--Stop Evictions from Foreclosures on Landlords! Stop Illegal Lock-Outs!
--Save Neglected Buildings with a real RECEIVERSHIP law that works!
--Stop A-1628 - Bill to Charge Tenants for Water and Sewage use.
--Do something real about dangerous exposure to lead in older buildings!
--Stop exobitant rents! "Market value" is too expensive for working people.
New Jersey
Tenants Organization
An Ongoing Issue: Fight Rent "Unit Decontrol" in New Jersey. Vacancy decontrol is a method for landlords to undermine and eventually eliminate local rent control. It means an unlimited rent increase when an apartment becomes vacant. Under vacancy decontrol, landlords get tremendous monetary benefits from turnover of tenants and they do whatever it takes to convince tenants to move out, including harassment and lowered maintenance. Over time, vacancy decontrol means the end of rent control and the elimination of affordable housing. We must fight to stop unit decontrol. On the State level, Michael Patrick Carroll (R-25) had introduced a bill in the New Jersey General Assembly which would establish and enforce permanent vacancy decontrol in every local rent control law in the state. So far, the NJTO has been successful in stopping it from becoming law. Make sure your representatives know you want to maintain Rent Control.
Tenants, please call, fax, email or write the members of the New Jersey General Assembly about the issues listed on this site. You can find out who represents your area by clicking:
THIS WILL TAKE YOU TO THE NJ LEGISLATIVE
WEB SITE.
No time to help out? Make a donation to NJTO.
Make your check out to "NJTO" and mail it to:
NJTO, 389 Main Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601.
If you have any problems using this site, contact the webmaster by clicking here. Be sure to put NJTOWEBMASTER in the subject line.
Click here if you are interested in being on our Legislative Emailing List. We will occasionally contact you for assistance in email campaigns. IN THE SUBJECT LINE PUT: "LEGISLATIVE EMAIL LIST."
About Us.
The New Jersey Tenants Organization is the oldest and largest statewide organization in the U.S. We have affiliated tenant associations in:
Atlantic Highlands, Linden, Weehawken, Jersey City, Bayonne, Caldwell, Orange and East Orange, Fort Lee, Passaic, Elmwood Park, Ridgefield, Elizabeth, Perth Amboy, Fairlawn, Redfield, Bloomfield, Clifton, Delran, Paterson, Hackensack, Newark, Phillipsburg, Plainfield and North Plainfield, Passaic, Trenton, Wallington, Voorhees and other cities and towns throughout the state.
We came together as tenants in 1969, and have been fighting and winning pro-tenant legislation ever since. Since 1969, the NJTO has worked for the enactment of 18 major landlord-tenant laws, which give New Jersey tenants the strongest legal protection in the country. Your current rights as a tenant are because of our work on your behalf all these years. We also help organize local tenant associations and give individual guidance to members.
NJTO Officers:
President:
Matt Shapiro of Fort Lee
First Vice President: Gabrielle Aguele of Ridgefield
Second Vice President:
Gail Pruner of Caldwell
Administrative Director:
Bonnie Shapiro, Fort Lee
Treasurer:
Nat Shatzoff of Hackensack
V.P. Organizing:
Mitch Kahn of Ringwood
V.P. Special Projects:
Trish Comstock, Bloomfield
Corresponding Secretary: Virginia Nardone, Fairfield
Recording Secretary:
Arlene Glassman, Fair Lawn
CONTACT US:
BY MAIL:
New Jersey Tenants Organization
389 Main Street,
Hackensack, NJ 07601
PHONE:201 342 3775
Fax: 201 342 3776
EMAIL: info@njto.org
JOIN US:
Individual dues are $22.00 per year per apartment. Send your check to our mailing address listed above.
Make check out to: New Jersey Tenants Organization.
NJTO does endorse candidates for the New Jersey Assembly because we believe they will best serve tenants' inerests. When this occurs, give them your support.
It is extremely important that endorsed candidates WIN. In the past, New Jersey legislatures have been so anti-tenant that we spent most of our time defending rights we already have and fighting off attacks on those rights. In the last election, we were able to change the anti-tenant Senate/Assembly to one where it was possible to get our Security Deposit Bill passed and to fight off attacks on our rights to Homestead Rebates.
Even so, all is far from perfect. When it comes to pro-tenant bills, most votes are very close. Legislators are much more likely to respond if they know tenant voters have actually voted for them. We need to elect all of our endorsed candidates to be able to pass more pro-tenant bills. Click on the Assemby list above and let your representatives know you support them.
Automatic establishment of Receivership as a result of cyclic or complaint inspections with bad enough results that are not abated within time limits.
When a building is in really bad shape, and code violations and fines don't convince the landlord to fix the place up, a very effective tool is a receivership. A court can appoint a receiver to collect the rents and spend this money on fixing up the building instead of lining the landlord's pockets. To get a court to do this, either the tenants or the municipality must file a lawsuit, Unfortunately, the tenants usually cannot afford the legal costs and municipalities usually don't want to get involved. If the situation is bad enough and the tenants request it, the municipality should be required to seek a receivership in court. Something needs to be done to stop the cycle of disinvestment, abandonment, and demolition that plagues much of the rental housing in New Jersey.
Tenants Property Tax Rebate Act - Restore it from its destroyed state.
In 1998 the Tenants Property Tax Rebate Act was effectively destroyed by severe amendments which left it on the books in name only while making sure that practically no one would ever get another rebate.
The law used to require that any reduction in property taxes be passed on to the tenants in the form of rebates. This is only fair, since the tenants pay all the taxes (as well as all other expenes ) through the rents. The landlord is merely a conduit for the tax payment.
We need to repeal the destructive amendments and put back the original language. This would not only restore this important monetary benefit, but show tenants the RESPECT we deserve as property taxpayers.
Tenant Rebates for Municipal Solid Waste Collection Reimbursements.
Last year, a law was passed requiring municipalities to either pick up solid waste from tenant buildings or reimburse the landlords for the cost of the pickup, if the town performed this same service for homeowners. The law was passed because of a court decision, which said that tenants in these towns were being denied equal protection of the law by being denied this service when homeowners got it. The purpose of the law was to implement the court decision, but to lessen the financial impact in the towns by phasing it in over a 5 year period.
The original language of the bill required the landlord to pass through any reimbursement to the tenants in the form of rebates, as intended by the court decision,
After all, it is the tenant residents, not the landlord owner, who were denied the equal protection provided to homeowner residents. Anyway, at the last minute, those in power in the legislature last year made a back room deal with the landlords, and eliminasted the tenant rebate, subverting the court decision, and effectively allowing landlords to steal the tenants rightful reimbursements.
This bill would restore the tenant rebates as they were in the original bill.
This bill has been introduced as A-166(Rose Heck).. It is in the Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee.
Lead Abatement Legislation
This bill would provide low interest loans or loan guarantees or grants to small landlords (and homeowners) to do expensive lead abatement work necessary for tenant safety. It does not pass the cost of lead abatement on to the tenants (who did not cause the problem, but who suffer the consequences).
This has been introduced as S-1348 (Rice, Bucco) and A-1947 (Weinberg, Thompson) S-1348 was released from the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee, A- 1947 is in the Assimbly Housing and Local Government Committee.
201 342 3775
