West New York, NJ Rental Property Rules: Rent Control (2026)

Chapter 312 was adopted by the Board of Commissioners of the Town of West New York on 7-21-1982 as Ord. No. 1550, and its preamble finds that a critical shortage of housing space continues to create an emergency in the Town. Section 312-3 does the main work. No person can demand, accept or receive rent for controlled housing space above the maximum rent set under the earlier ordinances the chapter continues, and all rents are continued at the base rent level received or established as of March 1, 1973.

Increases are tied to the Consumer Price Index. At the expiration of a lease, or the termination or renewal date of a periodic tenant, a landlord cannot receive more than the percentage difference between the Consumer Price Index 90 days before that date and the index for the preceding twelve-month period. Subsection F limits the cost-of-living increase to one in any twelve-month period and to 5% in any one year, and the landlord cannot collect the 5% until he certifies to the tenant and the Rent Control Board that he is in substantial compliance with municipal and state maintenance laws and files a copy of the notice with the Board.

Section 312-19 caps combined increases for all causes at 15% in any one twelve-month period. Exempt structures include motels, hotels and similar transient buildings; owner-occupied two-, three- and four-family dwellings, where a four-family unit becomes exempt only when the tenant who lived there on or before April 20, 1994 vacates; premises newly constructed from the ground up where construction began after October 1, 1995; and condominium or cooperative apartments rented on or after August 1, 1995 with a monthly base rent in excess of $1,000.

The Rent Control Board, continued by § 312-14, has seven members appointed by the governing body for one-year terms without compensation, and its determinations are final subject to appeal to the Superior Court of New Jersey under § 312-16.