New Jersey Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in New Jersey
New Jersey permits local rent control — more than one hundred municipalities have rent-control or rent-leveling ordinances, adopted under general municipal police powers upheld by the New Jersey Supreme Court — while state law expressly authorizes rent regulation of substandard multiple dwellings and exempts newly constructed multiple dwellings from local rent-increase limits for up to 30 years.
- Atlantic City — Rent Control
- Bayonne — Rent Control
- East Orange — Rent Control
- Elizabeth — Rent Control and Stabilization
- Fort Lee — Rent Control
- Hoboken — Rent Control
- Jersey City — Rent Control
- Newark — Rent Control
- Passaic — Rent Stabilization
- Paterson — Rent Leveling
More than one hundred New Jersey municipalities have rent control or rent leveling ordinances of their own. The records above cover ten of the largest regimes, not the full list — a landlord anywhere else in New Jersey should check the municipal code directly.
Cited to N.J.S.A. 2A:42-84.1 to -84.6 (new-construction exemption from local rent control; official DCA statute text) , N.J.S.A. 2A:42-74 et seq. (substandard multiple-dwelling rent control authorization; official DCA compilation) · Verified August 12, 2026 · Full New Jersey rent-increase rules →
New Jersey Security deposits
New Jersey caps security deposits at one and a half months' rent — and the cap counts every dollar of prepaid money however it's labeled, so a landlord cannot stack 'last month's rent' on top of a full deposit.
New Jersey Rent increase notice
New Jersey has no single rent-increase-notice statute; instead, to raise the rent on a month-to-month tenant the landlord must serve a written notice to quit terminating the existing tenancy — one month's notice under N.J.S.A. 2A:18-56 — paired with an offer of a new tenancy at the higher rent.
New Jersey Late fees
New Jersey sets no statewide cap on residential late fees and no general grace period — a late charge is enforceable if the lease clearly provides for it and the amount is reasonable.
New Jersey Entry notice
New Jersey has no statute fixing how many hours of notice a landlord must give before entering a rental unit.
New Jersey Eviction process
New Jersey eviction runs on two ideas that surprise landlords from other states: almost every tenant can only be evicted for statutory good cause, and yet simple nonpayment of rent needs NO advance notice at all — the landlord can file the summary dispossess action in the Special Civil Part the moment rent is due and owing.
New Jersey Application fees
New Jersey caps what it costs to apply for a rental: since May 1, 2026 a landlord or their agent may not charge more than $50 in application and similar fees for one application, and before taking any application fee a housing provider must say in writing whether it will look at criminal history and that the applicant may answer with corrections or evidence of rehabilitation.
New Jersey mobile home park laws
New Jersey's park law sits in three places: the mobile home park law (N.J.S.A. 46:8C-2 to 46:8C-9) requires a written lease offer of at least 12 months and protects the sale of a home in place, the Manufactured Home Park Protection Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8C-10 to 46:8C-21) gives residents a right of first refusal when the community is sold, and the Anti-Eviction Act allows a lot tenancy to end only for cause.
Lot-rent, closure, park-sale and home-sale rules with statute citations →
The New Jersey FAIR Act: rent-pricing software is now regulated
Signed July 20, 2026, effective July 1, 2027 — what P.L.2026, c.43 bans, who it covers (every NJ landlord, from one unit up), and what stays legal.
New Jersey Fair Market Rents (FY 2026) — HUD's benchmark rents for every New Jersey metro area and county.
How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text of N.J.S.A. 46:8-21.1 (full text via the 2025 code mirror, corroborated by a 2025 NJ Appellate Division opinion on njcourts.gov construing 46:8-19 and 46:8-21.1), cross-checked against the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs' official 'Truth in Renting' guide (the state's authoritative landlord-tenant publication) for the 46:8-21.2 cap, prepaid-rent rule, 10% annual increase cap, pet-deposit rule, late-charge rules, and the 2A:42-6.1 protected-tenant grace period. New Jersey's official statute portal (njleg.state.nj.us) does not provide stable deep links to code sections, so section citations link to a code mirror where no official URL exists, with the official DCA guide and court opinion cited as official sources.