My neighbor has an expired lease with her landlord. Her mother moved in when she (the mother) was evicted from another apartment and signed an additional, independent lease, which has also expired. The daughter wants the mother out, but doesn't know if it's up to her to proceed or for the landlord to proceed (the mother stopped paying rent 2 months ago and chips in nothing towards the house). How do you handle that?

I'm confused - the daughter's lease expired and then the mother entered into a new lease with the same landlord for the same apartment, in the mother's name instead of the daughter's name (assuming the daughter signed the original lease)?

If the mother has a lease with the landlord, the landlord would need to evict her - and anyone living with her. The daughter then would execute a new lease with the landlord if that's what the landlord wants to do.

I'm not sure what the situation is. It sounds like it's the mother's lease, she's the tenant, the daughter lives with her, there is no connection between the daughter and the landlord.

No... sry I was trying to be clear... it's so confusing!
The daughter moved into the apartment, signed a lease, and the lease expired in October 2011.
The mother got evicted from a different apartment, moved in with the daughter, signed a different lease with the same landlord, which expired in December 2011. That's when Mom stopped paying rent.
So the daughter has been taking care of the bills, food, etc because mom is a deadbeat and daughter wants mom out.
I hope that's clearer.
Oh, and this is all in New Jersey (as I property owner I know laws are different from state to state and I don't own in NJ)

Okay - no need to apologize. Yes, it's confusing but the mother is on the lease. The mother would get evicted along with everyone in the apartment. The daughter would attempt to negotiate a new lease with the landlord in the daughter's name.

Daughter cannot evict mother because mother is the person who leased the apartment. Mother COULD evict the daughter - because mother is the person on the lease.

We have a NJ Attorney who posts. Let me see if I can find her. She's the expert and knows NJ (which is a little bit different from NY, where I am) and she'll be 100% accurate. I'm just reading and trying to figure this out.

Daughter and mother live in the same apartment.
Daughter was there first.
Daughter and mother have 2 separate leases with the same landlord (mom has 1 with her name on it, lets say Mary/Landlord; daughter has 1 with her name on it, Beth/Landlord).
Both existing leases expired already the end of last year. So everyone's living there without leases.
Daughter wants mom out.

I think the key here is timing. If the landlord entered into a lease with the mother AFTER the daughter's lease expired, the its mom's apartment. However if mother entered into a lease while the daughter's lease was still valid, then mom's lease may be invalid since the landlord would have to have gotten the daughter's approval to rent the apartment to someone else. On the other hand, a lot depends on the wording of the leases.

Since NJ law has specific requirements to allow a landlord to evict (LSNJLAW - J: Chapter 9: The Causes for Eviction) as long as those conditions don't exist he can't evict.

So the daughter can stop paying, have the landlord file for eviction then negotiate a new lease. Of course the mother could then claim fraud and might be able to sue.