New Jersey landlord-tenant law

Since May 1, 2026, a landlord or agent may not charge more than $50 as an application or similar fee to apply to rent a home. The cap does not apply to a unit in a one-family or two-family dwelling, or to a real estate licensee who is not the landlord, and it is adjusted each January for inflation starting in 2027, with the current figure posted by the Division of Consumer Affairs.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-18.1 P.L.2025, c.405, s.3 (effective date)

New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination makes it unlawful to refuse to rent, or to set different terms, because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, pregnancy or breastfeeding, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, familial status, disability, military service, nationality, or source of lawful income used for rent.

N.J.S.A. 10:5-12(g)

Most New Jersey landlords owe several written notices. Give each new tenant the Department of Community Affairs' current Truth in Renting statement at or before the time the tenant moves in, and keep it posted where all tenants can see it. Give each tenant a copy of your landlord registration certificate when the tenancy starts. Before signing or renewal, give the flood risk notice. For a unit built before 1978 that is not exempt, have a valid lead-safe certification at tenant turnover, give the new tenant evidence of it and attach a copy to the lease as an exhibit.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-46 N.J.S.A. 46:8-29 N.J.S.A. 46:8-50 N.J.S.A. 52:27D-437.16(e)(2)

Before a lease is signed or renewed, tell each tenant in writing whether the property is in FEMA's Special Flood Hazard Area (100-year floodplain) or Moderate Risk Flood Hazard Area (500-year floodplain), and whether you know of flood damage, water seepage or pooled water from a natural flood on the premises or its parking areas. In a written residential lease the notice must be a separate rider, signed or otherwise acknowledged by the tenant, in at least 12-point type.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-50(a), (b)

Every landlord must file a certificate of registration: with the municipal clerk for a one-unit rental or a two-unit building you do not live in, or with the Department of Community Affairs' Bureau of Housing Inspection for a multiple dwelling. It lists the owners, any managing agent, a 24-hour emergency contact, mortgage holders and, if an owner lives outside the county, an in-county agent for notices and service. Give each tenant a copy when the tenancy begins.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-28 N.J.S.A. 46:8-29

You may not require more than one and one-half times one month's rent as security for a home used as a dwelling. If you later collect additional security, the yearly increase may not be more than 10 percent of the current deposit.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-21.2

Within 30 days after the lease ends, return the deposit with the tenant's share of the interest, less charges allowed by the lease, by personal delivery or by registered or certified mail. Itemize the interest and every deduction, and send that notice the same way.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-21.1

If you hold deposits for fewer than 10 units, put them in an interest-bearing account at a federally insured bank, savings bank or savings and loan in New Jersey. With 10 or more units, use an insured money market fund of a New Jersey-based investment company or a New Jersey bank account paying a variable money market rate. The interest belongs to the tenant.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-19(a), (b)

The Security Deposit Act, read in full, does not require a move-in inspection or condition checklist. A written record still helps you support any deduction you itemize at move-out.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-19 to 46:8-26

No New Jersey statute read for this page caps a late fee on residential rent, and a search of the compiled statutes for "late fee" and "late charge" found none. One grace rule does apply: if rent is due on the first of the month and the tenant is a senior citizen receiving a Social Security old age, railroad retirement or other governmental pension in place of it, or receives Social Security disability, Supplemental Security Income or Work First New Jersey benefits, you must allow five business days' grace and may not charge a late fee for that period.

N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.1 N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.3

No statute read caps a returned check fee in a lease. New Jersey's bad check law gives you a civil claim instead: if a check or electronic payment is dishonored and the maker does not pay the face amount in cash, cashier's check or certified check within 35 days after you mail a demand by certified mail, you can recover the amount plus attorney's fees, court costs, the mailing cost and damages of $100 or three times the amount, whichever is greater, but no more than $500 above the amount.

N.J.S.A. 2A:32A-1

There is no single statewide percentage cap for ordinary residential rent increases; check special property and housing-program rules as well as local ordinances. For a tenant protected by the Anti-Eviction Act, an increase is enforceable through eviction only after a valid notice to quit and a notice of the increase, and only if the increase is not unconscionable and complies with any law or local ordinance on rent increases. The statutes read for this page do not set a number of days for that notice for a protected tenant.

N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1(f)

No New Jersey statute read for this page sets a notice period before you enter a tenant's home. The state's housing maintenance regulations for multiple dwellings were not read and may address entry, so check them before relying on a lease term.

N.J.S.A. 55:13A-7

The Department of Community Affairs sets maintenance standards for multiple dwellings (three or more units) by regulation, and the rent receivership law lets tenants ask a court to use rents to fix conditions that substantially violate state or local housing or health codes. The broader duty to keep a rental habitable comes from New Jersey court decisions, which were not read for this page.

N.J.S.A. 55:13A-7 N.J.S.A. 2A:42-88

By statute, a tenant or a public officer may ask the court to have rents deposited with it and used to correct conditions that substantially violate housing or health codes, or to correct a wrongful diversion of utility service. Repair-and-deduct and rent abatement rest on court decisions, which were not read for this page.

N.J.S.A. 2A:42-87 N.J.S.A. 2A:42-88

The statutes read for this page set no general lock or rekeying rule for rentals; the state's housing regulations, which may, were not read. One statute applies: if a court order in a domestic violence case requires it, you must change the locks within 48 hours of the victim's written request, or the victim may change them and must give you a key within 48 hours.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.14

A one- or two-family home must have a listed smoke alarm on each level and outside each sleeping area, and before a new occupant moves in you need a certificate showing the alarms comply, from the municipal official who issues certificates of occupancy or, where there is none, from the local fire safety enforcement agency. Multiple dwellings must have smoke detectors or alarms under the Department of Community Affairs' rules. Since P.L.2025, c.19, a one- or two-family home with a secondary power source, such as solar panels or a battery, must also have a warning label within 18 inches of the main electrical panel and the electric meter.

N.J.S.A. 52:27D-198.1 N.J.S.A. 52:27D-198.2 N.J.S.A. 55:13A-7.1

You may not serve a notice to quit, file for possession or substantially change the tenancy as a reprisal for a tenant's effort to enforce rights under the lease or the law, a good faith complaint to a government agency about a health or safety violation, or involvement in a lawful tenant organization. A notice to quit or a substantial change without cause after such activity is presumed to be reprisal, and you must rebut it.

N.J.S.A. 2A:42-10.10 N.J.S.A. 2A:42-10.12

Only a court officer executing a warrant of removal may put a residential tenant out. Entering a home to take possession without the occupant's consent or the court process is a disorderly persons offense, and so is a lockout or forcible entry, or refusing to restore a displaced tenant, after an official warns you; the displaced tenant may reenter with a police officer present. Shutting off heat, electricity, water or other vital services to regain possession is itself a forcible entry and detainer, and a second conviction within five years is a fourth degree crime.

N.J.S.A. 2C:33-11.1 N.J.S.A. 2A:39-1

If the Anti-Eviction Act covers the home, a month-to-month tenancy does not end just because you give notice: you need one of the Act's good causes, with the notice that cause requires. Only where the Act does not apply, such as an owner-occupied building with no more than two rental units, does one month's notice to quit end a month-to-month tenancy.

N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1 N.J.S.A. 2A:18-53 N.J.S.A. 2A:18-56(b)

New Jersey lets a tenant end a lease early in several situations. Under the Safe Housing Act, a tenant who gives written notice that the tenant or a child faces an imminent threat of serious physical harm from a named person, with one of the listed documents, may end the lease; it ends on the 30th day after you receive the notice unless you agree to an earlier date. Whether you must try to re-rent after a tenant simply leaves early comes from court decisions, which were not read for this page.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.6 N.J.S.A. 46:8-9.7

For a tenant protected by the Anti-Eviction Act, you do not have to serve a notice to quit or a demand before filing an eviction for unpaid rent: the written demand and notice the Act requires apply to every ground except nonpayment and failure to pay a lawful increase.

N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.2

For most breaches you must first give a written notice to cease, and if the tenant continues, a notice to quit before you file. After a written notice to cease, a continued substantial breach of either of these needs one month's notice to quit: a reasonable rule the tenant accepted in writing or that was in the lease from the start, or a reasonable lease term that was in the lease from the start where the lease reserves a right of reentry. Disorderly conduct that destroys the peace of other occupants needs three days'.

N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1(b), (d), (e) N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.2(a), (b)

Eviction process

Evictions are heard in the Superior Court, Law Division, Special Civil Part. For a protected tenant you must prove one of the Anti-Eviction Act's good causes and give any notice it requires. After a judgment, a court officer executes the warrant of removal no earlier than the third day after serving it, not counting weekends and court holidays, and only between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. unless the court orders otherwise.

N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1 N.J.S.A. 2A:42-10.16(b), (c)

You may dispose of property a tenant leaves behind only after a warrant of removal has been executed or the tenant has given written notice of leaving, only if you reasonably believe the tenant does not intend to claim it, and only after written notice by certified mail or receipted first class mail to the tenant's last known address and any other known address, marked "Please Forward".

N.J.S.A. 2A:18-72 N.J.S.A. 2A:18-73

A tenant or landlord can bring a security deposit dispute of up to $5,000, including any penalties and excluding costs, in the Small Claims Division of the Special Civil Part. A tenant who received state or federal rental assistance does not have to sue to recover a withheld deposit in order to keep that assistance. The general small claims limit for other disputes is set by court rule, which was not read for this page.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-21.4 N.J.S.A. 46:8-21.5

Most New Jersey residential tenants can be removed only for one of the Anti-Eviction Act's listed causes, even after the lease ends. The causes include nonpayment, disorderly conduct, damage, breach of reasonable rules or lease terms after notice, refusing reasonable lease changes at renewal, habitual late payment, owner occupancy in a building of three or fewer units, and certain criminal convictions.

N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1

In a multiple dwelling, on a tenant's written request you must install and maintain approved window guards in a unit where a child 10 or younger lives or is regularly present, and in the public hallway windows. Every lease in a multiple dwelling must carry a notice of this right in prominent boldface type.

N.J.S.A. 55:13A-7.13(a) N.J.S.A. 55:13A-7.14(a)

You may not require a tenant to pay rent or other lease amounts by electronic funds transfer, including automatic recurring payments. Give a printed or emailed receipt for every cash payment, showing the amount, purpose, date, both names and who accepted it.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-49.1 N.J.S.A. 46:8-49.2

Screening sequence and report notices

Partly read

Keep the stages of a rental application distinct. New Jersey's Fair Chance rules control when covered criminal-history information may be requested and considered, while federal consumer-report duties can require a separate notice about an unfavorable report-based decision. A screening service or consent form does not replace those steps.

New Jersey DCR: Fair Chance in Housing Act FTC: landlord consumer-report guidance

Rent control and local rules

Partly read

For ordinary residential units, New Jersey generally leaves rent control to municipalities; many municipalities have their own rent control or rent leveling ordinances, which were not read for this page. State law exempts newly built multiple dwellings from an ordinance's limits on periodic increases for the period of the initial mortgage amortization or 30 years after construction, whichever is less, if the owner files a claim of exemption with the municipal construction official at least 30 days before the certificate of occupancy issues.

N.J.S.A. 2A:42-84.2 N.J.S.A. 2A:42-84.4