Ridgewood, NJ Building Safety: Door Locking Hardware (2026)

Section 223-81, in Chapter 223's Article XII, Exterior Structure, sets the Village of Ridgewood's baseline for door hardware on every structure in the Village, Bergen County: "Every exterior door and its hardware shall be maintained in good condition. " The duty falls on the owner under the article's general provision, § 223-65, which requires the exterior of a structure to be kept in good repair and structurally sound so it does not threaten the health, safety or welfare of occupants. The same article requires window and door frames to be built and kept so they exclude rain and substantially exclude wind (§ 223-76), and every window and exterior door to fit its frame and be weathertight (§ 223-77), so a failing lock is treated the same as a gap that lets in weather: a maintenance defect the Code Official can order corrected.

Chapter 223 balances the security duty with a life-safety counterpart in Article XX, Means of Egress: § 223-93 requires every exit door to be "capable of being opened easily from the inside and without the use of a key," so a dwelling's exterior locks must secure against outside entry while never trapping an occupant who needs to get out. Enforcement runs through the Code Official designated under § 223-18, generally the Director of Buildings and Inspections or Code Enforcement Officer.