Many of you know that I will be heading to Law School in August. This is one of the reasons that I am so committed to taking my trip to El Salvador. My goal is to become a public interest lawyer and I am very happy to say that I have learned a ton about Housing, Development, Labor, Environmental and other types of Law on the Federal, State, and City levels.
This morning I was with a tenant who was being harassed. She had a washing machine YEARS ago and was being evicted for having it, even though she removed it long ago. Today her landlord thought another inspection was necessary and I showed up to make it clear that this inspection should suffice; any additional inspections would be unreasonable and equal to harassment. I think he got the point and doesn't want to go back to housing court.
This tenant and I are also concerned about late fees. Those of you in the social service field know that some Social Security checks come on people's birth date, so you receive your check on the 15th of every month if were born on the 15th of May. Unfortunately, this means that many people constantly pay their rent late. Senior, disabled people, people on limited incomes and others are subjected to $50+ fees when they already pay 30% of their tiny incomes toward rent and use the rest to eat, use transportation, pay utilities, or any other costs they may have.
I was flipping though Mahlon Fast's book on Housing Law. I suggest it to anyone interesting in Housing Law in NJ. I think that the only way that we will resolve this fee issue is through a new court case or a municipal ordinance. Be ready to see that happen.
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