Housing Legal Questions

Im sorry to hear about your plight but our firm specializes in divorce, family law and domestic violence matters and your complaint addresses housing law and elder law claims. I would look at the website for the NJ Attorney General's office and look specifically for elder abuse and housing claim issues and contact the department that handles claims against landlords and the department of housing to see what protections are available to you.... Read More

You might, MIGHT be able to have the eviction overturned based on a Civ. R. 60(B) motion for excusable neglect. The court is not going to be sympathetic to you though if 1) the appointment wasn't an emergency and 2) you didn't request a continuance of the eviction because of the doctor's appointment. I recommend requesting relief from judgment but it will be a difficult ask.... Read More

If you're both on the title, and not just the loan, the your ex can prevent the roommate from becoming a tenant and his consent is required. If he's not on the title, then he has no right to the house anyway and not only can he not prevent the new tenant, but you can evict him as well.   Really though those are short-term solutions. What you really need is a partition action to either 1) buy out his interest by refinancing or 2) selling the house and splitting the equity.... Read More

You do not need to wait a year to file for a divorce, you can file now. You can also ask the court for the exclusive use of the marital residence, your apartment, during the divorce. The court will order him to vacate and find other living conditions.   Alternatively, you could evict him, but the easier route would be to file for divorce and seek to have him ordered out by the court.... Read More

It's not illegal because of coronavirus, but he does still have to follow court procedures and go through an eviction process. He can't just throw you out. That would be considered "self-help" which is illegal in residential leases.The good news is that the courts are essentially on lockdown right now for evictions. He may be waiting a while before he gets an actual court date.... Read More

Unlikely. The only thing you can do is dispute the information with the credit bureaus. The will conduct an investigation and mark the missing payment as "disputed" at the very least. If they don't, then you will have a cause of action against them that you could leverage to have the trade line removed entirely.... Read More

You might be able to take a loan out against the proceeds of your personal injury case.  However, I do not reccomend that avenue, as the interest rates are usually insane on those types of loans.  You might ask family to help you.  You might wish to contact a landlord/tenant attorney to further explore your options.  Attorney Christopher Hite in my firm Rosember Whewell and Hite might be a good person to speak with.  He frequently litigates housing matters.  You can reach him at 203.870.6700. Good luck. ... Read More

From what you wrote, this sounds like a case of elder fraud/abuse.  Sadly, such cases are often perpetrated by family members, and the fact that your son is also an "elder" as that term is defined in the law does not mean he also cannot be liable for committing elder fraud/abuse.  Based on the information you provided, the fraudulent conduct is the theft of money and changing the title to your house.  Without more information, I am not sure how your son changed the title without you knowing about it.  Does he have a power of attorney over you?  Are you under a conservatorship?  For now, I am assuming those situations are not the case, and I am also assuming he did not pay any money to you for obtaining the title.  If that is what happened, that could be presumptively fraudulent behavior on his part, making him liable to you in a civil action.  Based on the information you provided, the abusive conduct is, obviously, changing the locks and forcibly removing you from your home.  Any verbal or physical abuse would also constitute elder abuse.  All are potentially unlawful behavior.  I would recommend that you start by contacting the nearest Adult Protective Services agency and let them know what has happened.  They can investigate and also point you toward other services you may need during this period.  If what you are saying has happened, your son could be both criminally culpable and civilly liable as well, so you may want to contact the local District Attorneys' Office and speak to the Consumer Fraud Unit.  The D.A. may or may not be helpful; they may tell you it's a civil matter.  Lastly, if this happened in the North Bay Area, I would be interested in speaking with you more about whether it makes sense to pursue a civil action against your son.... Read More

First, if you were still in possession of the unit and he entered without your authority, I would have called the police. He may have committed criminal trespass, burglary, ect.  You have many rights you are probably unaware of. You need to sit down with an experienced housing attorney or at least speak with one over the phone. We handle matters like this routinely and would be happy to speak with you.  You can email me contact information at MaxLRosenberg@RmHmLaw.com  Were you able to recover any of your possessions? My office number is 203-870-6700... Read More

Ultimately, a co-tenant of jointly owned property can force a sale by bringing a partition action. A judicial sale is to be avoided if at all possible, because the court costs of a sale can quickly dissipate the equity in the property. The best solution is for you to buy out the ownership interest of your sister-in-law and her husband before he passes away. If that's impossible, the burden will be on them to sue you to partition the property. At the moment, you don't have to do anything.... Read More