Bill Text: NJ S2961 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Extends protected tenancy period for certain tenants who are senior citizens and certain tenants with disabilities.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-03-02 - Reported from Senate Committee, 2nd Reading [S2961 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2022-S2961-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator BRIAN P. STACK
District 33 (Hudson)
Senator SANDRA B. CUNNINGHAM
District 31 (Hudson)
SYNOPSIS
Extends protected tenancy period for certain tenants who are senior citizens and certain tenants with disabilities.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act extending protected tenancy period for certain tenants who are senior citizens and certain tenants with a disability, and amending P.L.1981, c.226.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 2 of P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.23) is amended to read as follows:
2. The Legislature finds that research studies have demonstrated that the forced eviction and relocation of elderly persons from their established homes and communities harm the mental and physical health of these senior citizens, and that these disruptions in the lives of older persons affect adversely the social, economic and cultural characteristics of communities of the State, and increase the costs borne by all State citizens in providing for their public health, safety and welfare. These conditions are particularly serious in light of the rising costs of home ownership, and are of increasing concern where rental housing is converted into condominiums or cooperatives which senior citizens on fixed limited incomes cannot afford, an occurrence which is becoming more and more frequent in this State under prevailing economic circumstances. The Legislature, therefore, declares that it is in the public interest of the State to avoid the forced eviction and relocation of senior citizen tenants wherever possible, specifically in those instances where rental housing market conditions and particular financial circumstances combine to diminish the ability of senior citizens to obtain satisfactory comparable housing within their established communities, and where the eviction action is the result not of any failure of the senior citizen tenant to abide by the terms of a lease or rental agreement, but of the owner's decision advantageously to dispose of residential property through the device of conversion to a condominium or cooperative.
The Legislature further finds that it is in the public interest of the State to avoid the forced eviction and the displacement of the handicapped wherever possible because of their limited mobility and the limited number of housing units which are suitable for their needs.
The Legislature further declares that in the service of this public interest it is appropriate that qualified senior citizen tenants and disabled tenants be accorded a [period of] protected tenancy, during which they shall be entitled to the fair enjoyment of the dwelling unit within the converted residential structure, to continue for [such time,] up to [40 years] the full lifetime of the senior citizen tenant or disabled tenant, as the conditions and circumstances which make necessary such protected tenancy shall continue.
The Legislature further declares that in the service of this public interest, as life expectancies have continued to increase in the United States since the enactment of the "Senior Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy Act," P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.22 et al.), it is necessary to extend protected tenancy period under the "Senior Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy Act," P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.22 et al.) to protect senior citizen tenants and disabled tenants from harmful disruptions in their living conditions later in life, especially during a time when economic dislocations have sharply increased as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and as recent evidence has proven that relocation at older age has been related to declines of both physical and cognitive functions.
The Legislature further finds that the promotion of this public interest is possible only if senior citizen tenants and disabled tenants are protected during this period from alterations in the terms of the tenancy or rent increases which are the result solely of an owner's decision to convert.
(cf: P.L.1981, c.226, s.2)
2. Section 3 of P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.24) is amended to read as follows:
3. As used in [this amendatory and supplementary act] the "Senior Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy Act," P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.22 et al.):
a. "Senior citizen tenant" means a person who is at least 62 years of age on the date of the conversion recording for the building or structure in which is located the dwelling unit of which [he] the person is a tenant, or the surviving spouse of such a person if the person should die after the owner files the conversion recording and the surviving spouse is at least 50 years of age at the time of the filing; provided that the building or structure has been the principal residence of the senior citizen tenant or the spouse for at least one year immediately preceding the conversion recording or the death or that the building or structure is the principal residence of the senior citizen tenant or the spouse under the terms of a lease for a period of more than one year, as the case may be;
b. "Disabled tenant" means a person who is, on the date of the conversion recording for the building or structure in which is located the dwelling unit of which [he] the person is a tenant, totally and permanently unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment, including blindness, or a person who has been honorably discharged or released under honorable circumstances from active service in any branch of the United States Armed Forces and who is rated as having a 60% disability or higher as a result of that service pursuant to any federal law administered by the United States Veterans' Act; provided that the building or structure has been the principal residence of the disabled tenant for at least one year immediately preceding the conversion recording or that the building or structure is the principal residence of the disabled tenant under the terms of a lease for a period of more than one year. For the purposes of this subsection, "blindness" means central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with the use of correcting lens. An eye which is accompanied by a limitation in the fields of vision such that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angle no greater than 20 degrees shall be considered as having a central visual acuity of 20/200 or less;
c. "Tenant's annual household income" means the total income from all sources during the last full calendar year for all members of the household who reside in the dwelling unit at the time the tenant applies for protected tenant status, whether or not such income is subject to taxation by any taxing authority;
d. "Application for registration of conversion" means an application for registration filed with the Department of Community Affairs in accordance with "The Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act," P.L.1977, c.419 (C.45:22A-21 et seq.);
e. "Registration of conversion" means an approval of an application for registration by the Department of Community Affairs in accordance with "The Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act," P.L.1977, c.419 (C.45:22A-21 et seq.);
f. "Convert" means to convert one or more buildings or structures or a mobile home park containing in the aggregate not less than five dwelling units or mobile home sites or pads from residential rental use to condominium, cooperative, planned residential development or separable fee simple ownership of the dwelling units or of the mobile home sites or pads;
g. "Conversion recording" means the recording with the appropriate county officer of a master deed for condominium or a deed to a cooperative corporation for a cooperative or the first deed of sale to a purchaser of an individual unit for a planned residential development or separable fee simple ownership of the dwelling units;
h. "Protected tenancy period" means, except as otherwise provided in section 11 of [this amendatory and supplementary act] the "Senior Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy Act," P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.22 et al.), the [40 years] remaining lifetime of a senior citizen tenant or disabled tenant granted a protected tenancy under the "Senior Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy Act," P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.22 et al.) following the conversion recording for the building or structure in which is located the dwelling unit of the senior citizen tenant or disabled tenant.
(cf: P.L.1990, c.111, s.1)
3. This act shall take effect immediately, and shall apply to all tenancies in effect, or entered into, on or after the effective date.
STATEMENT
This bill extends the protected tenancy period for certain tenants who are senior citizens and certain tenants with a disability pursuant to the "Senior Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy Act," N.J.S.A.2A:18-61.22 et al. ("act"). The bill extends the protected tenancy period to the lifetime of those tenants who are senior citizens and those tenants with a disability.
The extension of the protections provided pursuant to the bill are necessary in the service of the public interest, as life expectancies have continued to increase in the United States since the initial enactment of the act in order to protect senior citizen tenants and tenants with a disability from harmful disruptions in their living conditions later in life. These protections are especially imperative during a time when economic dislocations have sharply increased as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and as recent evidence has proven that relocation at older age has been related to declines of both physical and cognitive functions.
