## Facts

- A landlord and a residential tenant entered a one-year written lease for a duplex apartment in Camden, New Jersey, at $95 per month; the lease included quiet enjoyment but no express repairs clause.
- The tenant discovered a cracked, leaking toilet and asserted repeated unsuccessful efforts to contact the landlord about the condition.
- The tenant hired a licensed plumber to repair the toilet and paid $85.72.
- The tenant tendered July rent minus the repair cost (sending $9.28 with the plumber’s receipt), effectively offsetting the repair expense against rent.
- The landlord rejected the offset and demanded full rent; the tenant did not pay the contested amount and later did not pay the next month’s rent.
- The landlord filed a summary dispossess action for nonpayment of rent, and the trial court entered judgment for possession on the view that the landlord had no repair duty absent an express covenant.
- The state supreme court took the appeal to address appealability of dispossess judgments, landlord repair duties in residential leases, and whether repair costs may be offset against rent.

## Issues

1. Whether a tenant’s claim of a lawful rent offset for necessary repairs is reviewable on appeal from a summary dispossess judgment for nonpayment of rent.
2. Whether a residential landlord has an implied duty to repair defects in facilities vital to residential use, even without an express repairs covenant.
3. Whether, after reasonable notice and landlord inaction, a tenant may make necessary repairs and deduct reasonable costs from rent as a defense to an eviction for nonpayment.

## Decision

- The court held that a tenant’s repair-and-deduct claim goes to whether rent was actually in default and is reviewable on appeal from a dispossess judgment.
- The court recognized an implied covenant in residential leases that vital facilities will be usable at the lease’s start and remain usable during the term, with a landlord duty to repair disrepair from ordinary wear and tear.
- The court held that, after reasonable notice and opportunity to cure, a tenant may make necessary repairs to vital facilities and deduct reasonable costs from future rent; a proper offset negates “default” for nonpayment dispossession.
- The judgment for possession was reversed and the matter remanded for factual findings on notice, necessity, causation, and reasonableness of the repair costs.

## Legal Principles

- In residential leases, courts may imply contractual duties consistent with the parties’ residential purpose and modern housing conditions.
- A landlord impliedly promises that facilities vital to residential use will be fit at inception and maintained in usable condition during the lease term, subject to ordinary wear and tear.
- A tenant may assert repair-and-deduct as a defense to nonpayment eviction if: (a) the defect concerns a vital facility, (b) the condition was not caused by the tenant, (c) the landlord received reasonable notice and an opportunity to repair, and (d) the repair and the amount deducted were necessary and reasonable.
- In a nonpayment dispossess action, the existence and amount of rent “default” may depend on legitimate offsets tied to the landlord’s breach of the implied duty to repair.

## Conclusion

The court reversed a possession judgment in a nonpayment dispossess action, holding that residential leases contain an implied covenant requiring landlords to maintain vital facilities in habitable condition and that tenants, after reasonable notice and landlord inaction, may repair and deduct reasonable costs from rent, thereby defeating a claim of rent default.


Marini v. Ireland, 56 N.J. 130, 265 A.2d 526 (N.J. 1970)