Landlord Atlas

Fort Lee, New Jersey: Rent Control

Verified August 13, 2026 All New Jersey topics →

Fort Lee limits rent increases for most rental units to 5% of the base rent, no more than once every 12 months, with a lower 3.5% cap for qualified senior citizens and disabled tenants.

Cited to Code of the Borough of Fort Lee § 324-2 (5% cap; senior/disabled 3.5%) and 3 more sources · Verified August 13, 2026

Single-family homes, condominiums, and co-op rental units can be re-rented at a market rate when they become vacant, as long as the new rental is registered with the borough's Rent Leveling Board within 60 days. New construction gets a break: the ordinance leaves the initial rent of housing completed after January 1, 1977 unrestricted, and New Jersey law separately exempts newly built multiple dwellings from local rent control for up to 30 years.

What is in force

In force today. Derived from the borough's 1978 revised ordinances (adopted March 1, 1979) and codified as Code of the Borough of Fort Lee Chapter 324. The chapter's most recent amendment is Ordinance 2009-37 (November 2009); the borough's published list of adopted-but-uncodified ordinances contains no rent-control amendments as of August 13, 2026. The regime is actively administered by a Rent Leveling Board with members seated through 2028.

The rent increase limit

The general limit is 5% of the prior base rent, at most once every 12 consecutive months. For qualified senior citizens and disabled tenants the limit is 3.5%, applied through a maximum-annual-percentage formula built from weighted operating-cost, tax, and utility components with its own caps and carryover rules. Increases beyond the limits are void, and the board may grant at most one hardship or capital-improvement increase per year, conditioned on code compliance and current taxes.

What housing is covered

Any building, structure, trailer, or trailer-park land rented to one or more tenants, except motels, hotels, and structures of fewer than three units with one unit owner-occupied. Fort Lee Housing Authority dwellings and certain small nonprofit buildings serving subsidized tenants are exempt. Housing completed after January 1, 1977 is unrestricted in its initial rent, and New Jersey's state exemption for newly constructed multiple dwellings (up to 30 years) applies separately.

What happens on vacancy

Limited vacancy decontrol for single-family homes, condominium, and cooperative rental units only: on a voluntary vacancy or lawful eviction these may be re-rented at market, conditioned on registering the new rental within 60 days, with monetary penalties for failure. Standard apartment buildings get no vacancy decontrol, transfers within a building are capped at 15%, and re-rentals of decontrolled units require a board-filed notice — without the board's written receipt any increase on the unit is illegal.

Eviction and termination rules

The chapter imposes no eviction restrictions (state law governs), but its anti-harassment rule fines frivolous eviction threats or legal proceedings up to $2,000 per act, with repeat violations also forfeiting increase rights for three years and exposing the landlord to reimbursement of up to six months' rent.

Registration and filings

Landlords must register their identity, units, rents, and tenants with the Rent Leveling Office (housed at the Fort Lee Housing Authority), and no board relief is available unless the landlord has been registered for at least six months. Every new rental must be registered within 60 days. Owners of five or more units must report vacancies lasting 10 days and re-rent within 60 days absent an extension — an anti-warehousing rule with fines of $500 to $2,000 per day.

Other requirements

Increase notices go by certified mail to the tenant and the board with the calculations. Complaint, capital-improvement, and hardship applications carry modest fixed fees plus a professional-review escrow. Rebate complaints can reach back six years. Agents and brokers share liability for violations, with licensing-board referrals available.

Notes and caveats

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Fort Lee, New Jersey: Rent Control (verified August 13, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/new-jersey/fort-lee/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified).

Citations

This page records local law. Statewide rules — deposits, notice periods, late fees, entry, evictions — live on the New Jersey hub, and the state-level position on local rent regulation appears there with its own citations and verification date.