When landlords attack: One mans fight against his unruly landlord

As if the divorce wasn’t hard enough, finding a new home was going be a difficult task in today’s economy, so I felt lucky when I stumbled across a two bedroom apartment  on a quiet street in my hometown of Long Branch N.J.

I called the number listed and spoke with the landlord who promptly drove over and met me to show me the rental. It hadn’t been rented in almost three years and was in the middle of having a few repairs done. There was food in the stove, cabinets and the ice box that apparently were left by the previous tenants.

The landlord advised me that he could get $1700 a month for that unit. I advised him that I couldn’t afford that and was about to leave when he stated “but i’ll take $1300”. A verbal agreement was made and I was soon holding the keys to my new apartment.

Being a home improvement worker, I finished the repairs that were needed such as removing old food and furniture, painting and sheet-rocking holes in the walls.

Finally, after over $300 of my money being spent, I had home sweet home, or so I thought.

There were a few things that needed to be done that the landlord said he would fix such as mold in the ceiling, replacing the flooring around the toilet that had rotted through the joist, and replacing windows that would not lock. He never even considered doing these repairs, so I advised him in February that I would withhold the rent until said repairs were made. Even though I legally advised him in writing, I still continued to pay my rent until July when enough was enough.

New Jersey has some of the strictest tenant landlord rules in the U.S. so I have advised my landlord again in writing, but this time he was notified that I would be doing the repairs myself and deducting the cost from the rent as allowed by law.

After showing up to my apartment with the police as a show of force, his one and only response to any question asked was “when are you gonna pay the rent?”.

This is typical of the new aged “slum lords” who rent to minorities and immigrants who are illegal and use either ignorance of the law or illegal status as a way to earn a buck from decent people at little or no expense to themselves. You can google your rights as a tenant and the laws that govern the state. I advise all who rent to know their rights because this could be you.

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