Hoboken, NJ Rental Property Rules: Rent Control (2026)

Section 155-4 controls all rents for covered housing space at the base rent level received by the landlord as of October 1, 1985, voiding any increase beyond what the chapter allows and requiring landlords to report increases to the Rent Leveling and Stabilization Board. Section 155-5 caps a regular increase, taken at lease expiration or termination of a periodic tenancy, at 5% or the percentage change in the consumer price index measured three months before the old lease ended and three months before it began, whichever is less, and allows only one such cost-of-living increase per twelve-month period regardless of how many tenants occupied the unit.

Landlords may also seek approved surcharges: Section 155-6 lets a landlord pass through property tax increases above the 1988 baseline, Section 155-6.1 does the same for water and sewer increases above 1996 levels, and Section 155-8 lets a landlord apply to the Board for a capital improvement surcharge, capped so base rent cannot rise more than 33 1/3% in any twelve-month period from that surcharge alone. Section 155-31 lets a registered dwelling's rent decontrol on a voluntary vacancy, letting the landlord charge the new tenant up to 25% more than the departing tenant's last rent, exclusive of capital improvement surcharges, with any further increases then governed again by the chapter.

The "fair return" standard defined in Section 155-1 measures a landlord's equity return at 6% above the maximum local passbook savings rate. Determinations on base rent, surcharges and decontrol are made by the Rent Regulation Officer, appealable to the Rent Leveling and Stabilization Board created under Section 155-18.