Quote:

Your answer is in your statement: "The lease says that we have to give 30 days notice and that if notice is not given, the lease renews at the minimum on a month to month basis.".

Trying to decide weather to give notice or not to my landlord.
The lease says that we have to give 30 days notice and that if notice is not given, the lease renews at the minimum on a month to month basis. My question is: Do you guys think if we wanted month to month, we should just not respond once the lease runs out, or contact the landlord and ask for month to month? The only reason I want month to month is our lease is up at the end of April and we have not found another place yet! Also, thanks for your help with my other questions!

From my understanding of the law, in the absence opf a signed lease you will aiutomatically kick into a month to month agreement. It's nervousmaking; I went through the same decision, but NJ law protects the tenant from eviction for not signing.

Thanks for all your posts. Also, and a different question:

If our lease if up at the end of April and we are required to give 30 day written notice that we will or will not stay, my question is this: If we just want to stay on a month to month basis to give us more time to find another place, should we just not send a notice and just let the lease run out? Will this automatically kick in a month to month, or does a month to month have to be agreed to in writing by the owner, landlor, management company?

Thanks!

remember that the property will not always go back to the plaintiff's attorney, but that it must be sold at a public auction. anyone can buy it if they've got the money for it and your security deposit should be safe until that time comes.

i know while i worked in sheriff sales that potential buyers would stalk the homes up for sale, harass the tenants using scare tactics to pay them as of such and such date, and it would turn out the owner of the building would adjourn or file bankruptcy.

sounds like your landlords have defaulted, but they still have a long ways to go by the time the foreclosure will be processed, if it ever gets that far. by then, if you still plan on leaving, you will be long gone.

you can always call the hudson county sheriff office at 201-795-6321 and ask them to run your address to see if they have even gotten it or have scheduled it yet.

+2 to Croft's advice. Pay your rent as usual and don't talk to their lawyer! Don't listen to the people telling you to withhold your rent. Worst case, it can negatively impact your rental history when your next landlord does a check.

It's a tough choice, but I agree with croft. If they've given you the bank information on the security deposit, you will get it back. You might run into some flack for not paying last month's rent for no specific reason. Renter's law doesn't cover you in 'what if' situations.

If the landlord doesn't give security deposit info, then it usually means they're using deposits as a slush fund. That happened to me in Jersey City before, and I was very lucky to have a broker involved to get it back.

Get out as soon as you can, though, to avoid problems down the line.

I AGREE 100% with jmcee; that's exactly what I would do.

Presuming that your security is 1.5 months' rent, by withholding the APRIL rent you will cut your worst cast scenario to the loss of 2 weeks' rent but it is not likely you will suffer any loss.

The worst thing that you could do is to pay MARCH'S rent to the WRONG Company and lose the funds or have to9 sue them to get it back.

Don't pay your next month's rent. If anything wait for them to respond to you and then negotiate, the worst case is you pay late with a penalty. Otherwise you will be chasing them. Why would anyone trust them right now, they are in a much more desperate position than you. Cut your loss to a half month!

Also, keep your eyes peeled for your address to show up in the legal advertisement section of the Jersey Journal and Star Ledger. Legally, a foreclosure going through the county must be advertised in at least two local publications for up to four weeks per adjournment cycle.

Just pay your rent as usual, do not talk to the law firm.

I used to sell foreclosures for the Hudson County Sheriff, the worst thing the renter can do is talk to the law firm that solicited them. The owners of the building are supposed to be the ones to inform tenants, not the law firm. The law firm is not even supposed to serve the owners, the Sheriff is supposed to do that! This just causes upset in the tenants and more chaos!

A foreclosure can take many months to years to go through (some took the entire duration of my 4 years of employment), so don't let them count their eggs before they hatch. Pay for April and give your notice and split.

I am going to try to call the law office that is listed at the top of the letter tomorrow and explain my situation and see what they know etc. The guy that gave me the letter said he thinks that several of the bldgs they own just on my street are in same situation. I always thought this management company was shady so that adds to my concern. But I hope to find out more tomorrow. Just thought there might be a lawyer or two on here or landlord/owner types. Thanks all so far for your advice!

Just because they are foreclosing on that apt, doesn't necessarily mean the company is going out of business.

My first thought was also to not pay for April. I'm not sure if there are legal ramifications for that. You might want to call a real estate lawyer for advice.

You could also call the management company and inform them of your visit, that you're hesitant to pay that month cause of the situation.

Either way it's a hard situation to be in. If you don't pay April they could forestall the rest of the money you're owed. If you do you'll have an uneasy feeling that you won't get anything.

This provides a more specific summary:

http://www.rentlaw.com/dep/njdeposit.htm

Thank you for your reply. The only things I could find relating to our security deposit are:

A letter we got a week after signing the lease with a copy of our security deposit. The letter states that the location of our deposit is a Chase Bank in Montclair, NJ. And a statement from Chase from last May with our name and BY the Management company under it, with amount and interest by date.

I am just concerned that due to this foreclosure, and that we want to move at the end of April when our lease runs out, that we won't get our security deposit back. Ugh. We have not received anything at all from the management company about any foreclosure etc and they know our lease is up at the end of April. Plus they just rented out an apt. on the first floor, which is weird.

Your security deposit should be in an account segregated from your landlord's other financial accounts. The landlord should have told you where this money is being held, and provide you with information regarding accruing interest. If the landlord has failed to provide this information, you may apply your security deposit to your next month's rent.

My Wife and I rent an apt. downtown in a brownstone. It is owned by a management group that has real estate in JC, Hoboken and elsewhere.

A few minutes ago, a man rang the bell and gave me a letter from a law firm. It states:

A foreclosure action has been initiated and the ownership of the building may change as a result.

Until such time as the ownership changes, you should continue to pay rent to your landlord. You should get and keep records of your rental payment, such as rent receipts or canceled checks.

If you are unsure of who your landlord is, or to whom you should pay rent, you should save your rent money so that you will have it when the owner demands the rent. Nonpayment of rent is grounds for eviction.

So here's the deal:

Our lease is up at the end of April and we planned on giving notice at the end of this month.

My main concern with this is, what about our security deposit? It is several thousand dollars.

Thanks everyone!