Bayonne, NJ Building Safety: Lead Paint (2026)

Bayonne City Code § 17-33.2, added February 19, 2025 by Ord. No. O-25-13, requires a lead evaluation contractor retained by the City to inspect every single-family, two-family, or multiple rental dwelling for lead-based paint hazards through visual assessment and dust wipe sampling, following N.J.S.A. 52:27D-437.1. Owners may instead hire their own DCA-certified private lead evaluation contractor. Inspection is required every three years or at tenant turnover, whichever is earlier. Units are exempt if already certified lead-free, built during or after 1978, part of a multiple dwelling registered with the DCA for at least ten years with no outstanding lead violations, a seasonal rental under six months without consecutive renewals, or already lead-safe certified.

If hazards turn up, the owner must abate them and the City's contractor must re-inspect to certify the unit lead-safe, valid for two years; a clean result gets the same certification. Owners must give new tenants evidence of the current lead-safe certification at turnover and keep records of tenant names tied to each inspection. Fees run $250 per unit for the visual assessment and dust wipe sampling, $295 per unit if reinspection is needed, plus a $25 per-unit City filing fee and a $20 per-unit Lead Hazard Control Assistance Act fee (waived if DCA already charged it). In a common-interest community, the unit owner, not the homeowners' association, pays unless the association owns the unit.