New Jersey Tenants Point to a Blacklist That Landlords Say Doesn't Exist

In 2007, Newark resident Eric Martindale joined 28 other renters across Newark in a rent strike to protest living conditions. For months, instead of posting the rent with the landlord, he said they deposited the money with a court-held escrow account.

After about six months, some tenants grew frustrated. "There were a few tenants who said, 'I'm outta' here.'"

But something happened when they tried to leave, Martindale said in an interview from his apartment in a North Ward high-rise. "They couldn't move."

Other landlords refused to rent to them, and Martindale believes it was because the landlords were aware of the court action against their landlords. "They said, 'If they're making trouble there, they're going to make trouble here.'"

But attorneys Derek Reed and Bruce Gudin — both from the Newark-based law firm Ehrlich, Petriello, Gudin & Plaza — deny there is such a list floating around.

Gudin said landlords have a right to use public records to screen candidates, and that includes court records that show that an applicant has prior involvement in an eviction case.

Reed said landlords don't get to see detailed information on those prior cases that could shed more light on what the tenant's role was.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is hosting a meeting in Newark with tenants' groups to discuss legislation that would prevent blacklisting in the tenant screening process. Among other things, he is proposing to limit the information available in landlord searches, to three years.