NJ Lease Issues (apartment, breaking a lease, tenant, renter)
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I am trying to help a friend get out of his lease and it seems his agreement with the LL is confusing and may be illegal. The original lease was signed in September of 2011 and was renewed every year by the terms of the lease which state if the Tenant does not respond to the renewed lease within 30 days the lease is verified by the Tenant and LL. Although my friend has continued with this patterned we are wondering if it is actually legal to have a lease only signed by the LL and not by the tenant? Is the tenant not responding to the renewal lease by a certain amount of time enough for the lease to be legal?
Our next issue is the LL has not refunded the interest made from the security deposit since my friend first moved into this apartment. Does the LL need to state in the lease that they will or is this common NJ law? My friend was also never shown where the security deposit was deposited or the current balance since 2011.
Every year the LL has asked my friend for a $35 “lease renewal fee.” Is this common? The LL is not a broker.
I completely understand that my friend should have responded to the renewed lease and should have taken this more seriously. Unfortunately they did not and now we are wondering what we can do.
In NJ, on a lease renewal, only the lessor needs sign. NJ does require that lease renewals operate in a particular manner as far as the notice, the leases, the review period and the objection period. If the landlord operated within the time periods, the lease is considered renewed unless the tenant is able to show that they never received any notice and/or communications on lease renewals, so they had absolutely no idea it was renewed. If the tenant paid a "lease renewal fee" each time, they can't claim they knew nothing about it.
So, your friend need competent legal advice because all fingers point to a legitimate valid lease renewal.
While talking to your new legal representative, ask them about the security deposit interest, I understand certain landlords (over certain units rented) must state where the money is, the interest earned, and refund interest each year. But, since the law only lets them "invest" it in secure instruments, most pay nothing on small deposits.
I don't think your friend has any legal basis to break the lease without penalty. However, NJ landlords do have to make an effort to mitigate their losses by re-renting the unit or, if the lease has an early termination clause, that's another option. If there is no early termination clause your friend can discuss it with the landlord to see if a mutually satisfying compromise can be reached. The penalty in an early termination clause is usually equal to two month's rent.
Interest on the security deposit? My bank is paying 0.005% on pass book savings. My income tax certificate from the bank shows I'd earned 48 cents for the year and there is a lot more in there than the amount of a security deposit. It hardly seems worth making a fuss over.
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