Landlord / Tenant
Since 2002, our office has been representing Landlords in both residential and commercial eviction actions. Our clients include apartment complexes, property managers, condominium associations, commercial lending institutions, real estate professionals, and individual owners of rental properties. Our practice covers most of Central and Northern New Jersey, with most of our matters in Monmouth, Ocean, Middlesex, Essex and Union Counties. We have also handled eviction matters in Burlington, Mercer, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, Hudson, Hunterdon and Atlantic Counties.
Most residential tenants are protected by the Anti-Eviction Act, which sets forth only 18 reasons upon which a residential tenant can be evicted. The vast majority of eviction actions are based upon non-payment of rent. In order to maximize profits and minimize collection loss to our clients, our firm generally files non-payment of rent matters within 24 hours of the time they are received by our office. In cases where the tenant fails to pay the balance of rent that is due, we will order your Warrant of Removal on the next business day, to minimize delays in the lockout process. We also offer bulk discounts for complexes with multiple evictions.
Our firm also handles the more complex “notice type” matters. These matters can include disorderly conduct, destruction to rented premises, breach of landlord’s rules, failure to accept lease changes, habitual late payment of rent, owner occupancy, theft, harassment of landlord and other tenants, drug violations and several other causes for eviction. These types of actions require the landlord to first serve the tenant with specific notices will require that the landlord first provide the tenant with the required Notices prior to proceeding with an eviction action. The timing and content of these notices requires careful attention. Our office has handled several hundred Notice matters and has a very high rate of success in evicting tenants under these difficult circumstances.
Michael Mirne has taught multiple courses, seminars and workshops for attorneys to demonstrate the proper timing and content required to successfully handle a “notice” type matter. In addition to eviction actions, Mr. Mirne also represents landlords in rent increase matters, habitability hearings, rent leveling hearings, abandonment of property hearings, illegal entry and detainer hearings, Stay Lift Applications in United States District Court, security deposit disputes and the defense of bed bug and mold cases. He has also represented Landlords in municipal courts and before the County Construction Board of Appeals in defense of violations of city ordinance and code violations.
Mr. Mirne has authored several articles addressing various aspects of New Jersey Tenancy Law. He has authored the New Jersey Landlord Tenant Law – Selected Statutes, Cases and Comments, which has become one of the premier online resources for New Jersey attorneys who handle evictions. He currently serves as Chairman of the Monmouth Special Civil Part Committee and he is a member of the New Jersey Bar Association’s Special Civil Part Committee, where he provides recommendations to the State Legislature on proposals to amendments to the current tenancy laws.
In addition to eviction actions, the firm also provides representation to property owners in ejectment proceedings. The primary difference between an eviction and an ejectment is that eviction actions can only be filed against tenants. In cases where the occupant is not a tenant, but rather is only an occupant who is no longer welcome at the property, the owner will need to file an ejectment action to get the occupant removed. The most common scenarios, which require ejectment procedures, are when the property owner acquires the property through a foreclosure action and needs to remove the previous owner, or cases when the occupant is a friend or family member of the owner who has over-stayed his or her welcome. Due to some recent changes to the New Jersey Court Rules, ejectment proceedings are now faster than ever. Our office has handled several ejectment matters throughout New Jersey and we have a very high rate of success in these matters.