SENATE COMMUNITY AND URBAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 3171
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JUNE 17, 2024
The Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 3171.
As amended, this bill establishes a distinction between residential tenants and transient guests of a hotel or motel for the purpose of determining permitted removal actions. The bill codifies a multi-factor test, reflecting the existing test established by New Jersey courts, to apply in distinguishing between a tenant and a transient guest.
Specifically, in order to remove an occupant of a hotel or motel and determine whether a property owner is required to comply with the residential eviction process, and the restrictions on tenant removal established by the Anti-Eviction Act, P.L.1974, c.49 (C.2A:18-61.1 et seq.), the bill requires several factors to be considered, as provided in the bill. If the factors are generally accurate, then the occupant of a hotel or motel is to be considered a tenant, not a transient guest, unless the bill otherwise bars the occupant from being considered a tenant, concerning the lack of registration information, or the denial or expiration of emergency assistance.
The bill also provides that an occupant is to be considered a tenant if they are receiving or in the appeals process to receive emergency assistance pursuant to P.L.1997, c.14 (C.44:10-44 et al.), and the hotel or motel is being used as temporary housing. An occupant is to lose tenant privileges if emergency assistance has been denied or exhausted. The bill provides that if an occupant has willfully not provided the owner or operator with information necessary to register the occupant to the hotel or motel unit, then the occupant is not to be considered a tenant. Lastly, the bill provides that if an owner or operator willfully or negligently fails to collect occupant information necessary to register the occupant to the unit in which the occupant is assigned, the lack of registration is not to affect an occupant’s qualification for tenancy.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:
The committee amended the factors to be considered for determining that an occupant is to be considered a tenant to:
· allow for certain judicial discretion with respect to additional facts of the case;
· specify that to qualify for a factor based on length of stay, that an occupant is to have stayed at the hotel or motel for three months consecutively and in the same unit;
· provide that to qualify for a factor based on government records that an occupant may have changed their address on their driver’s license or non-driver identification card to the hotel or motel or be using the hotel or motel as their primary address; and
· specify that to qualify for a factor based on the knowledge of an owner or operator of a hotel or motel of the occupant’s intentions to stay long-term, that the operator is to have been notified by the occupant of an intent to stay for three months or longer.
The committee also amended the bill to utilize, throughout the bill, the broad term “occupant” rather than the previously defined term “guest” and to provide that an occupant is to be considered a tenant if the occupant is receiving or in the appeals process to receive emergency assistance pursuant to P.L.1997, c.14 (C.44:10-44 et al.), and the hotel or motel is being used as temporary housing. An occupant is to lose tenant privileges if emergency assistance has been denied or exhausted. The committee further amended the bill to provide that, if an occupant has willfully not provided the owner or operator with information necessary to register the occupant to the a hotel or motel unit, then the occupant is not to be considered a tenant; however, if an owner or operator willfully or negligently fails to collect occupant information necessary to register the occupant to the unit in which the occupant is assigned, the lack of registration is not to affect an occupant’s qualification for tenancy.