Law Office of Robert J. Wittmann

Aggressive and affordable South Jersey litigation attorney.

NOTICE TO CEASE & NOTICE TO QUIT

New Jersey has some of the strictest landlord-tenant laws in the nation. While these are easy for Big Firms and Big Real Estate companies to navigate, smaller businesses and mom & pop landlords often have a tough time navigating the complex and oftentimes confusing rules underlying NJ Landlord Tenant law.

NJ has created major procedural requirements that must be met before one can file an Eviction Complaint. These requirements consist of carefully drafted, and properly served, Notices to Cease and Notices to Quit. The rules regarding these, in turn, depend upon the specific grounds or reasons upon which the Landlord is seeking to evict the tenant.

We shall briefly review these so that the prospective landlord (or tenant playing defense) knows how these rules operate and constrain any prospective or pending litigation.

Failure to Pay Rent: Here, no notice to cease is needed. Furthermore, there is no need for a notice to quit. You can file the eviction complaint immediately.
Disorderly Tenant (NJSA 2A:18-61.1(b): Here, you must send a specific and detailed Notice to Cease to the tenant. It must describe the complained-about action, and it must tell them to cease and desist. You must give them a reasonable period of time to change their behavior. If they do not change or alter their conduct, you must then serve them with a Notice to Quit. This letter must contain a demand for possession and it must be served on them, via regular and certified mail, three days prior to your filing for eviction.
Willful or grossly negligent destruction or damages to the premises (NJSA 2A:18-61.1(c). Here, the damage or destruction is seen by the legislature as an emergency issue sufficient for the landlord to move swiftly to protect his/her property. As such, there is no requirement that the Landlord issue a Notice to Cease. Rather, they can merely serve a Notice to Quit and Demand for Possession. This must be served on the tenant 3 days prior to the filing of an Eviction Complaint.
Habitual Failure to pay rent. (NJSA 2A:18-61.1(j). Here, the landlord must serve the tenant with a specific and detailed letter (a Notice to Cease) detailing their problems with late rent payment. And it must warn them to not do it again. These evictions take much time to effectuate. You will need to send two notices to cease, after each late payment. Each of these must be 30 days apart. 30 days after the 2nd notice to cease, you can file the Notice to Quit/Demand for Possession. Then, you have to wait 30 days to file for eviction. These evictions tend to take 5 months.

These are just a few of the grounds upon which one can seek an eviction against a tenant. There are 17 in all.

The most challenging part of NJ’s “Notice to Cease” requirement, is that there is very little statutory guidance about how much time should pass between you serve the Notice to Cease upon the tenant, and when you serve the Notice to Quit/Demand for Possession upon them.

In Brunswick Street Associates v. Gerard (357 N.J. Super. 548 (Law Div. 2002)), the Court found that the period of time during which the tenant must comply with the Notice to Cease must be “reasonable.” They did not give a specific time-frame. As such, these are very fact-sensitive cases and it is always best to consult with an attorney in order to determine what is or is not a reasonable amount of time.

As a general rule of thumb, my office often waits for 30 days. The courts never see this as being too rushed, but they also see it as not being too late. If you wait too long to serve the Notice to Quit, then the courts will believe you waived the issue as it is no longer ripe. If you file the Notice to Quit too soon, the courts will believe that you didn’t give the tenant enough time to comply with your demands, and that you were trying, perhaps, to game the system. As such, 30 days seems to be the magic number which most courts are agreeing to.

Again, this is just a rule of thumb and it may not apply in your specific case. Always consult with an attorney before you start serving Notices to Cease and Notices to Quit upon a tenant. If you do, and you fail to follow the rules properly, then the tenant can sue you for constructive eviction if they are bullied out of the rental due to your letter.

The materials on this website are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. These materials are intended, but not promised or guaranteed to be current, complete, or up-to-date and should in no way be taken as an indication of future results. Transmission of the information is not intended to create, and the receipt does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship between sender and receiver.