New Brunswick's Rent Leveling and Control Board is located at 25 Kirkpatrick Street and can also be reached by calling (732) 745-5050. The Rent Control Board:

• hears and decides all applications for rent increases
• hears and decides all complaints by tenants of wrongful increases
• supplies information and assistance to landlords and tenants to help them comply with the Rent Control Ordinance
• enforces the provisions of the Rent Control Ordinance

The following types of buildings are exempt from rent control:

• licensed rooming and boarding houses
• buildings with 3 or fewer apartments in one of which the owner lives
• all newly constructed buildings for the first 24 months of occupancy
• substantially rehabilitated units

No rent-controlled unit may have a rent increase or surcharge unless the unit has been registered with the City Clerk, the Rent Control Board, and the Division of Inspections. The landlord MUST maintain and display upon request to tenants records documenting any increase in rent granted for the reasons described.

Before you begin a tenancy in any apartment in New Brunswick, you should contact the Rent Control Board to make sure that the unit is registered. This is for your protection! If you ever have any problems or questions about your rent, call the Rent Control Board. You will be able to seek recourse and find answers because the Rent Control Board has established a rent level for your apartment.

The base rent for any apartment CANNOT be increased more than once during any 12 month period. At the expiration of a lease, no landlord may request or receive any increase in the rent from any continuing tenant which is greater than the current base rent increase allowed. Said increase shall not be less than 2.5% nor more than 5.5% of the base rent.

If a landlord had not increased the rent by the maximum percentage in the last 2 years, up until recently they were allowed to increase the rent by the remaining percentage. This so called "look-back" is no longer allowed. Under 5.80.130F "Any increase in base rent which is permitted by this chapter but not actually charged by a landlord in the year when permitted is forever waived."

Any landlord planning an increase in rent must notify the tenants in writing of the calculations used in computing the increase. Such a notice must be done AT LEAST 30 DAYS before the increase is to be effective.

:: Vacancy Decontrol

When there is a voluntary, uncoerced, complete emptying out of an apartment according to the rules below, the landlord is free to re-rent the unit at any rent level. The unit will be EXEMPT from rent control for the next 12 months. After the 12 months, the apartment is rent-controlled for continuing tenants.

To qualify for a vacancy decontrol rent increase, the landlord MUST:

1. File a landlord certification with the Rent Control Board within 10 days after renting to a new tenant.
2. Apply to the Division of Inspections to obtain a certificate of occupancy (which involves an inspection). If this certifications is not obtained, the Rent Control Board has the right to DENY the vacancy decontrol rent increase until these conditions are met.
3. File with the Rent Control Board a certification stating that the unit was vacated voluntarily or by legal eviction, and not by harassment or annoyance by the landlord/agent.
4. Additionally, the landlord must notify the tenant in writing of any VDC application (by regular and certified mail) - This means that the landlord must send (by regular and certified mail) to the NEW tenant (at least one (1)) on your signed lease that they have filed for a Vacancy Decontrol with the Office of Rent Control.
5. The landlord must submit a notarized letter(attached to the Vacancy Decontrol Application) to the Office of Rent Control Board that proper notice has been made to the new tenant(s).
6. The Office of the Rent Control Board will then send a notice to landlord and tenant (when occupied) of the approval/disapproval of any Vacancy Decontrol Application.

It is illegal for a landlord to commit any of the following actions:

• Harassment or intimidation with the intent of having a tenant vacate the unit
• Reduction of services which causes a tenant to vacate the unit
• ANY coerced emptying of the unit
• Failure to file the above-mentioned certifications

:: Surcharges

Landlords are no longer permitted to seek Tax and Utility surcharges under new ordinances. These surcharges instead become a portion of the rent.

The landlord must seek the approval of the Rent Control Board to receive the following surcharges:

• Hardship Surcharge: if the landlord's operating expenses exceed a certain percentage of the total income from a particular property
• Capital Improvement Surcharge: for physical improvements to the unit
• Insurance Surcharge: if the cost of liability insurance for the unit increases above a certain percentage.

None of these surcharges is considered part of the rent. The tenant must be notified in writing of the calculations used in computing the surcharge at least 30 days before it becomes effective. Other specific rules apply to these surcharges. You should contact our office or the New Brunswick Rent Control Board to find out more.