Breaking a lease in New Jersey

New Jersey lets a tenant end a lease early in several situations. Under the Safe Housing Act, a tenant who gives written notice that the tenant or a child faces an imminent threat of serious physical harm from a named person, with one of the listed documents, may end the lease; it ends on the 30th day after you receive the notice unless you agree to an earlier date. Whether you must try to re-rent after a tenant simply leaves early comes from court decisions, which were not read for this page.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.6 N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.7

• Qualifying documents include a certified copy of a permanent restraining order, a law enforcement record, medical documentation, or a certification from a domestic violence specialist, the director of a designated domestic violence agency or a licensed social worker. Co-tenants' leases end too, and the rights cannot be waived. N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.6 N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.7(c) N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.9
• Section 46:8-9.1 addresses qualifying residential leases of one year or more when the tenant or spouse dies, with notice from the tenant, the estate's executor or administrator, or a surviving spouse under the statute's joint-lease condition. Termination takes effect on day 40 after receipt of written notice, rent continues through termination, and possession must be returned at least five working days earlier. The section does not apply if the lease expressly provides otherwise. N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.1
• For a residential lease of one year or more, section 46:8-9.2 provides separate release routes for disabling illness with financial loss, certain housing moves by a tenant or spouse age 62 or older, or a household member's accessibility needs. With qualifying written notice and proof, termination takes effect on day 40; rent continues through that date, and possession must be returned at least five working days beforehand. N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.2
• A tenant who enters military service after signing may end the lease by written notice. For monthly rent the termination takes effect 30 days after the next rent due date following the notice, and you may not charge the tenant or any co-signer an early termination penalty or fee. N.J.S.A. 38:23C-14
• If you fail to disclose that the property is in a FEMA flood hazard area and the tenant learns of it, the tenant may end the lease by written notice. N.J.S.A. 46:8-50(e) See Flood disclosure on the New Jersey page
• Safe Housing termination requires good faith and compliance with the notice/document rules. Rent is prorated through the effective termination date. When the other co-tenants' leases end too, the landlord may offer them a new lease or permit them to hold over. N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.7
• Keep Safe Housing domestic-violence documentation confidential. It may not be entered into a shared database or disclosed to others. The statute permits use when required as evidence in specified tenancy proceedings, with the tenant's consent, or as otherwise required by law. N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.11
• For premises controlled by a public housing authority or redevelopment agency, the tenant follows relevant public-housing notice regulations. Where a publicly funded housing-assistance contract controls the tenancy, state or federal restrictions can govern notice and deposit terms and protections. N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.8
• The Safe Housing Act excludes a qualifying seasonal rental of no more than 125 consecutive days to someone with a permanent residence elsewhere. The landlord must prove that seasonal status. The statutory exclusion does not include the described seasonal, temporary or migrant farm-worker living quarters. N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.12
• The disabling-illness route requires a treating physician's certification of inability to work, proof of income loss and proof that pension, insurance or other support cannot make up the income needed for rent. For the age-62 care-facility route, provide medical-need certification and acceptance documents. The separate low/moderate-income housing route requires lease or intent-to-lease documentation and excludes a tenant already living in that housing. N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.2
• The accessibility route can concern a disabled household member. Its notice includes a licensed physician's certification that the disability is likely not temporary, plus a statement that the landlord was asked to make the unit accessible at the landlord's expense and was unable or unwilling to do so. N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.2

If the Anti-Eviction Act covers the home, a month-to-month tenancy does not end just because you give notice: you need one of the Act's good causes, with the notice that cause requires. Only where the Act does not apply, such as an owner-occupied building with no more than two rental units, does one month's notice to quit end a month-to-month tenancy.

N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1 N.J.S.A. 2A:18-53 N.J.S.A. 2A:18-56(b)

• A tenant who stays after the lease term ends and whose rent you accept becomes a month-to-month tenant unless you agreed otherwise. N.J.S.A. 46:8-10
• Personal occupancy by the owner of a building with three or fewer units, or a sale to a buyer who wishes to live there under a contract requiring the unit to be vacant at closing, is a good cause; it needs two months' notice and cannot be used before a written lease expires. N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1(l)(3) N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.2(f) See Good cause for eviction on the New Jersey page
• If the tenant leaves after an owner-occupancy notice and you then arbitrarily fail to live there for at least six months, or let another tenant move in, the former tenant can recover three times the damages plus attorney's fees and costs. N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.6(a)