Corrections or additions?
These articles were prepared for the February 7,
2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Landlords and Tenants Square Off for Eviction
The volatile area of eviction and foreclosure seems
burdened with more than its share of conflicting mandates. Verbal
confrontation might lead to a physical ones. Legislators and their
muscle, the police, therefore will do anything to avoid
lead-pipe-to-the
skull solutions and replace such confrontations with avenues less
violent.
Attorney Brian J. Mulligan insists that, if followed wisely,
New Jersey eviction laws are not a Byzantine unworkable labyrinth.
Mulligan will discuss the latest Supreme Court rulings and will unfold
eviction (and avoidance) strategies when he addresses an all day
workshop
of the National Business Institute on Thursday, February 8, at 8:30
a.m. at the Palmer Inn. Cost: $184. Call 609-989-5002.
Mulligan, 38, began as a tenant on the Isle of Manhattan later growing
up in north Jersey. A graduate of Temple University and Fordham Law
School, he has worked with Sterns & Weinroth in Trenton for the last
14 years. Mulligan and his partners handle the trials and tribulations
of several large-scale renting agencies for both residential and
commercial
properties. He has seen all the scams and knows all the foils.
Typically, Mulligan says, the entire eviction process runs swifter
and with less problem than thought. A tenant defaulting on only one
month’s rent entitles the landlord to file for a dispossess notice.
At this point the judge sets a short hearing date. There the landlord
merely testifies that the tenant hasn’t paid, and perhaps flops an
unpaid ledger before the court. “Usually, the tenant,” says
Mulligan, “doesn’t have the money and won’t even show up at court.
Thus the Order to Dispossess is automatic.”
The landlord then can serve the tenant with this notice. The notice
takes approximately two months to obtain, but once served, the tenant
has 10 days to vacate. If the tenant hides, the landlord simply turns
the Dispossess Order over to the county sheriff. “He very
effectively
will do your dirty work,” says Mulligan.
But here’s where the tar gets sticky. On March 31 when the sheriff
finally shows up truncheon and Dispossess Order in hand, the tenant
can flash all, or in some cases even part of, January’s rent in his
face and the whole case fades away. All the notices, time, trips to
court for January’s rent don’s count. The landlord must begin efforts
totally anew to get February’s rent — which is already nearly
two months late!
“This chase can go on forever,” says Mulligan. “Tenants
can feed in just enough money to keep the sheriff away and the
landlord
jumping to play catchup. The laws ever buy time for the tenants.”
The tenant holds other arrows in his quiver which can stave off the
inevitable — some sensible, moral, and legal; some not.
First and best, if the tenant knows cash is going to flowto a trickle this month, see the landlord before the due date .”Usually, all I need is some glimmer of hope that this month isnot the start of an endless cycle,” says Cliff Newcomer, presidentof Bordentown’s Lincoln Management Company, an apartment housemanagementfirm. This, alas, is the most obvious and least tried method.Sneak out at midnight . A greater favorite amongbusinesses,this makes you liable for non-payment of rent with a plethora offines.But your chance of being caught, as many tent-folding E-commerce firmshave learned, is not very high. “California,” says Mulligan,”is renowned for see-through buildings and unpaid landlords.”Counter-attack . If his apartment is uninhabitable dueto some major condition, the renter can sue the landlord for cashawards. This is not a rent strike, which is illegal. Nor can the flawbe minor. A loose railing or peeling paint won’t cut it. No heat,utilities, huge leaks or a foot-deep river of cockroaches might workfor a residence. Businesses might add noise or inadequate parking.(A new Jazzercize gym tenant next door to one’s office has been knownto work.)”It never ceases to amaze me,” smiles Mulligan, “howbuilding problems magically multiply when a tenant’s cash becomestight. We fought one tenant up in Bergen County who began suing hislandlord immediately after his contract with AT&T fell through. Heaccused us of poor air quality, causing employee headaches, inadequateheat, even poor kitchen facilities.” But in the end Mulligan suedfor rent non-payment and won.Mulligan and his client won because the landlords hold a not unworthyarsenal on their side.Record Keeping. The first and best tool: keep writtentrack not only of all meetings and conversations and the date yourtenant defaulted, but all those things you have done right — e.g.each service call. Mulligan’s victory over the Bergen County rentercame when he was able to produce repair bills for each tenantcomplaint.The Lease. Standard leases hold few tenant loopholes,whether for non-payment, destruction or improper (tenant-disturbing)behavior. Yet it doesn’t hurt to review the lease, particularly forthe behavior clauses. Time and the law stand also firmly on your side,even if public sympathies may not.Verbal Warnings. The landlord at the door sends a mightychill through most tenants and sets them scrambling for cash. However,pleads Mulligan, be very, very careful here. The law is not on yourside for anything more than a polite request. “In short,”he says, “the landlord’s options for self-help in gaining hisrent are very limited.” If you raise a hand, forcibly take officefurniture or turn off the heat, you can kiss your rent goodbye.For commercial properties, the Order to Dispossess process worksroughlythe same. But Mulligan hastens to note that the commercial rentershould hope for much less judicial mercy. Settlements, while seldomlegally mandated, are frequent. Better some rent than none.Condos entail a wealth of legal bindings and thus afford a wealthof suits — most settled out of court. Typically, the condo ownercannot and will not pay the fixed maintenance fee and the variousadded improvement assessments. “It is worth the owner’swhile,”says Mulligan, “to challenge such random assessments. Frequentlythe top floor owners get charged for roof repair . . . the condo ownerowns only from the sheet rock in. She is not more or less responsiblefor roof repair than the first floor resident.”Interestingly, the association can fine you $150 a day and more, butthey cannot evict an owner. It is, after all, yours; until of coursethey put a lien on your dwelling.Freedom of expression, the other source of condo association/ownerdisputes is less likely to bend for the owner. You may want to putup a clothesline, but, at the same time, you have, upon purchase,granted your owners association the right to “make laws concerningthe esthetic environment.”Further, the state’s Department of Community Affairs has overseenthe association’s charter. Your odds of victory stretch as slim asthat clothesline.Mulligan reiterates that the process of evicting a truly deadbeattenant, while potentially frustrating, remains not at all impossible.And generally, Justice remains blinder than many popular rumors wouldhave us believe.A tenant can be evicted in mid-winter. No law affords seasonal amnestyonce the sheriff has the Dispossess Order. Typically, if the weatheris so miserable that even his deputies grumble about going out, hemay afford the delinquent tenant an extra day. But when the hurricaneblows over, out they go.Age, number of children, physical and fiscal impairments will notprevent eviction. It may, Mulligan notes, “sway the judge inworkingout a settlement, but it will not dispense with the debt.” Thejudge may refer a tenant with these problems to the Welfare Departmentand rent assistance may be given. (If you are a landlord, and if thestate takes over responsibility for the rent, this could be a goodthing. The rent checks come straight from the state every month.)Finally, the New Jersey State Supreme Court is reviewing, subjectto comment, several amendments to current renter/landlord legislation.If favorably reviewed, all future renter/landlord settlements woulddemand a certificate of settlement. “Basically,” Mulligansays, “this would demand that each party’s lawyer demonstratehow he earned his fee when the renter and landlord settle. This waythe loser, frequently stuck with the court costs, would not be subjectto an unfair price gouge.”Impressive: a law that gives equal benefit and protection to bothlandlord and renter. Seems as if Justice, while blind, has a littleheart after all.— Bart JacksonTop Of PageSafety for DocumentsThere was a time when data storage meant finding thatone guy who had been with the company 50 years, and having him rootaround in the basement until he emerged, dusty and triumphant, holdingthe right file, but from the wrong year. Those dreaded words, “Thesystem? It’s all up here,” accompanied by a tap of the forehead,struck fear into many hearts back then. Marvin Parker, generalmanager of DocuSafe in Robbinsville, says that data storage andretrieval systems have come a long way since then. He will speak onhis company’s capabilities at the Princeton Council on Thursday,February8, at 8 a.m. at the Princeton Hyatt.”It’s a lot more than just storage,” Parker says. “Yes,we are a commercial record archive data storage center. But ourstandardis that is we store, pick-up, and deliver. Our advanced computersystemtracks every item’s history. We can tell you when an item wasoriginallyplaced, when it was taken out, by which department of your company,and when it was returned. We can issue you a tracking report. We’vedone time studies that show we can find any document and hold it foryou in about six minutes. We can scan the barcodes of the shelving,the items, and see that it’s Box 345, and go right to it.”DocuSafe, a division of the moving company Bohren’s, has been aroundfor 13 years. In addition to the site in Robbinsville, there is alsoa facility in Florida. Its customers range from Fortune 100s toindividualsmall businesses. Items come in a variety of forms: paper records,microfilm, microfiche, VHS tapes, DLT (very high density) tapes, DATtapes, and optical disks.In the Princeton area, quite a lot of business comes from the clinicalresearch organizations (CROs), and the pharmaceutical organizations.”So much of their data truly is critical, for legal purposes,”Parker explains. “If you put a drug on the market, you want toknow that you have the back-up information that supports all of theresearch, and you want to be able to pull it out if there’s ever acourt case. The CROs can show what their tests shows, the studies.And they can show that they are diligent by saying it’s in a fireproofvault. Most of the CROs in the area use our vault. We also have alot of medical records. X-rays are being stored in the vault.”Parker offers these tips if you are looking to store your criticaldata:Look for a state-of-the art facility. “We built anew 120,000 square foot building, just a little over a year ago. Wehad the facility specifically designed for what we do. Most of ourcompetitors are using older, general all-purpose buildings. Ours isdesigned just for record storage. It is designed to be seismicallysolid — most people don’t realize that central New Jersey isactuallya seismic zone 2. The shelving’s also seismically engineered, andwill meet fire codes everywhere in the United Sates. This is alwaysa concern after the 1997 Iron Mountain fire, which burned up a millionand a half boxes.”Make sure that your most critical data is safe. “Weuse the only true fireproof vault on the market today — theFirelockData security vault. The insulating core of the Firelock wall is filedwith the same material used in the heat-shielding tile on the NASAspace shuttle. It will not burn, and it is completely inert. Itcontainsno moisture, so no moisture will enter the vault chamber if therewere a fire.”The traditional concrete vault is porous and contains water, he says,so if there’s a fire, the moisture will wick to the interior as steamat 212 degrees.Parker’s fire suppression system uses FM 200 in contrast to othergases that were unsafe to breathe and damaging to the environment.”FM 200 is the same gas as is used in an asthma inhaler. It leavesno residue to damage anything, and reacts chemically to the fire tokeep it from burning.”Determine the shelf-life of your materials. A DLT tape,which is a high density storage medium, is said by the manufacturerto last for five years before it begins to degrade. “If you storethat tape in our vault, which is temperature and humidity controlled— always 30 percent humidity and 68 degrees — we will extendthat life to 15 years.””Our vault is magnetically shielded as well. There is aenvironmentalcontrol panel: thermostat and a humidistat and a chart encoder thatcharts temperature and humidity 24 hours a day, seven days a week,52 weeks a year. Clients can pull those charts if they need to provethat their materials are being kept properly — with the dateon the chart.Look for a top-flight security system. Our facility ismanned and alarmed. We have outdoor perimeter cameras, and indoorsecurity cameras. Everyone signs in; no one gets in to the archivewithout being accompanied. All access has to be authorized bysignature.”What’s to prevent an imposter from driving up with a truck and forginga signature? “We must be notified in advance if you are comingin personally, instead of having us deliver.”Two organizations offer information on the latest technology:American National Standards Institute (ANSI) tells what the standardsare and does studies on the most modern storage systems. Both ARMA(Association of Records Management Administrators) and PRISM(ProfessionalRecords and Information Services Management) fund such studies.Parker, who has worked for DocuSafe for five years, admits that notall the data stored in the archives is high-tech. “We have clientswho stored just one box — the original manuscript to the bookthey have written. And until recently we had all the records of thePullman company. The whole company history back to the Civil War —old leather bound hand-written ledgers. They are now in a museum.But today, you have to do a whole lot more than just storage. Youneed to do a lot of management. Once the clients understand ourcapabilities,they really use it.”— David McDonoughTop Of PageArtists in BusinessArtists fall into any number of subcategories. Theymay be operatic tenors, banjo players, sculptors, poets specializingin the epic form, dancers, or mimes. But whatever the specialty,whateverthe talent, most artists have one thing in common. Most also areentrepreneurs.To succeed, most artists need to market their work, a thing that ishardly distinct from themselves.On the whole, however, artists hate the idea that they are inbusiness,says Susan Schear, owner of Artisin, an Oradell, NewJersey-basedbusiness that teaches artists how to market themselves. Schear, alongwith Pat Kettenring, director of Rutgers’ Business and the Artsdivision, leads a series of seminars to help artists develop effectivebusiness personas. Sponsored by Mercer County Community College andheld at the Urban Word Cafe in Trenton, “How to Market Yourselfand Your Art,” the first of three seminars on the subject isSaturday,February 10, at 9 a.m. Cost: $10 for one session, $25 for all three.Call 609-586-9446.Schear, a graduate of Rutgers (Class of 1978), started her businessin 1995. A former account manager for Waterford Crystal, Schear hadmany friends in the arts. “I realized every time I talked withthem I was helping,” by passing along suggestions for marketingthat came from her corporate experience. “I realized there wasa need.”Artists, says Schear, find it difficult to focus on their work asa business. “Their passion is to get the work out,” she says.And while marketing an ability to write a soaring musical score, orto capture a sunset in watercolors, has much in common with sellingwidgets, there are key differences.Most would-be business owners go out and assess the market beforedeveloping a product, Schear says, but an artist can’t think of themarket when she is creating. The work generally comes first, and themarketing needs to follow. Schear gives this marketing advice toartists:Position yourself. One of Schear’s clients makes customdesigned clothes, often for brides and their bridesmaids. “Shetold me she wants to use silk,” Schear recounts. The artist likesthe feel and look of silk, but has had some pressure from clientswho want her to use polyester instead. “Part of how you will beknown is that you work in silk, not polyester,” Shear says ofthe advice she gave this client.Establishing a persona is important for an artist, Schear says, andmay involve saying no to performing in a certain venue, selling fortoo low a price, or taking on a project that does not feel right.Set goals. Many artists say they want to be a success,but “what does that mean?” Schear asks. It is important thatartists define what success means to them. It may be making enoughto work full time as an artist, or consistently selling pieces ofsculpture for $1,000, or playing Carnegie Hall. Whatever the goals,it is important to write them down and to be specific.Deal with rejection. The best way to overcome therejectionthat inevitably comes to all artists, Schear says, is to think aboutwhy a person buys — or does not buy — art. Most often, shesays, it is not personal. “They may not have the money,” Shearsays of potential customers. “They may not have the backgroundto appreciate the art, it may the wrong color or size, they may notlike the frame.” The number of reasons for a turndown areinfinite.”Who is your competition?” is a question Schear asks artists.While they most frequently cite other artists, she says, the truthis that “Blockbuster Video is your competitor, the Super Bowlis your competitor.”Figure out where your art fits. Artists who draw nudesmay never sell to the corporate market, Schear says. And artists whoplay jazz may never find a warm reception at venues that cater to18 year olds. Knowing which audiences will be most receptive to yourart is the key to marketing wisely. In doing this research, thinkof the whole range of possible customers, Schear says, ticking off”juried shows, restaurants, street fairs, colleges, publicschools,studios, architects, very high end florists or salons.” Evendoctorsoffices could be possible targets. Those nudes that local corporationsreject could well find a home in doctors’ offices, Schear suggests.Be professional. Marketing materials, from cover letterthrough performance tape or portfolio, should be well thought out,carefully crafted, and cohesive, Schear says. This advice appliesto websites, too. Artists who want to promote their work worldwide,sell online, or offer galleries an easy way to see their art couldbenefit from a website. Schear cautions, however, that websites needto fit into an overall marketing plan, using the same style and logoas other materials, and probably should be designed by a professional.— Kathleen McGinn SpringNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
