What New Jersey law does to your lease
These are the figures the builder holds you to. Each one is the statute's, not ours, and the citation is there so you can read it yourself.
| Rule | New Jersey | Where it says so |
|---|---|---|
| Most a landlord may take as a deposit | 1.5 months' rentOne and a half months is the whole of it, pet deposit included, and prepaid rent above that figure counts as deposit too. A later yearly increase may not be more than 10% of the deposit already held. | N.J.S.A. 46:8-21.2 |
| Earliest a late fee may be charged | The day after it is due | N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.1 to 2A:42-6.3 |
| Most a late fee may be | No statutory limit, but it has to be reasonableNew Jersey sets no ceiling but does set a floor on time for senior citizens: five business days' grace, and a landlord who charges inside it can be prosecuted as a disorderly person. The fee has to be in the written lease, and stated as additional rent, before a court will count it in a dispossess action. | N.J.S.A. 2A:42-6.1 to 2A:42-6.3 |
| Notice before the landlord may enter | None required by statuteNew Jersey gives a landlord no statutory right of entry: without the tenant's consent or a court judgment, entering and taking possession is unlawful entry and detainer. What the access clause of this lease buys is the tenant's consent on the notice it names. | N.J.S.A. 2A:39-1 |
| Notice to end a month-to-month tenancy | 30 daysThe month is only the notice. Under the Anti-Eviction Act a New Jersey landlord also needs one of the causes in N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1, and simply wanting the unit back is not one of them; the usual route is offering new terms the tenant refuses. | N.J.S.A. 2A:18-56 |
What New Jersey makes you disclose
- Truth in Renting statement
- The landlord must give the tenant the Department of Community Affairs' Truth in Renting statement, except on a building of two units or fewer and an owner-occupied building of three or fewer. N.J.S.A. 46:8-44 to 46:8-46
- Flood zone notification
- The landlord must tell the tenant in writing whether the unit is in a FEMA special flood hazard area or moderate risk flood hazard area, and whether it has flooded before. N.J.S.A. 46:8-50
- Landlord registration statement
- A landlord of a non-owner-occupied one or two family home registers with the municipal clerk, and of a building of three or more units with the Bureau of Housing Inspection. The registration statement must be given in writing to every tenant and posted where it can easily be seen, and an unregistered landlord cannot evict. N.J.S.A. 46:8-27 to 46:8-37
- Child protection window guards
- The lease must carry the window guard notice, telling a tenant with a child aged 10 or under that the landlord will install window guards on request. N.J.A.C. 5:10-27.1(c), (d)
- Bed bugs
- The landlord must give the tenant the bed bug information required of multiple dwellings by the Hotel and Multiple Dwelling Health and Safety code. N.J.A.C. 5:10-10.2
The clause most landlords get wrong
Rent stated as a base figure with mandatory fees bolted on beside it. If a fee is not optional, it is rent, and several states now say so outright: the lease has to carry one total figure that the landlord may not charge above. The builder asks for the total and then asks how much of it is fees, which is the same information in the order the law wants it.
The second is the assistance animal. A no-pets clause that does not carve one out is a fair-housing problem, not a pet problem, and no pet rent or pet deposit may be charged for one. Your lease says so whether or not you allow pets.
After it is signed
Download the PDF and it is yours, account or not. If you want the tenant to sign it without printing anything, a free Kouzr account sends it for signature, files the executed copy against the tenancy, and keeps it beside the listing, the rent record and the deposit accounting, so the paperwork for that home is in one place when the tenancy ends.