Do I have grounds for a constructive eviction?
landlord tenant attorney New Jersey Jul 21, 2026
Location: Secaucus, New Jersey I’ll do my best to be brief but detailed here. My wife and I moved to New Jersey a few months ago from the south and our landlord no longer lives in the US. We live in a condo/townhouse neighborhood. We have mice. We don’t know how many, but this morning when my wife went to shower there was a round little mouse in our bath tub scrambling to try and get out. I have never heard my wife scream with more distress than in that moment. We had heard scratching downstairs recently and were going to call an exterminator to check it out, but had believed it to be our neighbors dog on the other side. This morning confirmed this to not be the case. I immediately called an exterminator who came out to see us same day, and checked all of the usual areas - the pantry where we heard some crunching this morning, the bathroom where we saw an actual mouse, behind the stove (where we found two dead mice on pre-existing traps that were not disclosed to my wife and I), the garage, the utility closet where the water and gas are, and behind the fridge. I emailed our landlord to let him know an exterminator had been called; we learned last month that when we moved into the home he moved back to his home country and we have been corresponding through email. There is a community manager for our neighborhood but we were told that only the owners of the unit should contact him. Due to this, I am looking to understand whether or not we are within our rights to undergo constructive eviction. Our stove does not work, one of our sinks broke, and our landlord offered us “repair and deduct” on the oven, telling us we can buy a new one and he would deduct the cost from our rent. We are currently feeling unsafe in the home (I am newly discovering that I may be allergic to mice - exciting), and we have two kittens that are about 9 months old that we would like to keep safe as well. I requested a report from the exterminator, but their verbal confirmation that I have currently is that the mice are likely in the walls of the building itself and have come over from another unit, meaning the entire building likely has some level of mouse infestation. Given all of that, is there a chance that we are eligible to utilize constructive eviction to end our lease without additional financial ramifications? Thank you
