[Adopted 10-19-2015 by Ord. No. 1231]
The Township Council finds, determines and declares that:
A. 
The Township, its residents and its citizens have experienced disturbances, damage and public expense resulting from carelessly granted and inadequately supervised rentals to irresponsible tenants by inept or indifferent landlords.
B. 
This section is enacted to preserve the peace and tranquility of the community for its permanent residents and to maintain the integrity of the municipality for all persons and families availing themselves of the facilities therein.
C. 
The enactment of this section is necessary and desirable to provide a means to curb and discourage those occasional excesses arising from irresponsible rentals.
D. 
The Legislature of the State of New Jersey enacted N.J.S.A. 40:48-2.12n et seq. to enable certain communities to take effective action to assure that excesses, when they occur, shall not be repeated, and that landlords offering rentals be held to sufficient standards of responsibility.
For the purpose of this article, the following meanings shall apply:
HEARING OFFICER
A licensed attorney of the State of New Jersey appointed by the Mayor, subject to the advice and consent of the Township Council. The hearing officer shall not own or lease any real property within the Township of Little Falls, nor hold any interest in the assets of or profits arising from the ownership of such property.
LANDLORD
The person or persons who own or purport to own any building in which there is rented or offered for rent housing space for living or dwelling under either a written or oral lease, including but not limited to any building subject to the Hotel and Multiple Dwelling Law, N.J.S.A. 55:13A-1 et seq., and owner-occupied two-unit premises.
SUBSTANTIATED COMPLAINT
A complaint of an act of disorderly, indecent, tumultuous or riotous conduct, including by way of example, but not limited to, simple assault, terroristic threats, harassment, urinating in public, lewdness, criminal mischief, or excessive noise, upon or in proximity to any rental premises, and attributable to the acts or incitements of any of the tenants of those premises that have been substantiated by prosecution and conviction as a violation of any statute or local ordinance in any court of competent jurisdiction.
A. 
If, in any twenty-four-month period, two complaints, as defined in § 147-9 hereof, on separate occasions, of disorderly, indecent, tumultuous or riotous conduct, including by way of example, but not limited to, simple assault, assault, terroristic threats, harassment, lewdness, urinating in public, criminal mischief, or excessive noise, 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, the Township Council or any officer or employee of the Township so designated by the Township Council for this purpose may institute proceedings to require the landlord of the rental premises to post a bond against the consequences of future incidents of the same character.
B. 
The Township Council or any officer or employee of the municipality designated by the Township Council shall cause to be served upon the landlord, in person or by registered mail, to the address appearing on the tax records of the municipality, notice advising of the institution of such proceedings, together with particulars of the substantiated complaint upon which those proceedings are based, and of the time and place at which the hearing will be held in the matter, which shall be in the Municipal Building, Municipal Court or such other public place as designated by the Township Council, and which shall be no sooner than 30 days from the date upon which the notice is served or mailed.
C. 
At the hearing convened pursuant to Subsection B above, the hearing officer shall give full hearing to both the complaint of the municipality and to any evidence in contradiction or mitigation that the landlord, if present or represented or offering such evidence, may present. At the conclusion of the hearing, the officer shall determine whether the landlord shall be required to post a bond in accordance with the terms of this article.
D. 
Any bond required to be posted shall be in accordance with the judgment of the hearing officer, in light of the nature and extent of the offenses indicated in the substantiated complaints upon which the proceedings are based, to be adequate in the case of subsequent offenses to make reparation for:
(1) 
Damages likely to be caused to public or private property consequent upon disruption of affected residents' rights of fair use and quiet enjoyment of their premises; and
(2) 
Securing the payment of fines and penalties likely to be levied for such offenses; and
(3) 
Compensating the municipality for the costs of repressing and prosecuting such incidents of disorderly behavior; provided, however, no such bond shall be in an amount less than $500 nor more than $5,000. The municipality may enforce the bond thus required by action in the Superior Court, and shall be entitled to an injunction prohibiting the landlord from making or renewing any lease of the affected premises for residential purposes until that bond or equivalent security, in satisfactory form and amount, has been deposited with the municipality.
E. 
Any bond or other security deposited in compliance with Subsection D(3) above shall remain in force for a period of four years. Upon the lapse of the four-year period, the landlord shall be entitled to the discharge of the bond, unless prior thereto further proceedings leading to a forfeiture or partial forfeiture of the bond or other security shall have been had under § 147-11 below, in which case the security shall be renewed in an amount and for a period that shall be specified by the hearing officer. A transfer of ownership or control of the property shall not void a requirement of security imposed under this section. The person or persons to whom ownership or control is transferred shall maintain that security, and shall be subject to injunctive proceedings as authorized by Subsection D above in the same manner as the landlord upon which the requirement was originally imposed; provided however, the Township Council may by resolution shorten the period for which security is required to not less than one year from the date of the transfer of ownership or control, if during that year no substantiated complaints are recorded with respect to the property in question.
A. 
If during the period for which a landlord is required to give security pursuant to § 147-10 above, a substantiated complaint is recorded against the property in question, the Township Council or its designee may institute proceedings against the landlord for the forfeiture or partial forfeiture of the security, for an extension as provided in § 147-10E 10(e) above, of the period for which the security is required, or for increase in the amount of security required, or for any or all of those purposes.
B. 
Any forfeiture or partial forfeiture of security shall be determined by the hearing officer solely in accordance with the amount deemed necessary to provide for the compensatory purposes set forth in § 147-10D above. Any decision by the hearing officer to increase the amount or extend the period of the required security shall be determined in light of the same factors set forth in § 147-10D above, and shall be taken only to the extent that the nature of the substantiated complaint or complaints out of which proceedings arise under this action indicates the appropriateness of such change in order to effectually carry out the purposes of this article. The decision of the hearing officer in such circumstances shall be enforceable in the same manner as provided in § 147-10D above.
The hearing officer shall be a person or persons appointed by the Mayor, subject to the advice and consent of the Township Council. A hearing officer shall not own or lease any real property within the Township of Little Falls, nor hold any interest in the assets of or profits arising from the ownership or lease of such property.