Know Your Tenant Rights

With all the talk of new rental units proposed or under construction in Plainfield, perhaps it is time to remind tenants and landlords that there is a booklet outlining the rights and responsibilities of both parties. As described below, the booklet is supposed to be furnished to tenants by landlords. One would assume that includes the "lease-to-purchase" tenants now moving into The Monarch. New apartments are also under construction on Park Avenue and of course the West Second Street Commons development will have many new apartments.

Here is something tenants and landlords need to know:

The Truth-in-Renting Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8-43 et seq.) requires the Department of Community Affairs to prepare and publish a statement of the rights and responsibilities of residential tenants and landlords. The Act also requires residential landlords of dwellings with more than two units (or more than three units if the landlord occupies one of the units) to distribute the Truth-in-Renting Statement, now in Booklet format, to each of their tenants at or prior to the tenant’s occupancy. Violators of the Act shall be liable for a penalty of up to $100.00 for each violation.

A law was passed that gave landlords a break on the cost of distributing these booklets, but a casual inquiry at the midst of the Connolly situation revealed either tenants never got a booklet or didn't look at it. (The Connolly company acquired nearly all the large multi-families in Plainfield and then had problems that resulted in several big apartment buildings going into rent receivership. Presumably the receiver is giving out Truth in Renting booklets to new occupants.)

To see the booklet online, click here. To order a copy in English or Spanish for $2, hit the "end" button on your keyboard to view an order form at the end of the booklet. Copy and paste the form into Word or whatever other document-creation program you have, print out, fill in and send with a check to the address indicated.

Tenants in Plainfield have no organized representation. A tenants' group organized in the 1980s was the target of a property managers' association, which by various means broke it up and bragged about the accomplishment in the association's newsletter. Since then, tenants who don't know the law are at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords. I'm sure some landlords are also plagued by bad tenants, but because I have been a tenant in Plainfield for over 25 years, I am on the side of the renters.

--Bernice