[Debbie Iacona]

I am a single mother of two young children and have been renting a house in NJ for 18 months. I have a roommate who's sister owns the house. I make my monthly rent checks out to the owner (sister) every month, but give them to him to deposit, he said he controls the activities of the house and is the landlord. He now has a girlfriend who wants to move in and he has told me over the phone on Nov. 3rd to vacate. (I have a month to month lease). I asked him to put it in writing, formally. He has not. He now left me another voice mail that I am to leave within 30 days. He said he will get around to giving me a letter and it will be past dated. My question is that shouldn't a letter come from his sister who ownes the home and I write my checks out to? Can he past date a letter to vacate? Do I need to leave with just his telling me to vacate? Also, he only asked for 1/2 the security money when I moved in and now he says that I am in "violation of not giving him the whole security". He never even gave me a statement as to where my security money ($500) is? Any help would be great. Thank you for any input.

[ScottGem]

You said you are on a month to month lease. Do you have a written lease at all? If so, who signed the lease as the landlord? If it was the sister, then she has to give notice or assign mgmt reponsibility to the roommate.

But the bottom line is, since you are on a month to month, you can be given 30 days that the lease is being terminated. Since the landlord is his sister, do you think she won't back him up? Anything you do is just delaying the inevitable. So start looking for a new place right away.

As for the security deposit, he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Since he hasn't asked for the full amount during the 18 months you have been there, no court is going to grant it now. As to what he is responsible for in reference to the amount you did give him, check the stickies at the top of this forum for NJ laws.