East Orange, NJ Rental Property Rules: Rent Increase Notice (2026)

Section 218-12A requires any owner, landlord or agent seeking a rent increase to serve the affected tenant written notice terminating the existing lease or tenancy, commonly called a notice to quit, 60 days before the increase takes effect. That notice must have attached to it a signed statement disclosing six specific data points: the tenant's name, address and apartment number; the date the tenant's lease began or the tenant took possession; the tenant's present rent; the date of the last rent increase; the actual dollar amount of the proposed increase; and the proposed increase expressed as a percentage.

Under § 218-12B, the City's Rent Control Office will not process any increase application until the landlord attaches this notice, together with proof it was served on the tenant. The 60-day notice requirement sits inside a larger set of preconditions: § 218-10A and § 218-10B require the landlord to have already complied with § 218-14's rent-roll filing before any increase can be demanded, and § 218-10E requires the landlord to submit a separate application, pay a nonrefundable fee of $5 per unit, and deliver the notice to quit to the City's Rent Control Office before the increase can be processed at all.

Increases for periodic tenants (month-to-month or week-to-week) are capped at 4% under § 218-10A, and increases for senior tenants at least 65 years old and named on the lease are capped at 2% under § 218-10H; the 60-day notice must still be delivered regardless of which cap applies. A landlord who demands an increase without complying with the notice and rent-roll requirements is automatically denied and barred from any increase from that tenant for 12 months.