Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New Jersey

Re: Is a House Rental Contract Void when Deposit Check Bounces? How to evict?

You can file a complaint for eviction based on non-payment of rent (for the bounced check) but if the tenant pays the rent up until and including the court date, your complaint will be dismissed and the tenant will be allowed to stay. If the tenant continues to breach the lease terms (i.e., not putting the utilities in their name), then you have to follow other procedures. There's a Notice to Cease, Notice to Quit, Demand for Possession, etc. that have to be given to the tenant on specific dates. You should get an attorney as landlord/tenant law can be confusing.

Re: Is a House Rental Contract Void when Deposit Check Bounces? How to evict?

This is one of those situations where lawyers might disagree. I have read Ms. Esteves reply to you and I agree with it as far as it goes. I will add an alternative theory that might be useful here.

Certainly, the usual remedies are available from Landlord Tenant Court when rent is not paid. However, here it is the deposit that has not been paid and presumably there is no security. I think that there is a good case to be made that the lease contract was never formed in the first place because the tenant failed to do one of the things that was required by the contract - pay the deposit. The contract having never been formed, the tenant is month-to-month and can be evicted without further reference to the lease.

In other words, there are alternative remedies. If the tenant does not pay, you will get an order of possession from the L/T court. But, there are different paths if the tenant shows up with the money. As Ms. Esteves points out, you could take the money and the lease would continue in place. I think that you also have the option on these facts to decline the money (except for the rent now due) and still get an order of possession based on the fact that the tenancy is month-to-month.

Especially if you want to take the last course, I think that you should get a lawyer to help. The judge will want the tenant to have a place to live if he can work it out that way and your side needs to know how to deal with that.

Some tactical advice: Don't wait. December is almost here. Your case will take at least three weeks to be heard and judges will do contortions not to put people on the street in the holiday season.

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See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm

Re: Is a House Rental Contract Void when Deposit Check Bounces? How to evict?

As a bit of further advice for you: Put on your landlord's checklist to always deposit the check for security and the first month's rent and confirm that it has cleared before you give a tenant possession of the premises. You can see why.

If you have multiple properies to rent, you might want to check a tenant's credit at the time that you take an application. There are some organizations of landlords that pool resources to obtain discounted credit reports for all members.