Marlin Leasing Renewed a lease without contacting me at end or original lease. Mount Laurel, New Jersey

I initially signed a lease with Coast Financial for a single head commercial embroidery machine in Nov. of 2006.  In Dec. of 2007 this lease was transferred to Marlin Leasing.  The original lease clearly stated that it was a 36 month lease with a 10% buyout.  As the end of the lease was approaching I attempted to contact Marlin re: the buyout amount with no return of my phone calls.  I kept waiting for an invoice identifying the buyout amount.  In July of 2010, they sent me a letter indicating that my "existing lease expires on 02/16/2011".  This should have expired on 02/16/2010.  To my horror they had renewed my lease for an additional year for the same payments without contacting me prior to the end of the original lease.  When I contacted them and finally talked to a real person, they indicated that unless I notified them 90 -180 days prior to end of the original lease, they automatically renewed it for another year.  When I asked why they had not contacted me prior to the end of the original lease, they stated, "We don't have to do that".  So I paid an additional $1200.00 on this lease.  I am aware that I should have been more diligent in noticing that payments continued to be automatically deducted from my account.  I find it difficult to understand that automatically renewing a lease which had clear provisions would even be legal.  It certainly does not say much for Marlin's customer service.  An expensive lesson.