[NJ - Basement Rental] Moved into my very own apartment 3 weeks ago, building caught on fire, my apartment flooded. Total loss of everything own AND turns out the rental is illegal? Landlords asking me to commit insurance fraud.

Genuinely devastated at this situation, I was so excited and proud to have my very first apartment without roommates... but it literally went up in flames.

Details about the rental -

• it is a basement apartment,
• there are two exits but one stays locked at all times (being the exit to the main house), the apartment has its own entryway.
• There is no thermostat to control the temperature
• all of the windows are your typical teeny tiny basement windows. One in each room, only a small cat could climb out of these if required
• a real estate agent signed off on this rental. I have an official signed lease for 12 months, I paid a security deposit & first months rent.
• I had no reason to believe this was an illegal rental, it all seemed up to snuff to me considering that there was an agent from a legitimate company and the landlords signed on everything as well
• Also to note - post fire the landlords removed the oven from my kitchen (the apartment is uninhabitable due to the fire, but not sure why they would remove this? I have pics that it was there at one point)

A few days after the fire, the landlords called me and told me that it is an illegal rental. As a result they need me to lie to their homeowners insurance rep and say that I'm a "family member, who doesn't pay rent and just lives with them and has all my stuff there". I looked into it and that would 100% fall squarely under insurance fraud.

I hate having to deal with this, I'm already dealing with the fact that I was in a dangerous situation and dealing with loosing all of my belongings.

Should I hire a lawyer? I reached out to a tenant advocate lawyer and they are reviewing my lease & police report to then give a consultation - if I am pleased with them should I hire them? Should I sue the landlords and the real estate agent?? What would going to court even result in? Would I be paying exuberant amounts of cash just to have them get a slap on the wrist?

Details about the fire for anyone interested:

• Since this is an illegal rental no one knew I was in the basement. I was asleep and didn't hear any of the banging from the cops. The cops had a shocked pikachu face when I finally made it out safely. Landlords were not at the house when this all happened.
• I had roughly a 15 minute delay on even knowing the building was on fire since the fire originated on the roof
• If it weren't for my partner being there, we would have a very morbid situation on our hands, as I said before I was dead asleep.
• I genuinely feel like I was put in a highly dangerous situation that could have been much worse, I have hardly slept a wink since. This happened a few days ago and I'm going a million miles a minute trying to get my life back in order.

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Also apparently in NJ there is an illegal rental thing with the state, if you tell the city about it and you are in that illegal rental you can get a 6 months of rent lump sum payment from the landlord due 5 days before the court orders you to move out... not sure if I could claim this in my situation.

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Also stressed out at the idea that maybe the landlords have already lied on my behalf? I'm supposed to be there when the homeowners insurance agent comes to assess the damages but I've heard nothing... this is all just so screwed up.

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TO CLARIFY: I AM NOT COMMITING INSURANCE FRAUD NO JAIL FOR ME TY

submitted by /u/Rainecc
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/vn900r/nj_basement_rental_moved_into_my_very_own/