Animal House Designations

(This applies to summer rental properties only)

The Borough‘s Code Enforcement Department administers a large docket of Animal House proceedings each year, pursuant to the State‘s “Animal House” statute and Belmar‘s local Animal House Ordinance. The financial consequences to a Landlord and the tenants of a property that is the subject of Animal House proceedings can be very substantial. Most tenants, who understand the potential consequences of renting a property that is the subject of an Animal House bond, may choose to rent a different property. In an effort to clarify the process, and to enable residents and tenants to more clearly understand the stages of the Animal House process and to better identify the status of each Summer Rental Property in connection with that process, the Borough has adopted the following system of categorizing Summer Rental Properties .

UNCATEGORIZED PROPERTIES
Summer Rental properties are not categorized under the Animal House system unless and until a summons for a quality-of-life-type violation has been issued against the tenants of the property or their visitors, and that summons has been “substantiated,” meaning that the summons has resulted in a guilty plea or conviction in Belmar‘s Municipal Court. A Summer Rental property that has had no “substantiated” summonses within twelve months and has not been designated an “Animal House” is uncategorized.


CATEGORY III SUMMER RENTALS
(Two “substantiated” summonses within 24 month period)
Summer Rental properties are classified as Category III Summer Rental Properties if the tenants/visitors of the property receive two “substantiated” summonses for quality-of-life-type violations within a 24 month period. After the second summons becomes “substantiated”, the Borough Advocate will issue a Notice of Hearing to the Landlord notifying him or her that a public Animal House Hearing for that property has been scheduled before a Hearing Officer. If the Hearing Officer determines that the Borough has met its burden of proving that the Summer Rental Property should be designated an Animal House property, he will require that the Landlord post a bond, or cash in lieu of bond, in an amount of up to $5,000. Upon the issuance of the Hearing Officer‘s Decision and Order in this regard, the Summer Rental Property is immediately re-categorized as a Category I Animal House Summer Rental and will remain in this category for a period of four years Conversely, if the Hearing Officer determines that the Borough has failed to meet its burden of proof, the Summer Rental Property will become uncategorized.
 

CATEGORY II SUMMER RENTALS
(One “substantiated” summons in one rental season)
If there is one “substantiated” summons for a quality-of-life type violation in one rental season and there is a second “substantiated” summons in the next rental season (but within 24 months of the first summons) the property is categorized as a Category II Summer Rental. After the second summons becomes “substantiated”, the Borough Advocate will issue a Notice of Hearing to the Landlord notifying him or her that a public Animal House Hearing for that property has been scheduled before a Hearing Officer. If the Hearing Officer determines that the Borough has met its burden of proving that the Summer Rental Property should be designated an Animal House property, he will require that the Landlord post a bond, or cash in lieu of bond, in an amount of up to $5,000. Upon the issuance of the Hearing Officer‘s Decision and Order in this regard, the Summer Rental Property is immediately re-categorized as a Category I Animal House Summer Rental and will remain in this category for a period of four years. If there is no second “substantiated” summons within 12 months of the first “substantiated” summons, the property is removed from the Category II list and becomes uncategorized.
 

CATEGORY I ANIMAL HOUSE SUMMER RENTALS
(Declared Animal House — Bond or Cash in Lieu Posted by Landlord)

Once a Hearing Officer has determined that a Summer Rental Property is an Animal House and orders the property owner to post a bond, or cash deposit in lieu thereof, the property is designated as a Category I Animal House Summer Rental. The property will continue to be classified as a Category I Animal House Summer Rental for a period of 4 years following the date the ond or cas deposit has been posted. If the property should have one “substantiated” summons for a quality-of-life-type violation issued against the tenants/visitors of this property at any time during this 4-year period, the Landlord will be notified that a public Animal House Hearing has been scheduled before a Hearing Officer. If there are no “substantiated” summonses for quality-of-life-type violations in connection with the property during this 4-year period, the Property will become uncategorized.

 CATEGORY I ANIMAL HOUSE SUMMER RENTAL REPRESSION EFFORTS
Immediately upon the substantiation of a summons issued for a quality-of-life type violation to any tenant/visitor at a Category I Animal House, the Borough will have the right to undertake repression efforts against the property, and to seek to collect the cost of those efforts from the bond, or cash deposit in lieu thereof, posted by the Landlord. Typically, the repression efforts undertaken by the Borough consist of hiring Police or Sheriff‘s officers, at an approximate cost of $60 per hour, who are assigned to park in front of the Animal House on weekend evenings to strictly enforce the Borough‘s quality-of-life ordinances against the occupants of the property. The cost of these repression efforts can amount to approximately $1,000 per weekend, and $1,500 per three-day holiday weekend.
At the Animal House Hearing the Borough Advocate will seek to recover from the posted Animal House bond, or cash deposited in lieu thereof, the Borough‘s costs associated with the repression efforts, and to further require that the amount of the bond, or cash deposit in lieu thereof, be replenished and/or increased to $5,000 and that the four year time period be renewed from the date of the new posted bond or cash deposit.

During the summer rental season there may be either Sheriff’s Officers or Police Officers posted at certain Category I properties on the weekends. This is to ensure the quality of life in those neighborhoods.

Landlord‘s often seek to hold their tenants liable for the cost of these repression efforts, and therefore prospective summer rental tenants are encouraged to review their summer rental leases carefully for language that would impose such liability, and to consider carefully the potential financial consequences before renting any property that is listed as a Category II or I Summer Rental Property in the Borough.

Property status of Category I, II & III Summer Rentals changes frequently. If you would like to find out the status of a certain property please contact the Code Enforcement Department.

Click here to view the Complete List of Category 1 Animal House Properties as of 5/24/21