (assuming it's not the tenants fault for the damange), but the tenant would still owe the landlord their contracted rent payment for the original property during that time.
Basically, renting a house/apartment is not legally akin to having cable service. Whether one wants to think it's "right" or not, is immaterial, this is what the law is, which in NJ is actually very tenant favorable. What I don't understand is why exactly did the OP not take any action for the two months they had no heat? When they didn't have heat is when the law is actually on their side and remedies exist. Here's a quick question for you...
Do you think that the OP can honestly prove that they did not have functioning heat in their home for the two months they claim?.......exactly.
Yeah; I agree with you NJGOAT. The time to take action would have been during the time period that the OP didn't have heat.
Though, if the OP has any email correspondence with the landlord, and in that correspondence, the landlord acknowledges the lack of heat (or, maybe even the time-stamped email from the tenant to the landlord would be enough), the OP should have some type of case, and could possibly take the landlord to small claims court.
Either way, I agree with everyone else that the tenant should definitely move out and find another place. It can only get worse from here...
Yeah; I agree with you NJGOAT. The time to take action would have been during the time period that the OP didn't have heat.
Though, if the OP has any email correspondence with the landlord, and in that correspondence, the landlord acknowledges the lack of heat (or, maybe even the time-stamped email from the tenant to the landlord would be enough), the OP should have some type of case, and could possibly take the landlord to small claims court.
Either way, I agree with everyone else that the tenant should definitely move out and find another place. It can only get worse from here...
When you didn't have heat is definitely the time to act. I also agree that the tenant should just look at moving to a different place.
On the email thing, I don't know how much that would be worth in the long run. The law pretty much states that all official correspondence and notices should be handled via certified mail. That is what provides proof that the landlord was notified of an issue. So, anyone who is renting or who is a landlord, email to talk about regular issues is fine, but when it comes to major things like lease renewal, failure to maintain, etc. the only proof of notice the court will generally accept is certified mail.
i have been living in my apartment since 2007. this year me and my landlord got into it because she is suppose to supply heat and i had no heat for the month of november and december. i decided to call the police because my power also kept shutting off and i maintained heat in my house through electric heater and my oven, this use to be a one family house and she is the only one who can get to the breaker since it is located in her basement. no one answered the door but my kids knew someone was home because they had the music on, which lead me to call the police. in retaliation she now wants me to sign a lease where my rent will be $1500. i am paying $1150. can she raise me by $350???? Please help.
I would suggest you speak with a local, real estate lawyer. The Nov./Dec. heat and power issues are one thing. The lawyer may tell you that you are in a position to request a credit of some sort. Do you have a record or calling her when this happened? Each time it happend? Did you email her? Write her? You should have. There should be a strong paper trail documenting when and what happened. This makes your "case" much stronger. On the contrary, it doesn't look good if you went two months (or most of two months) without heat and didn't say anything. Calling the police is one documented action. Have a record of any and all communication, steps, and whatever else you did and show it to the lawyer.
The rent increase is another issue. There might be rent control/vacancy decontrol, or no limit as to increases. Let the expert (the lawyer) tell you. I don't know if anything can be done if this is "retaliation" as you call it. If there is rent control then the rent can only be increased a certain amount (a stipulated percentage, or CPI, or perhaps some other specific).
You can object to retaliatory rent increases or excessive rent increases. Each state has a Tenant handbook
I Google searched (Renters handbook New Jersey) and got the following link http://www.lsnjlaw.org/publications/...antsrights.pdf
You can object to retaliatory rent increases or excessive rent increases. Each state has a Tenant handbook
I Google searched (Renters handbook New Jersey) and got the following link http://www.lsnjlaw.org/publications/...antsrights.pdf
While your advice is valid, you are responding to somebody who posted her question more than 2 1/2 years ago, and has never returned to this forum. I think it is likely that she either moved from that apartment or resolved her issues with the landlord long ago.
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Rent increase amount
