Recently sent registered letter lease to tenant; returned undelivered. Prior to mailing lease had both tenants read lease on my PC. It was a year’s lease agreement. Since moving in and paying 1st month’s rent, tenant called on 12th of month asking, “where’s the frigging lease” and, later in the conversation mentioning he hadn’t sent the check, but I would receive it by end of week, even if he had to send it express overnight mail. The check didn’t arrive Friday or Saturday and Monday’s a holiday-the 18th. My plan is to send the “good” tenant a “month to month” lease instead of the original lease they read on my PC. Is there an implied “lease” contract for the original year’s lease, or, because the tenants ignored the post office’s repeated attempts to get the tenant’s to sign for the registered letter either at the door or at the post office, can I now send the tenant/s a month-to-month lease to sign? Also, if they refuse to sign a month-to-month lease does that automatically place them on a month to month rental basis. Note: state of agreement-New Jersey. Any advice will be welcomed. Thank you.
You have no signed lease at this point. Perhaps they could be viewed as trespassers and you may be able to get them out with police assistance. Arguably, however, they are month to month tenants. In that case, you would have to evict them through the summary eviction process of the Superior Court. In actuality, that is the safest way for you to proceed. Under these circumstances, I would not offer them any written lease at all. Better to get rid of this trouble early and now!
Keep in mind that this advice is given based on the little bit of information that you have provided in your question. My advice may change based on other information. Further, no one can rely on advice from an attorney who has not been retained. You cannot rely on this advice because we have not personally met and you have not retained me as an attorney. If you have not already done so, you should immediately meet with an attorney who is experienced in landlord/tenant law for a full consultation before you take any further steps. You may feel free to call me to discuss this matter in more detail. If you do so, mention Law Guru and your first one hour of time will be free. Good luck!
Rob Gleaner
Robert Gleaner
Robert A. Gleaner, P.C.
415 S. White Horse Pike
Audubon, NJ 08106
Unless this is a friend or family member, even if you have never leased a place out before, you must be an idiot! It is pretty simple, you give them a lease IF they sign it and give you rent you give them the key. You just created a big problem for yourself. Any judge is going to assume you were trying to do something shady, like giving them a changed lease, and try to compell them to sign it after they already moved in. If they read it on your computer, you could have e-mailed the lease or just printed it out. Your “story” stinks. Do not expect ANY sympathy from ANY judge. Generaly, a lease or a hold over tenant will be considered a month to month lease. Now, because you were such a bone head, they can sit there until you evict them, and I’d expect a judge, depending on how sympathetic they are to give them a month or two to look for another place to live, and it is unlikly that you will get any sympathy or money. I suggest you get an attorney, who can try to “sell” or “spin” this a little to try to make you less of a target. In the future, do things the right way, and don’t play any games.
Kevin Begley
Kevin J. Begley – Attorney at Law
3010 Bordentown Avenue
Parlin, NJ 08859
It is not to your advantage to have a month-to-month lease with a difficult tenant. New Jersey law makes it hard to evict tenants except for non-payment of rent or really bad behavior. (See my web site for a course that I teach at Camden County College on the subject.) So, if you think that this tenant is going to be trouble, then you may not want to offer a lease at all. That said, I can’t tell from your description whether you have a difficult tenant or if you are just not communicating well. You need to make that decision.
See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm
John Corbett
Corbett Law Firm LLC
303 Walnut Ave.
Evesham, NJ 08053-7016