Category: Real Property Law

Nolasco v. The Mayor and the Board of Commissioners of the City of Jersey City

LANDLORD-TENANT; RENT CONTROL—Even under rent control, a rental, once vested, should not be rolled back and recalculated upon the advent of a new tenant.

• Opinion Date: September 4, 2001

Quintela v. The Rent Control Board of The City of Bayonne

LANDLORD-TENANT; RENT CONTROL—Where the right of a landlord to raise rent for a rent controlled apartment is based upon an ambiguous provision of the applicable ordinance, the landlord should apply for an advisory opinion from the control board or take the risk that the rent increase will be set aside.

• Opinion Date: March 20, 2001

Thomas v. Allen

LANDLORD-TENANT; PARKING—Absent a specific lease provision or a history of crime in a neighborhood that would impose a duty on a landlord to provide parking lot security, a landlord has no such obligation.

• Opinion Date: July 9, 2001

Morristown Housing Authority v. Harris

LANDLORD-TENANT; EVICTION; NOTICE—By threatening eviction in numerous earlier notices, but not so acting, a tenant may be confused into believing that later, similar notices could be disregarded; such “confusing signals” may bar an eviction based upon the later notice.

• Opinion Date: April 3, 2001

Bachenberg v. Weston

LANDLORD-TENANT; EVICTION—Where a landlord cannot show that its tenant’s residential use of the leased property was merely incidental to the tenant’s commercial use of the property, the tenancy is treated as a residential one, subject to the Anti-Eviction Act.

• Opinion Date: August 29, 2001

McQueen v. Brown

LANDLORD-TENANT; EVICTION—To be owner-occupied, a house need not be the owner’s domicile or principal residence; the owner merely must reside in the house for “some time.”

• Opinion Date: July 10, 2001

Sciarra v. Santiago

LANDLORD-TENANT; EVICTION—It is not equitable to evict a residential tenant where a relatively minor lease violation is promptly cured after receipt of a notice to quit.

• Opinion Date: June 26, 2001

Delivois v. Davis

LANDLORD’S LIABILITY; PETS—It is not a probable consequence of a clause in a lease prohibiting pets that a dog will bite a person off-premises.

• Opinion Date: January 24, 2001

Leibig v. Somerville Senior Citizens Housing, Inc.

LANDLORD’S LIABILITY—A tenant injured by a condition in the apartment known to the tenant, not created by its landlord, and not the result of a faulty repair by its landlord, cannot recover from its landlord.

• Opinion Date: October 4, 2001

Paparone v. Logue

LANDLORD’S LIABILITY—Where there is no evidence that a defective portion of leased premises is in the exclusive control of the landlord, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is inapplicable.

• Opinion Date: August 28, 2001