No, I’m going to rent out a house that no one can live in and get paid for it!
Hello, this is Song Dong Ho Law Firm. When you pay money to buy a product or service, you have certain expectations. For example, if you book a hotel room, you expect a room with a bed, a restroom, a ceiling, a floor, and walls where you can safely spend the night. Just because the price is low, you don’t expect to see people in the next room because there are no walls, or to sleep on the floor because there is no furniture. So what are your expectations when you pay for a rental? Tenants who complain about their rentals often say, “No, I’m paying for a house that’s uninhabitable!” This complaint is a very legalistic statement. The law is more specific than you might think about what constitutes a “habitable dwelling,” which translates to “Implied Warranty of Habitability,” and tenants who pay to live in an “uninhabitable dwelling” are protected by the law.
The law explains that a dwelling is habitable if it is “properly equipped with vital facilities for living”. “Vital facilities” include having a toilet, hot and cold running water, electricity, temperature control, and adequate windows to ensure safety.
However, different people have very different standards for what constitutes hot water and what constitutes a reasonable amount of temperature control, which is why the law is so detailed that you might say, “Really?!”. Let me give you an example: For temperature control, a house that you are renting out must be kept at a minimum of 68 degrees Fahrenheit from 6am to 11pm during the spring through fall months, and at a minimum of 65 degrees Fahrenheit from 11pm to 6am. Hot water must be kept at a minimum of 120 degrees Fahrenheit, but not above 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m sure many of you are surprised that the regulations go this far.
These detailed laws talk about how to protect tenants who live in “uninhabitable housing” in a variety of situations. What happens if the toilet breaks down and the landlord doesn’t fix it, and the tenant gets impatient and fixes it? What if the air conditioner broke in the middle of the summer and you told your landlord to fix it, but they didn’t, and you put up with it, and you paid for it, and you got it fixed? What if your landlord didn’t pay the electricity bill, so the electricity was shut off, and your tenant paid it? The law holds landlords liable for negligence when they are required to keep their homes “habitable” and rent them out, but fail to do so.
In the 1970 case of Marini v. Ireland (56 N.J. 130), the court made it clear that if a “major facility for living” in a rented house broke down and the landlord didn’t fix it and the tenant did, the tenant could deduct the cost of the repairs from the rent and give it to the landlord. In 1969, in Reste Realty Corp. v. Cooper (53 NJ 446), the court sided with the tenant. In that case, the landlord broke something in the house and didn’t fix it, and the tenant eventually got tired of living there and moved out. The landlord then said he had to fix the house and would use the security deposit to pay for the repairs. The court found that the tenant’s leaving because the landlord didn’t fix something that needed fixing was a “constructive eviction” and that the landlord had a responsibility to keep the house “habitable” and failed to do so, so he was ordered to return the entire security deposit.
The law is fair. If the tenant intentionally damages the property, the tenant is responsible. If the tenant has a duty to notify the landlord of a breakdown and does not do so, the landlord is not responsible.
In South Korea, there are a lot of disputes between neighbors over inter-story noise these days, with neighbors red-faced and asking for rent to be removed or lowered before the end of the lease term. If this happens in New Jersey, what liability does the landlord have? New Jersey law does not include noise between floors in determining what constitutes a “habitable place.” Therefore, a landlord is not legally obligated to stop the noise, although he or she may take steps to do so. However, a tenant may be able to complain to a neighbor who makes excessive noise under the legal concept of nuisance.
When working on landlord-tenant cases, you’ll encounter many different situations. Rather than perpetuating a situation where feelings are hurt and nerves are strained, it’s often wise to have a lawyer who can explain the law and mediate quickly.
If you have any questions about landlord-tenant law or legal questions, please feel free to let me know at mail@songlawfirm.com. We’ll consider them for our next column.