Landlords skip chance to suggest changes in law

Suit filed in court challenging renter registration

BY SHERRY CONOHAN Staff Writer

Suit filed in court
challenging
renter registration

BY SHERRY CONOHAN
Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH — Faced with a lawsuit challenging the new renter registration law, a Borough Council subcommittee scheduled a meeting to hear the landlords’ complaints — but nobody came.

Councilmen Richard F. Cooper Jr. and William R. Deisinger, along with Borough Attorney Gregory S. Baxter, were ready to receive questions and complaints when the meeting was supposed to begin at 7 p.m. Sept. 8, but when no one had shown up by 7:30 p.m., they left.

The third member of the council subcommittee is Councilman Joseph DeLisa.

When the meeting was announced Sept. 1, Baxter said the plaintiff in the lawsuit and his attorney would not be allowed to speak.

The lawsuit was filed by James A. Apostolacus, of North Linden Avenue. He is represented by the Red Bank law firm Gasiorowski & Holobinko.

Other landlords also have complained about the new law during appearances at council meetings.

Baxter said there is some discussion that some changes may be made in the new law and the subcommittee was meeting to seek input from landlords.

The council at its Sept. 1 meeting introduced a proposed ordinance to reduce the maximum fine in the renter registration law from $1,500 to $1,200 to bring it in line with the maximum permitted by state law. The maximum fine would be imposed after a third offense.

A public hearing on the measure was set for Wednesday of this week.

The new law, passed in June, requires every owner of a rental unit — be it a person, corporation, partnership or other entity — to file with the borough a registration form for each unit in a building to be rented.

The owner also must report the name, age and gender of every tenant, including children, in each rental unit. Only people whose names are on file with the borough may occupy that rental unit.

Rental units would have to be inspected by a borough official before tenants move in to make sure they comply with all the laws. If a unit fails inspection, the owner must make all necessary repairs or corrections within the time allowed by code before a certificate of occupancy is issued.

The purpose as set forth in the ordinance is to ensure that residential rental units are properly maintained in accordance with property maintenance and related codes and to protect the property as well as the health, safety and welfare of borough residents. Council members have said it was inspired by problems neighboring towns have had with renters who are college students.

The fines, the council has said, are needed to fund the enforcement.

Apostolacus’ suit names the borough of West Long Branch and the Borough Council as defendants. It notes that he had appeared at council meetings to object to the ordinance.

The suit claims in the first of two counts that the ordinance violates the municipal land use laws and the New Jersey Constitution and is contrary to the U.S. Constitution. It asks the court to declare the ordinance invalid.

The second count charges the ordinance is contrary to the public interest in that it seeks to extend the normal police powers of the borough into its zoning ordinance and asks not only for the court to declare it invalid but to award Apostolacus attorney’s fees and other costs of the suit, plus interest.

Both counts said passage of the ordinance was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.