What's NJ law on Tenants Abandonment? (apartment, rental, eviction)

[magron]

Tenants stayed over Notice to Vacate, landlord filed eviction complaint, then after one month, just shortly before the court date, for a couple of days, tenants moved most of the things and furnitures out, including bed, sofa, TV, etc, although there might be some small, invaluable things left behind. Then after that, suddenly there is no one physically in the unit, obviously there is no one live there, tenants car no longer seen around. But tenants left all lights on, windows open, heat full on, tenants just went disappeared. BTW, the utilites are under tenant's name.

So what should the landlord do in this case? Can landlord reenter the unit, assume tenants has abandoned the rental property and reclaim? What is the proper procedure the landlord need to do in order to reclaim the property? Does the landlord still need to go to the eviction court?

[reenzz]

Did tenants return the keys?

[Retriever]

Originally Posted by magron

obviously there is no one live there

More importantly, is there anyone dead there?
If so, you need to phone the police immediately.

[magron]

The tenants left the keys in the apartment.

[Blackjack2000]

I don't know what the legal answer is, but if the tenants left after being given notice to vacate, it wouldn't even occur to me to do anything but take possession of the unit.

[jaymoney]

Yeah, I'm with Blackjack2000. At most I might call the local police and have them come with when I entered, to give it at least a pretense of legality (and to make sure there wasn't a body or something you could be blamed for), but if they left the keys in the place the assumption would be that you need to enter to get them back.