2388-13 Owner Responsibility for Rental Properties.pdf

2388 -13 AN ORDINANCE CREATING CHAPTER 14, SECTION 19 OF THE REVISED GENERAL ORDINANCES OF WEST ORANGE, ENTITLED “OWNER RESPONSIBILITY FOR RENTAL PROPERTIES” BE IT ORDAINED, by the Township Council of the Township of West Orange (“Township”), in the County of Essex and the State of New Jersey, that there should be created a Chapter 14, Section 19 of the Revised General Ordinances of the Township, which shall provide as follows: 14-19 OWNER RESPONSIBILITY FOR RENTAL PROPERTIES 14-19.1 Purpose The purpose of this Section is to enable the Township to take effective action to ensure that disorderly conduct, when it occurs on rental properties within the Township, shall not be repeated, and that landlords be held to sufficient standards of responsibility in order to preserve peace health, and safety within the Township. 14-19.2 Definitions As used in this section: Hearing Officer shall mean a licensed attorney designated pursuant to Subsection 14-19.5 of this Section to hear and determine proceedings under Subsection 14-19.6 of this Section. Landlord shall mean the person or persons who own or purport to own a building in which there is rented or offered-for-rent housing space for living or dwelling under either a written or oral lease which building contains no more than four dwelling units. Public Official shall mean a person designated to institute proceedings on behalf of the Township to require any landlord to post a bond with the Township pursuant to this Section. Substantiated complaint shall mean a complaint which may form the basis for proceedings in accordance with Subsection 14-19.6 of this Section. 14-19.3 Complaints If, in any twenty-four-month period, two or more complaints, on separate occasions, of conduct upon or in proximity to any rental premises, and attributable to the acts or incitements of any of the tenants of those premises, have been substantiated by prosecution and conviction in any court of competent jurisdiction as a violation of any provision of Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes or any provision of the Revised General Ordinances of the Township governing disorderly conduct, the Public Official may institute proceedings to require the landlord of those premises to post a bond against the consequences of future incidents of the same character. 14-19.4 Notice Requirements a. In the event a tenant is convicted of any of the conduct

he landlord of those premises to post a bond against the consequences of future incidents of the same character. 14-19.4 Notice Requirements a. In the event a tenant is convicted of any of the conduct described in Subsection 14-19.3a, the Public Official shall cause notice, advising that the conduct specified has occurred, to