Woodbridge, NJ Rental Inspections: Tenant Complaint Process (2026)

Township Code § 20-11 gives a covered tenant, on top of every other right under New Jersey law, the ability to request a Bureau of Housing inspection at no charge the moment the landlord serves a notice of increase in the base rent. The request goes through the Rent Leveling Board as a filed complaint, not a phone call to the housing office. If the inspection turns up violations touching the heat and hot water systems, central air conditioning, the Electrical Code, plumbing, inadequate roofing, or any other defect in the common areas serving that unit that the public official believes threatens life, health or safety, the Bureau sends the landlord written notice of the violation.

The chapter is explicit that this inspection right does not replace or narrow the Bureau of Housing's normal code-enforcement powers under the Township's other ordinances; it runs alongside them. The mechanism sits inside Chapter 20, Rent Control, so it is triggered specifically by a rent increase, giving tenants leverage to have the unit and building checked at exactly the moment a landlord is asking for more money. Complaints are lodged with the Rent Leveling Board, the same body that hears hardship-increase applications and certifies rent rolls under this chapter, keeping the inspection request tied into the Township's broader rent-control enforcement structure rather than a separate housing bureau process.