Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New Jersey

Without seeing your lease, I can't tell if your rent was actually late. Some leases have grace periods. And if it was late, just because a lease calls for a late fee or attorneys fees/costs does not mean that these must be paid to avoid eviction. In order for that to be the case, the lease must specifically say that these types of charges are "additional rent." Without those specific words, the court won't compel those funds to be paid to avoid eviction (though you will still owe the money in general). If the eviction complaint was filed before the rent was actually late, then it should not have been filed. If it was filed after the rent was late, then it was appropriate. If the lease deems attorneys fees/costs as "additional rent," then your landlord is correct. The mere fact that you paid the regular rent does not end the matter. You still owed $177 as "additional rent." It is irrelevant that the landlord's attorney has multiple cases the same day and would have gone to court anyway. Furthermore, $150 is a very modest counsel fee and a lot less than could have been charged. Your mistake was not going to court on 11/28 as you should have in order to deal with the matter properly and at least make sure that nothing unexpected happened. It does not sound like your landlord represented to you that he was going to dismiss the case. You evidently just assumed that you could ignore it. Now the landlord has a judgment for eviction. He seems to be willing to accept the $194 from you to dismiss the case and get back on track. You may want to consider this. If he won't take the money, then you will have to file a request for an Order to Show Cause with the court and post the rent with the court. If you pay him, be sure that the case is actually dismissed. This is so he can't just keep the warrant of removal in his pocket for later use. Also, you don't want to be on a "bad tenant" list for the future when new landlords screen you. As a side note, you have the right to continue living there as a tenant regardless of the fact that the lease ends in December. A landlord cannot just non-renew a lease. Rather, in order to non-renew a lease, there must be legal grounds for eviction. I suggest that you familiarize yourself with what those grounds are. You should consider getting a tenant's handbook from the court's web site.

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