Recent Decisions of the New Jersey Appellate Courts
from 2025-12-29
to 2026-01-12
Docket No.: a0140-09
Decided: 2026-00-23
Caption: SASS CORBIN MANAGEMENT, LLC v. MARTHA RIVERA
Status: unpublished
Summary:
"u2019[B]ecause the grounds for eviction are statutory . . . the plaintiff-landlord must prove all elements of the statutory ground alleged.u2019" Mollett, supra, 386 N.J. Super. at 37 n.3 (quoting Mahlon L. Fast, J.S.C., Ret., Landlord-Tenant and Related Issues in the Superior Court of New Jersey 191 (ICLE) (2004)). In other words, strict "compliance with the Act is a jurisdictional prerequisite to the institution of a summary dispossess action." Paige, supra, 346 N.J. Super. at 384; Kroll Realty, Inc. v. Fuentes, 163 N.J. Super. 23, 26 (App. Div. 1978). The ground for removal of a residential tenant provided in the Act applicable to this matter results when the tenant "after written notice to cease, has habitually and without legal justification failed to pay rent which is due and owing." N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1(j); Mollett, supra, 386 N.J. Super. at 38; 534 Hawthorne Ave. Corp. v. Barnes, 204 N.J. Super. 144, 147 (App. Div. 1985). The landlord bears the burden of proving when the rent was due, when it was received, and that the statutory notices, required by N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.2, were properly served upon the tenant.