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MDM

Re: Have you evicted a non-paying tenant in Jersey City/Hudson County?

Home away from home

Quote:

brewster wrote:

Thanks, I''l check it out. Years ago a friend with a large management co gave me a lease but I thought it was over the top aggressive, like not guaranteeing appliances. Have you ever had anyone put off by your lease?

No. My lease isn't that aggressive. I have over time had to put in additional caveats:

No turkey fryers allowed.

Tenant will not demand that "humane" or "organic" pest control methods be used to treat the apartment and / or common areas.

Posted on: 2/12 15:05

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MDM

Re: Have you evicted a non-paying tenant in Jersey City/Hudson County?

Home away from home

Quote:

brewster wrote:
Quote:

MDM wrote:
I have it in my lease that I can collect these costs "As Additional Rent". If you don't have the quoted statement in your lease, you can't demand that these costs be reimbursed in landlord / tenant court.

I need a tighter lease. Where did you get what you use?

I took a generic one from a How to Landlord book I read back in the 1990s. My attorney then reviewed it and made some changes (adding in the "Additional Rent" clauses and revising my late payment penalty fees).

https://www.amazon.com/Landlording-Han ... =1-2&keywords=landlording

Posted on: 2/12 13:45

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MDM

Re: The SUV Phenomenon

Home away from home

Quote:

RichMauro wrote:
I can't understand why--with the tax revenue that surely should be pouring in--the city can't build a number of centrally located low cost or no cost parking desks for residents.

Hoboken did something like that in the early 2000s (but it wasn't low cost). It was an automated parking garage that would stow your car using a lift system. The original plan was to not have attendants. It was to be 100% automated.

The system when it was first implemented kept making headlines of having destroyed people cars. One example I remember is some poor guy's trunk opened up and the lifting system caught it and launched his car off the lift, dropping it down multiple stories.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/nyr ... -a-garage-goes-wrong.html

https://hoboken411.com/archives/87561

Posted on: 2/12 12:41

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MDM

Re: Have you evicted a non-paying tenant in Jersey City/Hudson County?

Home away from home

I did an eviction about 8 years ago. I took them to court multiple times, but couldn't evict because they would come up with the money on the court date, including court and my attorney costs. I have it in my lease that I can collect these costs "As Additional Rent". If you don't have the quoted statement in your lease, you can't demand that these costs be reimbursed in landlord / tenant court.

The final court visit, they did a no-show and I was given a default judgement to have them evicted. The eviction process takes a while. The Sheriffs office will "take possession" of the apartment by changing the locks. The tenant will then have to arrange to pick up their personal items. After a certain time (don't recall the length) the Sheriffs office can move the personal items out of the apartment to the curb. Once the tenant's possessions are gone, the apartment is returned to the landlord.

The tenants in my case did a midnight move-out, which made the Sheriff intervention unnecessary.

Years before that, I took another tenant to court over a dispute over repairs and rent. My attorney informed me that unless the tenant put the rent into an escrow account, the court will not look kindly on the tenant's claims. In this case, never made it in front of the judge. The tenant, after consulting an attorney, paid up.

Posted on: 2/12 11:58

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MDM

Re: The SUV Phenomenon

Home away from home

Quote:

Test drive a Soul. Great car, dirt cheap, and the base model comes with tons of stuff like bluetooth that's higher trim on other cars. You'll swear there's a spacewarp that makes it bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. It's wide, so you can probably get 2 kid seats in plus another passenger. I know we had 2 boosters and another kid. Plus you can get nice aftermarket roof rails and shlep sheets of plywood or drywall.
/quote]

I'll check it out. I have a bias against Korean made cars I need to reconsider (from several bad experiences many years ago). Right now I have been looking at used mini vans, just in case we end up with twins (albeit very unlikely).

Posted on: 2/1 10:02

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MDM

Re: The SUV Phenomenon

Home away from home

Having multiple little kids is another reason to get one.

If you have more than kid that requires a car seat, forget about driving something like a small hatchback.

Car seats have gotten so beefed up, you could probably drop a kid from orbit in one, and he would survive. The downside is they take up a lot of room. Add to the fact that in NJ, the car seat has to be rear facing until age two**. This takes up even more room.

I am looking at turning in my trusty, easy to park, wonderfully easy to drive hatchback if/when #2 kid comes along. If I put two car seats in my existing vehicle, the driver seat will be too forward for me to fit in the car (I am not a tall dude).

So it will be minivan, crossover, or SUV.

**NJ allows front facing before 2 if the kid is 30lbs or more. There is however, no exception granted for height. My poor kid knees are in his chest as a result. He is super tall for his age.

Posted on: 1/31 14:09

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MDM

Re: New Jersey-New York area lost 5,700 millionaires in 2018

Home away from home

What happens when one billionaire moves to Florida: David Tepper blew a hole in the state budget.

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/ ... budgeteers_the_audit.html

"Billionaire David Tepper, who Bloomberg estimated is worth $10.6 billion, relocated to Florida last year. Tepper moved his hedge fund, Appaloosa Management, to Florida this year."

"The acting treasurer said he'd read a media account that Tepper's tapping out of New Jersey could produce a $50 million hit to the budget. He didn't remember where he read it.

"This reality -- with such a small segment of the population driving (gross income tax) revenues and so much of the revenue collected so late in the fiscal year -- creates heightened volatility in tax receipts, severely increasing the complexity of the annual budgeting process," he said. "

Posted on: 1/23 10:15

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MDM

Re: Advertising a rental... Craigslist not working so well now

Home away from home

Quote:

brewster wrote:
You gotta trust your gut. I rented a place to a nice couple that I thought might be high maintenance, but it got the place filled quickly. Oh...regrets!

I had a single woman in her early 30s that my gut said she would be an issue. But the rent market was terrible and I was in a financial rough patch. So I rented to her...

I did Snoopy dances the day she told me she was moving out. Mentally, the woman was a dumpster fire and getting rent from her was a Herculean effort at times. Nothing like having her setup direct deposit and still only getting $7.68 in rent for the month.

Posted on: 1/21 21:43

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MDM

Re: Advertising a rental... Craigslist not working so well now

Home away from home

Quote:

JoeGee wrote:
Just wondering why you do not use a realtor? They perform background checks and charge the tenant the fee.

The people who are willing to pay a one month fee are generally not looking for apartments in the areas that my buildings are (not Downtown or in Hoboken). I have generally found realtors to be rather worthless.

Posted on: 1/21 15:52

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MDM

Advertising a rental... Craigslist not working so well now

#10

Home away from home

Anyone here have an issue with Craigslist these days? I listed an apartment, but it seems to not come up in a search, even though the ad is confirmed to be active.

What are good alternatives to list a rental?

Posted on: 1/20 16:27

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MDM

Re: A new N.J. bar’s dress code was called racist. The owner says it was ‘an oversight.’

#11

Home away from home

Years ago when I lived near West Side Avenue, a local bar had a dress code posted that said something along the lines of "no hoodies, no gang attire, no pants without belts" etc..

Basically it was "no gang bangers".

Posted on: 1/16 13:02

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MDM

Re: Old plans for PATH station

#12

Home away from home

Quote:

bodhipooh wrote:

Would LOVE to see pictures of this. I wonder if it is similar to the City Hall station that is off limits to the public but which still retains a lot of the original details, including great skylights and windows.

Hoboken Reporter used to have a whole bunch of photos. Today however, you get a 404 error.

Posted on: 1/14 12:52

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MDM

Re: Would MTA be a better operator for PATH? And other ideas...

#13

Home away from home

Quote:

brewster wrote:

I agree a gondola makes more sense.

How about a Slingshot?

Posted on: 1/9 15:58

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MDM

Re: PATH (pathetic attempt at transporting humans)

#14

Home away from home

Quote:

hero69 wrote:
good point. perhaps the port authority should look to hong kong for inspiration on running PATH. In hong kong, the transportation authority owns its real estate and uses the cash flow from these properties to subsidize the metro there.

The original H&M railroad owned the office buildings that stood above the original lower Manhattan station. The Port Authority wanted the property.. but not the railroad.

Back in the early 1990s, the PA wanted to be a major waterfront developer. They were supposed to redevelop the Hoboken waterfront (which was rotting piers at the time), but got voted down by Hoboken residents.

No rail transportation using the existing railroad right of way was part of the plan.

Posted on: 1/3 14:42

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MDM

Re: New Jersey to lose three Sears, one Kmart, in latest round of store closings

#15

Home away from home

Looks like Sears is done for as they have received zero bids to buy them out of bankruptcy.

What do you think will replace Sears at the Newport mall?

Posted on: 12/28 15:56

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MDM

Re: Is it true? No Street Sweeping till after 1/1/19?

#16

Home away from home

I think the sweeper went by me about 30 minutes ago. I don't think they are ticketing though. I heard the sweeper but not the BEEP BEEP of the parking authority car.

The landlord next to me does Air B&B and the renters almost never know to move their cars. So I hear the parking authority warning beep constantly.

Posted on: 12/28 10:30

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MDM

JC's trash pickup & recycling budget. Is there an issue?

#17

Home away from home

I have been following the costs of handling municipal waste (related to a project at work). Given that much of Asia has or is banning imports of scrap plastic and paper, a number of municipalities are having their budgets blown out due to skyrocketing disposal costs. In many cases, items that made money (i.e. paper) now cost $100+ per ton to dispose of.

I have read nothing about Jersey City in this regards though. Does anyone here know if JC is facing similar budget issues?

Some background on the situation:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why- ... might-have-no-place-to-go

Posted on: 12/28 10:24

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MDM

Re: Anybody had their fire extinguishers dinged in a green card inspection?

#18

Home away from home

Quote:

tern wrote:
On what grounds are cracked tiles a safety issue?

Robin.

My report had something about "maintaining smooth surfaces". It was written like I had tank trap size holes in the floor.. instead of hairline cracks.

It is just annoying mostly. The financial devastating ruling for me was being ordered to add a fire escape 10 years after being told I didn't need one by DCA. The ruling came at a time when I was really short on $$$$.

Speaking of fire escapes, I have been informed there is a very aggressive fire inspector dinging buildings for lack of fire escapes and requiring that they be retrofitted in 10 days or face fines. The state at least gave me 6 months.

Posted on: 12/18 13:03

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MDM

Re: Anybody had their fire extinguishers dinged in a green card inspection?

#19

Home away from home

None of my inspectors have even mentioned fire extinguishers. I have them in the common areas or in the apartment itself. The moment I have to have inspections done on them (I replace them every few years anyway) they are gone!

I did however have Mr. Cracked Tile fetish who required me to replace a bunch of ceramic floor tiles with hairline cracks in them. Not something I wanted to do considering my tenants didn't have an issue and I long ago ran out of matching tiles.

I also had Mr. Door fetish who wants me to remove a door leading from the common hallway to the garage. I also need to remove a deadbolt (keyed on both sides) on an interior door (not used.. never had a key for it). He was into egress in case of a fire issue. Not sure what is going to be in the report... it has been 6 months since the inspection and the report still isn't filed.

Dept. Of Community Affairs building inspection is a friggin disaster.

Posted on: 12/17 20:41

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MDM

Re: Sweeney proposes slapping payroll tax on Jersey City businesses to fund schools

#20

Home away from home

Quote:

Monroe wrote:
I’ll bet Fulop can’t wait to see 2018 in the rear view mirror, especially given how incompetent Murphy has been in Trenton, let alone the HCDO embarrassment. And the statue.

I suspect Fulop still has ambitions to be governor. Whomever is the next gov will be facing the complete insolvency of the state employee and public teachers pensions.

I am not sure anyone would want to be in charge with the SS NJ slams into that iceberg.

Posted on: 12/13 14:14

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MDM

Re: World Trade Center PATH station to close on weekends through 2020

#21

Home away from home

Quote:

SRhia wrote:
Every time I think they cannot do any worse, they somehow

The Port Authority never wanted the PATH system It is a red-headed step-child they were forced to take on, in order to be allowed to build the original WTC.

Posted on: 12/7 17:18

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MDM

Re: Sweeney proposes slapping payroll tax on Jersey City businesses to fund schools

#22

Home away from home

On a side note:

The State has put a hold / ban on all new charter schools. There is a group that was planning to open a charter based on the Montessori teaching method. Their application got rejected in October.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/18 ... ects-latest-two-hopefuls/

Posted on: 2018/11/28 15:31

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MDM

Re: Jersey City bursting at seams with population surge

#23

Home away from home

Quote:

brewster wrote:

The density around town was tremendously higher, because half of what we consider DT wasn't just lower density,it was railyards and docks.

After the invasion of Japan got cancelled, my Dad received extended leave from the Army. He stayed in Jersey City with a squad mate of his in a Polish section of the city (from his description, I think it was around the Marion section).

He commented on how packed the place was with people, which being a kid from a Colorado farm, was a bit off-putting. The other thing he mentioned was that the sky was so thick with smog / smoke that the upper parts of the Pulaski Skyway would be rendered invisible in the airborne muck.

Posted on: 2018/11/20 8:44

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MDM

Re: Jersey City bursting at seams with population surge

#24

Home away from home

Quote:

The young singles / married folks I know from the neighborhood generally moved when their toddlers grew to school age... or they put them in a private school.

This has been my experience with my tenants. It is either private school or they move to the burbs.

Posted on: 2018/11/19 13:32

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MDM

Re: Jersey City bursting at seams with population surge

#25

Home away from home

In the section of town known as the Gold Coast, there are plenty of luxury high rises but not enough classrooms.

Is there any data publicly available of how many residents of these abated high rises actually send their kids to the JC public schools?

Posted on: 2018/11/18 13:41

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MDM

Re: Recycling Ticket/Court Appearance

#26

Home away from home

Quote:

TheBigGuy wrote:
ALso agree that people just dump stuff on the streets... I have seen crt tv sets and moniters piled on Grand Street.

This never made sense to me since all it takes is a phone call to schedule the pickup of electronics.

Posted on: 2018/11/10 14:48

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MDM

Re: Recycling Ticket/Court Appearance

#27

Home away from home

I ended up in Muni court a few times for the same thing. It was tenants putting trash out at the wrong time or some random person dumping stuff in front of my property.

The last time I had a tenant who's mother kept putting trash randomly on the curb. Her mind wasn't all there, so talking to her didn't solve the issue.

Normally, I "plead guilty with an explanation". Previous times, the judge would wave court costs and hit me with the minimum fine. This last time, the judge had me first talk to the prosecutor before accepting my plea (the problem being "with explanation"). The prosecutor checked that I was not a habitual offender and dropped the charges.

If you don't show up, a bench warrant will be issued for you. Not sure if you can get out of having to show up for court.

Posted on: 2018/11/9 14:57

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MDM

Re: window replacement - historic district

#28

Home away from home

*sigh*

I don't have the time or the $$$ to fight this now. I have deteriorated door mouldings (circa 1980s) and a rusted out railing (same) as well. Going to leave them 'as is' with some minor repairs. Not going to touch the windows in the front.

Will replace the rear windows at least.

There is nothing "historic" about these townhouses other than their age. Not a single one has any of the original windows, mouldings, or railings.

At least I got the building repointed before this historic district took effect. So I at least avoid the cost of having to use "historic" lime mortars. There was an actual lawsuit years ago from someone downtown when he was forced to use lime mortar by the historic commission. At the time, there wasn't anyone actually making it (now there are two companies to my knowledge that do). It was the details of that lawsuit that made me forgo looking at any properties in historic districts.

Posted on: 2018/11/6 11:14

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MDM

Re: Property Taxes - Delinquency Notice - How to get help from City Hall?

#29

Home away from home

When I had issues in the past, I found it best to just go to the tax office. I never had much luck fixing an issue over the phone.

Posted on: 2018/10/31 12:53

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MDM

Re: window replacement - historic district

#30

Home away from home

Quote:

bodhipooh wrote:
I know this is an unpopular opinion to hold, but this entire thread reads (to me) like a cautionary tale against purchasing a home in one of the designated historic districts.

I specifically avoided historic districts when I was buying property (many years ago). Unfortunately, my property got added to a historic district....

Posted on: 2018/10/29 14:12

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