Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New Jersey

Re: leak in my apartment

This would seem to be an issue of the habitability of the apartment. You have two options both of which begin with your writing to the landlord about the problem. Be sure to refer to the lease and to use the address and method that it lists for "notices". You can send copies to others such as a maintenance person or superintendent, but be sure that the writing goes to the address shown in the lease. These are your options:

1. You can tell the landlord that you are withholding rent until the problem is fixed.

2. You can tell the landlord that if the problem is not fixed by a reasonable date that you specify, you will hire someone to fix it and deduct the cost from your rent.

If you actually have to withhold rent, be sure that you can pay it into court if the landlord files to evict you. If that happens, you may have to give the money in dispute to the court in order to avoid eviction and have your case heard. If you win, you get it back.

Most often the landlord will fix the problem and no suit will be filed. If there is a suit and you win, the problem will be fixed and you will not have any costs. If, however. a judge determines that your claim was unreasonable and there was nothing that the landlord needed to fix, you will have to pay all the rent due in order to avoid eviction and you may have to reimburse the landlord for costs and attorney fees. So, everything considered, it is better to get the matter resolved without resort to the courts if you can. Also, the habitability defenses are to protect tenants from abuse and not to provide a means to harass the landlord. However, if you have an important problem with habitability (and it sound as if that might be the case) then you can use either of those options to help.

[Note: Anyone else reading this response on Lawguru should be aware that landlord/tenant law is very specific to the State and sometimes the locale. If you do not reside in New Jersey, this answer many not apply to your situation.]

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