Jersey City, NJ Rental Property Rules: Rent Increase Notice (2026)

Section 260-4 requires the notice to lay out the calculations the landlord used: the Consumer Price Index three months before the lease's expiration or termination measured against the index three months before the lease began, or, for a periodic tenant on a lease under one year, the index 15 months before the proposed increase's effective date. The notice must also state the allowable percentage increase computed under § 260-3, capped at four percent or the CPI change, whichever is less, and the resulting dollar increase in rent.

Critically, the notice must tell the tenant they have six months from receiving it to contest the increase to the Jersey City Rent Leveling Bureau. This 30-day/six-month notice rule sits alongside the separate disclosure duties in § 260-3(D), requiring landlords to give new tenants the prior tenant's name and rent within 10 days, and § 260-3(J), requiring a Truth-in-Renting Statement and landlord-identity disclosure before any increase can be collected. A cost-of-living increase is the routine annual mechanism; major capital-improvement or hardship increases follow the separate application-and-hearing process in §§ 260-5 and 260-10 rather than this notice-only path.