By JAIMIE JULIA WINTERS
winters@montclairlocal.news
This August, 18,000 renters in Essex County and their landlords will head to mandatory settlement conferences — hoping to avoid evictions in a process state court officials hope will give them relief from a huge backlog of cases as an end to the state’s evictions moratorium looms.
New Jer...
The township attorney has directed the Landlord/ Tenant Housing Committee not to conduct “mediations, ‘hearings,’ or other interventions” in landlord-tenant disputes.
Montclair officials enacted a rent freeze last year to protect tenants during the economic downturn due to COVID-19. Now, a Landlord-Tenant Housing Advisory Committee official says that while some landlords have violated the ordinance, some tenants have filed false claims about landlords concerning the freeze.
As the pandemic moves into August and housing advocates say 40 percent of New Jerseyans will not make rent this month, the debate of rent stabilization persists here in Montclair.