Landlord-Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Law for Owners and Tenants

We represent both landlords and tenants, and we would rather tell you that up front than have you find out later.

If you own rental property, we handle your evictions, your notices, and your leases. If you rent, we defend your tenancy, go after your security deposit, and sue over conditions your landlord will not fix. We do not take both sides of the same dispute, and if there is a conflict we will tell you right away.

Working both sides is actually an advantage in this area. Landlord-tenant cases are decided on procedure far more often than on sympathy: which notice was served, whether it said the right thing, whether the statutory ground exists, whether the filing was done correctly. Having stood on both sides, we know where each side’s file tends to be weak. An owner benefits from a lawyer who knows every defense a tenant is going to raise. A tenant benefits from a lawyer who knows which notices landlords get wrong.

New Jersey: The Anti-Eviction Act

If you are a New Jersey landlord, this is the single most important thing to understand, and most first-time owners do not: you cannot evict a residential tenant just because the lease ended. New Jersey is a good-cause state. You can remove a tenant only on one of the grounds listed in the Anti-Eviction Act: non-payment, disorderly conduct, willful damage, a substantial lease violation after written notice, refusal of a reasonable rent increase, an owner moving into a small building, and a short list of others. For a covered tenancy there is no general right to simply not renew.

Notice defects are fatal, not technical. Most grounds require a written Notice to Cease first, then a Notice to Quit, with time periods set by statute that differ by ground. If the notice leaves out the specific conduct, names the wrong ground, gives too little time, or is served on the wrong person, the case gets dismissed on the return date no matter how strong the facts are. We see it constantly, and we argue it from both sides.

Non-payment is the big exception. No Notice to Quit is required for a simple non-payment case, and a tenant who pays everything owed before judgment generally defeats the action. That one feature is why so many New Jersey non-payment cases resolve in the courthouse hallway.

Self-help is illegal. Changing the locks, taking the door off, shutting off the heat or water, or removing a tenant’s belongings exposes an owner to civil liability and potentially a criminal complaint. The only legal way to get possession is a judgment and a warrant of removal executed by a court officer.

Habitability is a real defense. The New Jersey Supreme Court held decades ago that every residential lease carries an implied warranty of habitability, that a tenant can in some circumstances make repairs and deduct the cost from rent, and that a breach entitles the tenant to a rent abatement measured by how much the defect reduced the value of the apartment. Raised properly, a habitability defense turns a routine non-payment case into a contested trial about what the apartment was actually worth.

Security deposits. New Jersey caps the deposit at one and a half months’ rent, requires it to be kept in a separate interest-bearing account with written notice to the tenant, and requires an itemized return within thirty days after the tenancy ends. A landlord who does not comply can owe double the amount wrongfully withheld plus attorney’s fees. This is one of the most frequently violated statutes in the state and one of the easiest tenant claims to win.

New Jersey cases go to the Special Civil Part, Landlord-Tenant Section, which moves quickly, often to trial within a few weeks. There is very little time, which is exactly why preparation matters so much.

New York: A System That Keeps Changing

New York’s landlord-tenant law was rewritten by the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, and extended again by good-cause eviction legislation in 2024. Every change has run in the tenant’s favor, and any advice based on how things worked before 2019 is unreliable.

The basics: summary proceedings run under Article 7 of the RPAPL, and a non-payment proceeding is a different animal from a holdover proceeding, with different notice requirements before you file. Security deposits are capped at one month’s rent. Late fees are limited. Notice periods for rent increases and non-renewals now scale with how long the tenant has lived there. The warranty of habitability is written into the statute, and New York’s highest court has held it supports a rent abatement. In New York City and parts of the surrounding counties, rent stabilization and rent control add an entire second body of law: registration, permitted increases, succession rights, and overcharge claims with lookback periods and the possibility of treble damages.

For owners, the compliance burden in New York is heavier than in New Jersey. For tenants, the remedies are broader.

Commercial Tenancies Are Different

Almost none of the residential protections carry over to commercial leases in either state. Good-cause eviction does not apply. The implied warranty of habitability generally does not apply. What controls is the lease you signed: the default and cure provisions, the personal guaranty, the good guy guaranty in New York, the holdover penalty, the assignment and subletting rules, and the CAM and escalation clauses. We draft, negotiate, and litigate commercial leases for both sides, and in New York we handle the Yellowstone injunction, which is how a commercial tenant preserves its right to cure while it fights a default notice.

What We Do

For owners: eviction proceedings and notices, non-payment and holdover actions, lease and rider drafting, rent increases, tenant screening compliance, warrants of removal, post-judgment enforcement, and defending habitability and retaliation counterclaims.

For tenants: eviction defense, habitability and repair claims, illegal lockout actions, security deposit recovery, rent overcharge claims, retaliation and discrimination defenses, lease review before you sign, and negotiated move-outs that keep a judgment off your record.

Call Before the Deadline

For owners, that means before you serve the notice, because the notice is usually where the case is decided. For tenants, it means when you get the papers, not the night before court.

Call (201) 431-6199 or email info@wenstrandlaw.com. Offices in Cranford, New Jersey and on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.