Living as a tenant can be tough sometimes. There are plenty of rules that you need to follow. But what are your rights as a tenant in NJ? New Jersey is a state where a lot of people rent apartments. This is because a lot of people who live in New Jersey are young people working on their careers. And if you are a tenant your self, knowing your rights is very important because a lot of the times landlords aren’t so nice and they might make small things into huge problems for you. This is where you can read all you need to know before renting an apartment in New Jersey.
Civil Rights and Fair Housing
As a person, you have civil rights. And because certain things were happening in the past, the Federal law protects all individuals from housing-related civil rights violations. This law is called the Fair Housing Act. This law prohibits landlords from refusing housing to or mistreatment of tenants based on sex, nationality, race, familial status, disability, or religion. There is also a law that goes by the name The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. This law states that landlords can’t make leasing decisions based on race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, and many other things. Have all this in mind before you move to NJ with kids.
Eviction
You can always get evicted from your rented apartment. But what can the landlord evict you for? Your landlord can evict you if you fail to pay the rent on time. As you must sign the lease agreement, if you repeatedly violate it, you can be evicted. You can also be evicted if you commit an illegal act on the property. If you stay inside the home even after the expiration of a lease contract, the landlord can evict you. That is if you haven’t had a different agreement.
If you make a lot of noise and you disturb the landlord or other people in the building, your landlord can also evict you. Lastly, if you destroy the property your landlord can decide to evict you from the home you are renting. Have all these things in mind and if your landlord wants to evict you based on any other things, he is violating your tenant rights.
Habitability
As a human being, you need to live in habitable conditions. And if your landlord didn’t provide you with that, you can take him to court. This is a very common claim in court. Under New Jersey law, you have to make sure that you maintain and preserve the landlord’s property as well as possible. Your landlord is the one who must repair damages caused by normal wear and tear and not you. This is what most landlords do – they make tenants pay for the things that get broken or damaged while they live there. But in reality, it shouldn’t be like that. One of the reasons why you should move to NJ from NYC is the fact that landlords in NJ are much better.