New Jersey · Statewide Landlord-Tenant Law

New Jersey Landlord-Tenant Laws: The Complete Overview

Deposits, rent increases, entry, late fees, habitability, eviction, and more – every core New Jersey rental rule in one place, each linked to its full New Jersey guide.

New Jersey gives tenants some of the strongest protections in the country, anchored by the Anti-Eviction Act, which bars a landlord from removing most tenants without proving one of a fixed list of legal grounds. The rest of the framework is scattered across the Rent Security Deposit Act, the holdover statute at N.J.S.A. 46:8-10 and the notice-to-quit statute at N.J.S.A. 2A:18-56, the habitability duty at N.J.S.A. 2A:42-85, the Law Against Discrimination, and a body of landmark court decisions – so a single tenancy can touch a statute, a court case, and a local ordinance all at once.

This overview pulls the whole New Jersey framework together and points to the detailed guide behind each topic. If you are evaluating a new applicant first, our step-by-step walkthrough of how to screen tenants pairs well with the statute summaries below, and every figure on this page is drawn from the individual New Jersey guides it links to.

▶

Video: a plain-language walkthrough of the New Jersey rental rules that matter most to landlords and tenants.

Key Takeaways: New Jersey Landlord-Tenant Laws

• Deposits are capped at one and a half months’ rent under the Rent Security Deposit Act, held in an interest-bearing account and returned within thirty days with itemization.
• Just cause is required to evict most tenants under the Anti-Eviction Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1) – there is no simple no-fault removal.
• Rent has no statewide cap, but more than one hundred municipalities run local rent control, and the state default notice to change terms is one month.
• Late fees have no fixed statutory ceiling and must be reasonable and written into the lease. The five-business-day grace period in N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.1 is not general — N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.3 confines it to tenants receiving Social Security old-age or Railroad Retirement pensions, an equivalent government pension, SSDI, SSI, or Work First New Jersey benefits. Every other tenant’s grace period comes from the lease, not the statute.
• The landlord must try to re-rent after a tenant breaks a lease – the duty to mitigate comes from Sommer v. Kridel.
• Criminal history is off-limits until a conditional offer under the Fair Chance in Housing Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8-52 to 46:8-64), in force since January 1, 2022, which also caps the look-back at six, four, or one year by degree of offense and requires a six-factor individualized assessment under N.J.S.A. 46:8-56(c)(3) before a conditional offer is withdrawn. Owner-occupied buildings of four units or fewer are exempt.

New Jersey Landlord-Tenant Law at a Glance

The table below collects the headline figures from each of New Jersey’s individual law guides in one place. Every number is drawn from the detailed New Jersey page for that topic – follow the section links that follow for the full rules, conditions, and worked examples behind each figure.

Topic	New Jersey rule	Primary authority
Security deposit cap	One and a half months’ rent	N.J.S.A. 46:8-19 to 46:8-26
Deposit return	Thirty days, itemized (five days if displaced)	Rent Security Deposit Act
Rent-increase notice	One month to change terms; no statewide cap	N.J.S.A. 2A:18-56 and 2A:18-61.1(f), plus local ordinances
Landlord entry	At least one day’s notice (multiple dwellings)	Housing regulations and quiet enjoyment
Late-fee rule	No fixed cap; must be reasonable and in the lease; five-BUSINESS-day grace for benefit recipients only	N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.1 and 2A:42-6.3
Habitability	Non-waivable warranty; essential systems	N.J.S.A. 2A:42-85; Marini v. Ireland
Eviction	Just cause required; court warrant only	Anti-Eviction Act 2A:18-61.1
Lease-termination notice	One month for month-to-month (only where the Anti-Eviction Act does not apply)	N.J.S.A. 2A:18-56(b)
Application fee	Capped at $50; flat ceiling, not actual cost; CPI-adjusted annually from January 1, 2027; one- and two-family rentals exempt	N.J.S.A. 46:8-18.1
Source of income	Lawful source of income is a protected class	N.J.S.A. 10:5-12 (LAD)
Criminal-record screening	No inquiry before a conditional offer; look-back six years (1st degree), four years (2nd/3rd), one year (4th); six-factor individualized assessment before withdrawal; owner-occupied buildings of four units or fewer exempt	Fair Chance in Housing Act, N.J.S.A. 46:8-52 to 46:8-64

New Jersey Security Deposit Laws

A New Jersey security deposit is capped at one and a half months’ rent under the Rent Security Deposit Act, and any money a landlord collects up front – however it is labeled – is generally treated as part of that deposit. The deposit must be held in a separate, interest-bearing account at a New Jersey bank, with the interest paid or credited to the tenant each year at the prevailing rate, less a permitted administrative allowance.

Once the tenant vacates, the landlord must return the deposit within thirty days, together with an itemized statement of any deductions – and only five days when the tenant is displaced by fire, flood, condemnation, or evacuation. Deductions are limited to unpaid rent and damage beyond normal wear and tear, never routine cleaning between tenants. Wrongful withholding exposes a landlord to double-damages liability. For the full deduction rules and the move-out timeline, see our complete guide to New Jersey security deposit laws.

New Jersey Rent Increase Laws

New Jersey has no statewide cap on how much rent can be raised, which makes rent increases one of the most location-dependent questions in the state’s landlord-tenant law. What the state does regulate is timing: for a month-to-month tenancy the landlord must give at least one month’s written notice to quit ending the existing terms before a new rent takes effect — the measure in N.J.S.A. 2A:18-56(b), with the unconscionability limit of N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1(f) — and not, as many summaries state, under N.J.S.A. 46:8-10, and the notice must state the new amount and its effective date.

Layered on top of the state default is heavy local control. More than one hundred New Jersey municipalities run their own rent-control programs, each with its own annual ceiling and its own notice rules – many rent-controlled towns require sixty days’ notice or more. Mid-lease increases on a fixed-term lease are generally not allowed unless the lease expressly permits them, and no increase may be retaliatory or discriminatory. See the full breakdown in our guide to New Jersey rent increase laws.

New Jersey Landlord Entry Laws

New Jersey does not set a single statutory entry-notice number for all rentals. Instead, entry is shaped by the type of building and by the tenant’s covenant of quiet enjoyment. For multiple-dwelling buildings, the state’s housing regulations require at least one day’s notice before a non-emergency entry, and for other rentals quiet enjoyment requires reasonable notice – so one day of written notice is the dependable standard statewide.

The notice should be specific: the date, a reasonable time window, and the reason for entry, whether a repair, an inspection, or a showing. A genuine emergency threatening safety, health, or the property allows entry without notice, but a vague “sometime next week” does not. For reasonable-hour guidance and sample entry-notice language, read our full guide to New Jersey landlord entry laws.

New Jersey Late Fee Laws

Unlike some states, New Jersey does not set a specific statutory dollar or percentage cap on late fees. A late fee is instead governed by ordinary contract-law principles, meaning it must be reasonable rather than a punitive penalty; charges in the five-to-ten-percent range are generally accepted, while a much higher fee can be challenged as an unenforceable penalty. The fee must also be written into the lease – a landlord cannot impose one the lease never mentions.

New Jersey’s statutory grace period is narrow, not general. N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.1 gives a five-business-day grace period in which no late charge may be made — but N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.3 confines that protection to tenants receiving Social Security old-age or Railroad Retirement pensions, an equivalent government pension, Social Security Disability, Supplemental Security Income, or Work First New Jersey benefits. Every other New Jersey tenant has no statutory grace period at all; any grace comes from the lease. A landlord who wants a fee to stick should keep it within the customary range, tie it to actual administrative costs, and apply it consistently to avoid selective-enforcement and discrimination claims. The full fee-reasonableness discussion and enforcement notes are in our guide to New Jersey late fee laws.

New Jersey Habitability Laws

Every residential tenancy in New Jersey carries an implied warranty of habitability, recognized by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Marini v. Ireland and reinforced by the statutory duty at N.J.S.A. 2A:42-85. The landlord must keep the unit fit to live in for the whole tenancy – working essential systems such as heat, water, and electricity, structural soundness, and compliance with building and housing codes – and the duty runs throughout the lease, not just at move-in.

When a landlord fails to make a repair after written notice and a reasonable chance to fix it, the tenant has remedies rooted in the Marini doctrine, including judicial repair-and-deduct – making the repair and offsetting the cost against rent – and, where the defect makes the unit unusable, a constructive-eviction claim that can end the lease. Because these remedies are procedure-heavy, written notice by certified mail is strongly advised. See our complete guide to New Jersey habitability laws.

New Jersey Eviction Notice Laws

Eviction in New Jersey is a court process, and the Anti-Eviction Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1) is the centerpiece: a landlord must prove one of the statute’s enumerated grounds – just cause – to remove most tenants, so there is no simple no-fault removal of a tenant who has done nothing wrong. Cases are filed in the Special Civil Part where the property sits, and hearings are typically scheduled within a few weeks of filing.

For non-payment, New Jersey proceeds on a rent demand rather than a fixed pay-or-quit period, and a tenant can defeat a case by paying before judgment or by raising defenses such as improper notice, habitability problems, retaliation, or procedural defects. A tenant is physically removed only under a court-issued warrant of possession executed by a court officer – self-help lockouts, utility shutoffs, and removing belongings are all illegal. For the full notice ladder, timelines, and defenses, read our guide to New Jersey eviction notice laws.

New Jersey Lease Termination Laws

Ending a New Jersey month-to-month tenancy requires one month’s written notice to quit — the measure in N.J.S.A. 2A:18-56(b). N.J.S.A. 46:8-10, commonly cited for this, is titled “Tenant holding over; tenancy from month to month” and sets no notice period at all: it provides only that a holdover becomes a month-to-month tenancy. A fixed-term lease generally runs through its end date; ending it earlier takes a statutory ground or a mutual written agreement. The notice should clearly state the intended termination date and be delivered in a way that creates a provable record.

What makes New Jersey distinctive is that termination and non-renewal are still governed by the Anti-Eviction Act. Even after proper notice, a landlord usually cannot force out a protected tenant – including a holdover who stays past the lease end – without establishing one of the statutory just-cause grounds in a Special Civil Part action. Auto-renewal clauses are enforceable only with clear disclosure and timely notice. Our guide to New Jersey lease termination laws walks through each tenancy type and the delivery methods that hold up in court.

New Jersey Breaking Lease Laws

New Jersey recognizes several protected grounds for a tenant to break a lease early without ordinary penalty. Domestic-violence victims may terminate under the New Jersey Safe Housing Act on providing qualifying documentation, which the landlord must keep confidential; active-duty servicemembers may terminate under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and the parallel state right at N.J.S.A. 38:23C-14; and a unit that becomes uninhabitable can support a constructive-eviction exit under the warranty from Marini v. Ireland.

Even where no protected ground applies, New Jersey does not leave the tenant on the hook for the entire remaining term. In Sommer v. Kridel, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that a landlord seeking damages must make reasonable efforts to re-rent the unit at fair market value, so a departing tenant generally owes only the rent for the vacancy gap plus actual re-rental costs. A landlord who never tries to re-rent forfeits the rent that effort would have recovered. See the documentation deadlines in our guide to New Jersey breaking lease laws.

New Jersey Pet and ESA Laws

A private New Jersey landlord may set pet policies, breed restrictions, and pet rent, but a separate pet deposit is effectively limited because any money collected up front counts toward the one-and-a-half-month security-deposit cap. Assistance animals, however, sit entirely outside a landlord’s pet rules.

Emotional support animals and service animals are protected under the federal Fair Housing Act, the ADA, and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. A landlord must grant a reasonable accommodation for a qualified assistance animal, cannot charge a pet fee or deposit for it, and cannot apply no-pet or breed rules to it – state and federal law can add protection on top of one another but never subtract. Read the accommodation process and documentation limits in our guide to New Jersey pet and ESA laws.

New Jersey Tenant Screening Laws

New Jersey caps the rental application fee. Since May 1, 2026, N.J.S.A. 46:8-18.1 (P.L. 2025, c.405, approved January 20, 2026) has barred a landlord or agent from requiring an application or other similar fee to apply to lease or sublease a residential rental property that exceeds $50 – a flat ceiling, not an actual-cost test. The bill’s original formula, which tied the fee to the actual cost of a credit check, was struck before enactment, so a landlord can no longer justify a higher charge by pointing at what the screen cost. Two situations are exempt: a dwelling unit in a one-family or two-family dwelling offered for rent, and a New Jersey Real Estate Commission licensee who is not the landlord of the property (N.J.S.A. 46:8-18.1(c)). That carve-out is not the Fair Chance in Housing Act’s – the fee cap turns on the size of the dwelling, the Act on owner-occupancy of a building of four units or fewer, so a landlord can easily be exempt from one and bound by the other.

Enforcement of the fee cap sits with the Division of Consumer Affairs rather than the Division on Civil Rights: penalties run up to $500 for a first offense, $750 for a second, and $1,000 for each subsequent offense, collected by summary proceedings in the Special Civil Part of the county where the property sits, on the complaint of the Director or the Attorney General – and the amount wrongfully charged is taken out of the penalty and remitted to the applicant (N.J.S.A. 46:8-18.1(b)). The $50 figure is not permanent: beginning January 1, 2027 it is adjusted each year in proportion to the Consumer Price Index, and the Director publishes the current limit on the Division’s website (N.J.S.A. 46:8-18.1(d)), so verify the figure for the year you are charging in. The two New Jersey rules stack rather than replace one another – N.J.S.A. 46:8-55(b) still requires the written criminal-history disclosure before any application fee is accepted, and N.J.S.A. 46:8-18.1 now caps what that fee may be.

The bigger compliance issue is who a landlord may reject: source of lawful income is a protected class under the Law Against Discrimination (N.J.S.A. 10:5-12), so a landlord generally cannot refuse an applicant simply because rent would be paid with a Housing Choice Voucher or other lawful assistance. Since January 12, 2026 that protection reaches the income test itself: P.L. 2025, c.251 amended the Law Against Discrimination so that applying any minimum-income requirement or financial standard not based exclusively on the portion of the rent the tenant actually pays is itself a source-of-income denial. A flat three-times-the-rent income rule measured against the full rent is therefore unlawful as applied to a voucher holder – the multiplier must run against the tenant’s own share.

Criminal history is the most tightly regulated part of New Jersey screening, and it is state law that governs it. The Fair Chance in Housing Act, N.J.S.A. 46:8-52 to 46:8-64 (P.L. 2021, c.110, approved June 18, 2021), took effect January 1, 2022 and applies statewide – it was the first statute of its kind in the country. It does not reach every rental: N.J.S.A. 46:8-54 excludes a dwelling unit in an owner-occupied premises of not more than four dwelling units from the definition of a rental dwelling unit, so units inside an owner-occupied building of two to four units sit outside the Act – though the same landlord’s other, non-owner-occupied properties are covered.

For a covered rental the sequence is fixed. A housing provider may not put a criminal-history question on the application, or ask in any other way, before making a conditional offer; only two subjects may be raised up front – a conviction for the manufacture or production of methamphetamine on the premises of federally assisted housing, and whether the applicant is subject to lifetime registration under a state sex-offender registry (N.J.S.A. 46:8-55(a)). Before it accepts an application fee the provider must disclose in writing that its eligibility criteria include criminal history, and that the applicant may submit evidence of inaccuracies, rehabilitation, or other mitigating factors (N.J.S.A. 46:8-55(b)); the Division on Civil Rights publishes a model disclosure statement for that purpose. Six categories may never be used at all, before or after the offer: arrests or charges that produced no conviction, expunged convictions, convictions erased by executive pardon, vacated or otherwise legally nullified convictions, juvenile adjudications of delinquency, and sealed records (N.J.S.A. 46:8-56(a)).

After a conditional offer the provider may look at only a narrow band of convictions (N.J.S.A. 46:8-56(b)): murder, aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, human trafficking, sexual assault under N.J.S. 2C:14-2, the child sexual-act offense at N.J.S. 2C:24-4(b)(3), and any crime carrying lifetime sex-offender registration, with no time limit; a first-degree indictable offense within six years; a second- or third-degree indictable offense within four years; and a fourth-degree indictable offense within one year – measured from the conviction, or from the end of the prison sentence it produced, to the date of the conditional offer. Withdrawing the offer over such a record is lawful only if the provider determines, by a preponderance of the evidence, that withdrawal is necessary to fulfill a substantial, legitimate, and nondiscriminatory interest, and N.J.S.A. 46:8-56(c)(3) requires the provider to perform an individualized assessment weighing six statutory factors: the nature and severity of the offense, the applicant’s age when it occurred, the time that has elapsed since, any rehabilitation or good-conduct evidence the applicant produced, the effect a repeat would have on the safety of other tenants or the property, and whether the offense happened on or was connected to a property the applicant rented or leased. The provider must then give written notice stating the reasons with specificity and offering an appeal, and must hand over every record it relied on, free of charge, within ten days of a request the applicant makes within thirty days of the notice (N.J.S.A. 46:8-56(d)).

Enforcement runs through the Division on Civil Rights rather than the courts: N.J.S.A. 46:8-63(a) bars a private FCHA action in court, so an applicant files a complaint with the Division – within 180 days of the alleged violation, a deadline set by the Division’s own rule at N.J.A.C. 13:5-2.1(b) rather than by the statute – and the Division must offer the housing provider a fourteen-day opportunity to mediate, imposing no penalty if the complaint is resolved there. A substantiated complaint carries a penalty of up to $1,000 where the provider has no prior violation in the preceding five years, up to $5,000 with one other violation in five years, and up to $10,000 with two or more other violations in the preceding seven years (N.J.S.A. 46:8-63(c)) – and independent claims, including one under the Law Against Discrimination, survive alongside it (N.J.S.A. 46:8-63(e)). Newark separately keeps its own older fair-chance housing ordinance, Newark Revised General Ordinances Chapter 2:31, Article 1, adopted by Ordinance No. 6 PSF-B on April 15, 2015, which times the inquiry to the formal application rather than a conditional offer, runs an eight-year look-back for indictable convictions and five years for disorderly-persons convictions, and fines up to $500 for a first violation; its own exemption at Section 2:31-8 stands down wherever state law permits a consideration, limited to the offenses and periods state law allows.

Federal law adds exposure but no separate procedure. A blanket ban built on arrests that never led to a conviction carries disparate-impact exposure under the Fair Housing Act’s discriminatory-effects rule at 24 CFR section 100.500, reinstated effective May 1, 2023 and in force today, though HUD has proposed to remove it and reopened the comment period until October 9, 2026 (Docket No. FR-6540-P-01, 91 FR 1475, as supplemented by Docket No. FR-6540-P-02, 91 FR 51416) – a proposal is not a rule, so nothing has changed yet. No federal HUD standard now requires an individualized assessment: HUD’s 2016 criminal-records guidance was withdrawn effective September 25, 2025 (Docket No. FR-6617-N-01, 91 FR 44867), HUD has issued nothing to replace it, and section 100.500 imposes no individualized-assessment step of its own. In New Jersey that gap is closed by state law – the assessment is a statutory duty under N.J.S.A. 46:8-56(c)(3), not merely prudent practice. The Supreme Court’s recognition of disparate-impact liability under the Fair Housing Act in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project (2015) is unaffected by either the withdrawal or the pending proposal. Screening still runs on top of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires applicant consent and a proper adverse-action notice when an application is denied. See the full compliance walkthrough in our guide to New Jersey tenant screening laws.

Who Holds Which Right: Landlord vs. Tenant

New Jersey’s framework hands each side a clear set of duties and protections. Landlords keep the right to collect a lawful deposit, screen applicants, raise rent with notice where no local cap applies, and evict for cause through the courts. Tenants keep unusually strong protections around just-cause eviction, deposit return, habitability, and freedom from retaliation and self-help removal.

Common New Jersey Landlord Mistakes

Most New Jersey landlord losses are avoidable – they come from missing a statutory deadline or ignoring the just-cause backbone of the state’s law. The recurring errors are over-collecting on the deposit or missing the thirty-day itemized-return deadline, failing to hold the deposit in a proper interest-bearing account, attempting a no-fault removal the Anti-Eviction Act does not allow, charging a benefit-recipient tenant a late fee before the five-business-day grace period in N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.1 runs, ignoring a written repair request, and rejecting a Housing Choice Voucher holder in violation of the source-of-income protection.

New Jersey Landlord-Tenant Laws: FAQ

What are the main landlord-tenant laws in New Jersey?

New Jersey landlord-tenant law is spread across several statutes: the Rent Security Deposit Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8-19 through 46:8-26) for deposits, the notice statute at N.J.S.A. 2A:18-56 for the notice to quit that ends a month-to-month tenancy (N.J.S.A. 46:8-10 merely converts a holdover into a month-to-month tenancy and sets no notice period), the Anti-Eviction Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1) which requires just cause to evict most tenants, the habitability duty at N.J.S.A. 2A:42-85 alongside the case-law warranty from Marini v. Ireland, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (N.J.S.A. 10:5-12) for screening and assistance animals, and the Fair Chance in Housing Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8-52 to 46:8-64) for the use of criminal records in screening. Several rules come from court decisions rather than a numbered statute.

How much can a New Jersey landlord charge for a security deposit?

A New Jersey security deposit is capped at one and a half months’ rent under the Rent Security Deposit Act. The deposit must be held in an interest-bearing New Jersey bank account, and it must be returned within thirty days after the tenant vacates – five days for a displacement caused by fire, flood, condemnation, or evacuation – with an itemized statement of any deductions.

How much notice does a New Jersey landlord need to raise the rent?

New Jersey has no statewide rent cap, but rent on a month-to-month tenancy may be raised only after at least one month’s written notice ending the old terms, unless the lease or a local ordinance requires longer. More than one hundred New Jersey municipalities run their own rent-control programs with their own ceilings and notice rules, so the town’s ordinance often controls.

How much notice must a New Jersey landlord give before entering?

New Jersey has no single entry-notice statute. For multiple-dwelling buildings the state housing regulations require at least one day’s notice before a non-emergency entry, and the covenant of quiet enjoyment requires reasonable notice for other rentals – so one day of written notice is the dependable standard. A genuine emergency threatening safety, health, or the property allows entry without notice.

What is the maximum late fee in New Jersey?

New Jersey sets no specific statutory cap on late fees, but the charge must be reasonable under contract-law principles, and fees in the five-to-ten-percent range are generally accepted. The five-business-day grace period in N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.1 applies only to the tenants listed in N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.3 — recipients of Social Security old-age or Railroad Retirement pensions, an equivalent government pension, SSDI, SSI, or Work First New Jersey benefits. For every other tenant there is no statutory grace period, and any grace comes from the lease. A late fee must be written into the lease to be enforceable.

How does eviction work in New Jersey, and is just cause required?

Eviction is a court process filed in the Special Civil Part, and under the Anti-Eviction Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1) a landlord must prove one of the statutory grounds – just cause – to remove most tenants. Non-payment cases proceed on a rent demand rather than a fixed pay-or-quit period. A tenant is removed only by a court-issued warrant of possession executed by a court officer; self-help lockouts are illegal.

Can a New Jersey tenant break a lease early without penalty?

Yes, in defined situations: domestic-violence victims may terminate under the New Jersey Safe Housing Act, and active-duty servicemembers may terminate under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and N.J.S.A. 38:23C-14. Even without a statutory ground, Sommer v. Kridel requires the landlord to make reasonable efforts to re-rent, so a departing tenant generally owes only the rent for the vacancy gap, not the whole remaining term.

Can a New Jersey landlord charge a pet deposit or refuse an emotional support animal?

A landlord may set pet policies and charge a pet deposit for an ordinary pet, but any money collected up front counts toward the one-and-a-half-month deposit cap. Assistance animals are different: emotional support and service animals are protected under the federal Fair Housing Act, the ADA, and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, cannot be charged a pet fee or deposit, and are not subject to no-pet or breed rules.

How much can a New Jersey landlord charge to screen an applicant?

New Jersey caps the rental application fee at $50 under N.J.S.A. 46:8-18.1, in force since May 1, 2026 – a flat ceiling rather than an actual-cost test. A dwelling unit in a one-family or two-family dwelling offered for rent is exempt, as is a New Jersey Real Estate Commission licensee who is not the landlord. Penalties run up to $500, $750, and $1,000 for a first, second, and subsequent offense, and the cap is adjusted for inflation each year beginning January 1, 2027, so check the Division of Consumer Affairs figure for the current year. Separately, source of lawful income is a protected class under N.J.S.A. 10:5-12, so a landlord generally cannot refuse a Housing Choice Voucher holder. Criminal history is governed statewide by the Fair Chance in Housing Act, N.J.S.A. 46:8-52 to 46:8-64, in force since January 1, 2022: no criminal-history question before a conditional offer, a written disclosure before any application fee is accepted, a look-back after the offer of six years for a first-degree indictable offense, four years for a second or third degree, and one year for a fourth degree, and a six-factor individualized assessment required by N.J.S.A. 46:8-56(c)(3) before a conditional offer may be withdrawn, with penalties up to $10,000. A unit in an owner-occupied building of no more than four units is outside the Act.

Related New Jersey Landlord-Tenant Law Guides

• New Jersey security deposit laws – the one-and-a-half-month cap, interest account, and return deadline.
• New Jersey rent increase laws – notice periods and local rent control.
• New Jersey landlord entry laws – one-day notice, hours, and emergencies.
• New Jersey late fee laws – reasonableness and the five-business-day grace period for benefit recipients.
• New Jersey habitability laws – the warranty, essential systems, and repair-and-deduct.
• New Jersey eviction notice laws – just cause, rent demand, and court process.
• New Jersey lease termination laws – month-to-month notice and holdovers.
• New Jersey breaking lease laws – protected grounds and the duty to mitigate.
• New Jersey pet and ESA laws – pet deposits, service animals, and accommodations.
• New Jersey tenant screening laws – fees, source of income, and fair housing.

Screen New Jersey Applicants the Compliant Way

Most deposit, late-rent, and eviction disputes trace back to tenants a thorough screen would have flagged. Order FCRA-ready credit, criminal, and eviction reports and keep your New Jersey process consistent from application to decision.

Start Tenant Screening Compare Report Options

About the Author

Published by Tenant Screening Background Check · Editorial Team

Established 2004. Our editorial team has spent two decades helping landlords and property managers run lawful, FCRA-compliant tenant screening across all 50 states. We translate state landlord-tenant codes and federal screening rules into processes you can actually follow.

Updated 2026

Legal Disclaimer

This overview is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. New Jersey statutes and local ordinances – especially municipal rent-control and fair-chance rules – change and vary by jurisdiction. Before acting on any deposit, rent, entry, eviction, or fair housing question, consult a licensed attorney in New Jersey. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship.