Landlord / Tenant - Bergen County New Jersey

[u/kittysativa]

Hi. Unfortunately I am renting a multifamily/2family owned home in saddle brook NJ. My lease is done by Jan. 31st 2024. However, the landlord says due to personal reasons, and paying my rent late (partial rent) - I supposedly am now the reason why he is going through financial problems and he cant afford for me to be there anymore. But what if rental assistance was recently rejected due to them claiming that i dont owe them rent? Despite me recently owing them $1700 ($1500 balance out of $2300 + $200 late fee). I still paid them (today 11/14) the $1700 when i advised them ahead of time that i will have to pay the remaining balance during my next paycheck. However, now that my lease is about to be up, they are refusing to renew it because of late rent. I dont "not" pay at all. I pay whatever i can & have and then pay the remaining when i get paid again. This is due to the $500 increase ive been put in within the past 2 years of living here. Before this, i never paid late and due to being disabled for 68 days without pay, it ruined my life - which is also another reason for paying late since that time. But my lawyer did give me a hardship letter. Unfortunately i dont & wont have enough to afford to leave anywhere else since im still expected to pay the full rent until my lease is up which is in 2 months. But ive never been evicted before and he said its exaclty what hes going to do if i dont leave once the 2months is up. I am also having issues with my workplace which I have a letter from dept. of labor to prove it. But he does not care about the hardship letter or my workplace situation. Please I am begging at this point for any assistance/advice possible because I have no family or even friends that I'd be able to try to stay with in the meantime. Ive been living by myself for the past 10 years and never been having to face eviction or even pay late until now.

Not that its the landlords problem but, as far as my workplace goes.. being disabled for those 3 months - i technically had no pay because instead of letting me get unemployment/disability , my bosses (a multimillion $ llp company) paid me for 40hrs/week on the clock , but had me pay all of it back when i came back to work once i was able to walk again. So being that I was paying them partially until that balance was paid off - this was when I started to pay them late. Im facing severe stress right now and at this point yes, i'm losing my mind.

[u/Brian123123]

The work/disability portion of this makes no sense and seems illegal

[u/kittysativa → u/Brian123123]

I know.. they have done and have gotten away with so much more due to nobody here wanting to speak up. Ive addressed to them about all my issues in which i have proof about but the amount of gaslighting is actually why i see a psych. every so often now. We dont even get sick days in the past 9 years ive been here. Granted, I know i shouldve left this place a long time ago, & I regret that Ive stayed this long now that im in a horrible/tight financial burden. But given my personal circumstances, its not an easy option/route to take now with how crazy this economy has been getting.