3. What are the rights of boarding home residents?
Every resident of a boarding home shall have the right:
- to manage his or her own financial affairs;
- to wear his or her own clothing and in the style he or she prefers;
- to style his or her hair according to his or her preference;
- to keep and use personal property in his or her room, except where the boarding house can show that this would be unsafe, impractical or interfere with the rights of others;
- to receive and send unopened mail;
- to unaccompanied use of a telephone at a reasonable hour and to a private phone at the resident’s expense;
- to privacy;
- to hire his or her own personal doctor at his or her expense;
- to privacy concerning his or her medical condition or treatment;
- to unrestricted personal visitation with any person of his or her choice, at any reasonable hour;
- to make contacts with the community and to achieve the highest level of independence and interaction with the community of which he or she is capable;
- to present complaints on behalf of him or herself or others to government agencies or other persons without threat of reprisal in any form or manner whatsoever;
- to a safe and decent living environment and care that recognizes the dignity and individuality of the resident;
- to refuse to work for the boarding facility, except as contracted for by the resident and the operator;
- to practice his or her religion or to abstain from religious practice; and
- to not be deprived of any legal right solely by reason of residence in a boarding house.
4. Are owners allowed to retaliate against tenants who seek enforcement of their rights?
No owner, operator or employee shall serve an eviction notice upon a resident or take any other action in retaliation for:
- the efforts of the resident or a person acting on his or her behalf to enforce any rights under a contract or any law; or
- the good faith complaint of a resident or a person acting on his or her behalf to a government agency concerning the owner, operator or employee’s alleged violation of any health or safety law, or other law regulating rooming houses or boarding houses.
5. Can I be evicted?
Residents of rooming and boarding facilities licensed by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs may not ordinarily be evicted from such premises except for good cause as defined in New Jersey’s Just Cause for Eviction Act. Unless otherwise directed or authorized by the Department of Community Affairs, an operator who wishes to evict a resident must follow the same procedures and substantive laws that govern the eviction of other tenants under the Just Cause for Eviction Act. Residents may not, therefore, be evicted unless an operator can prove one of 16 specific grounds for eviction. These grounds include: (1) non-payment of rent; (2) disorderly conduct; (3) destroying or damaging property; (4) violating a reasonable agreement in the lease or residency agreement; (5) violating the operator’s rules and regulations; and (6) failure to pay a valid rent increase. The operator may only evict a resident by taking him or her to court and obtaining a court order called a judgment for possession.
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