Thousands Of NJ Tenants Face ‘Unjustified Evictions’ Every Year: Study

NEW JERSEY — Many evictions in New Jersey are being done with “legal deficiencies” that should be red flagged – but very few tenants have a lawyer to sniff them out, a new study says.

A coalition of housing advocates recently released a report that took a look at evictions in the Garden State. See the full report and learn about its methodology here.

According to researchers, data suggests that eviction judgments or defaults are entered against as many as 29,000 tenant families each year in cases where the court lacks jurisdiction.

After reviewing 1,378 complaints, including a sample from each county in New Jersey, the coalition found:

• 69 percent of eviction complaints filed by landlords contained at least one legal deficiency, such as landlords failing to attach mandatory eviction notices when the landlord acknowledged the tenancy was subsidized; landlords seeking late fees, attorney fees, or other fees not permitted under the law; and landlords failing to attach required notices when they sought eviction for reasons other than nonpayment of rent
• 15 percent of complaints filed had three or more legal deficiencies
• Courts issued deficiency notices in only 11 percent of the cases in which landlords had filed deficient complaints

Another concern that came up while gathering the research? Very few tenants who rent their homes have an attorney to fight for them in court, the study said:

“Notably, in landlord-tenant courts across New Jersey, 97 percent of residential tenants do not have a lawyer to defend them from eviction. Without legal representation, self-represented tenants have little-to-no capacity to identify the legal deficiencies that regularly lead to dismissals in the few cases in which tenants have lawyers.”

The coalition also examined whether the courts were adhering to a rule change that took effect in September 2023, which requires them to set eviction trials no sooner than five weeks after notifying the tenant of the trial date. This extension was intended to give tenants adequate time to secure legal representation and apply for rental assistance.

However, the report found that in 27 percent of the cases, the courts failed to give tenants the full five weeks’ notice before trial, researchers said.

The coalition behind the report offered several suggestions to help fix the problem:

• Conduct initial review of all residential eviction filings to identify facial deficiencies, giving landlords an opportunity to cure those deficiencies
• Amend the form complaint to promote facially sufficient filings
• Conduct proof hearings in residential eviction cases when the tenant defaults
• Ensure adequate proofs at trial
• Reinforce the five-week notice requirement before trial
• Monitor and report on the results of court review

According to the coalition, until these steps are taken, landlord-tenant courts will continue to enter eviction judgments where they lack jurisdiction – and many renters will continue to be evicted when they shouldn’t be.

The report was a collaboration between the Housing Justice Project of the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall Law School, the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest at Lowenstein Sandler, Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, and the Housing Justice Program at Rutgers Law School.

HOMELESSNESS AND EVICTIONS

Being evicted from a rental home or apartment was among the top reasons cited during an annual homelessness count in New Jersey this year.

Homelessness is on the rise in New Jersey, with the state seeing a nearly 24 percent increase since last year, according to a report from nonprofit Monarch Housing Associates. Volunteers counted a total of 12,680 people experiencing homelessness across New Jersey on Jan. 23. More than 1,500 people said that "eviction or risk of eviction" was the main culprit.

• Homelessness Is On The Rise In New Jersey, Report Says (Here’s Why)

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