Back in 2007, in the heyday of the mortgage boom, three out of town developers bought a landmark historic building in downtown Jersey City for condo conversion which already had legally residing tenants. The so called landlords/developers then tried to 'clear' the tenants illegally, with no regard to condo conversion protocol time, laws and by sheerly resorting to scare, intidimation tactics.
When that didn't work, the landlords subsequently collapsed/demolished the attic/roof of the building while the tenants were living in it, nearly killing them -- all without legal construction permits and ordinances and trying to declare the building inhabitable.
The city secured the building structure, said the tenants could stay, the owners had to fix the roof and fined the landlords hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then more hell broke loose; the tenants had to endure more harassment, illegal lock outs, threats, intimidation, daily torment and total cut off of utilities/services so began a legal fight to protect their rights, their tenancy and their safety.
Since the collapse of the roof in 2007, the tenants continue to live in 'temporary' displaced housing, while fighting a legal battle to enforce a won judgment with no resolution in sight.
Wait, here's the subplot: as the tenants wait for just restoration, their lawyer who represented them drops them to retire and starts suing his own victimized clients for the remaining fees, which double by day, threatening wage garnishes, freezing bank accounts and even criminal charges so he can get his money, even though he abandoned the case and got them nothing in return but financial and housing ruin for his clients.
So when it rains--without a roof!--it pours in the land of uber New Jersey development. And don't hold your breath under the water for justice if you are an innocent, law abiding tenant with little or no money, connections and honest, decent legal aid.
We are not making this up, folks!
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