Bloomfield, NJ — landlord and rental rules

Bloomfield permits the greater of 3% or the change in CPI over the lease term, and in no case more than 5%; a unit with a tenant aged 65 or over is capped at 2%. Chapter 435 was amended in its entirety on 17 November 2025 and now exempts dwellings with four or fewer housing spaces, so coverage starts at five units.

This moved. The superseded 2016 chapter exempted dwellings of five or fewer housing spaces, so coverage began at six; the 2025 rewrite exempts four or fewer and coverage begins at five. A five-unit building went from exempt to covered — and the PDF published on the township's own website is still the 2016 text, as is the DCA survey's figure.

Note the direction of the formula: it is the CPI or 3%, whichever is *greater*, subject to a 5% ceiling — the opposite structure to a "lesser of" ordinance, and it means the permitted increase never falls below 3% however low inflation runs. The base rent is the lawful rent in force on 1 January 2026. No owner-occupancy exemption beyond the four-unit line, and no substantial-rehabilitation exemption.

Annual cap

5%

Vacancy decontrol

Yes — rent resets on vacancy

Unit counts

5+ units

New Jersey has no statewide rent control. Roughly 100 municipalities impose their own, with caps, exemptions and vacancy rules that differ town by town.

This municipality has not been researched. Read the municipal code — or call the clerk — before assuming rents can be reset on purchase or turnover.

On the voluntary, uncoerced vacation of an apartment the landlord may fix the rent at whatever sum is deemed appropriate — but no more than once in any five-year period, running from 1 January 2026, and only with a non-coercion certification signed by the departing tenant.

The five-year limit is new in the 2025 rewrite; the superseded chapter allowed unlimited resets. A pro-forma that marks several units to market over a three-year hold is now modelling something the ordinance forbids. A vacancy caused by substandard, unsafe or unsanitary conditions is not voluntary, and a tenant who left without notice, was evicted by court order or unreasonably refused to certify is handled by the exceptions rather than by the certification.

Vacancy decontrol

Yes — rent resets on vacancy

The New Jersey Anti-Eviction Act requires good cause for every residential eviction statewide, with no small-landlord exemption. A month-to-month tenant cannot be removed simply by ending the term.

Practical effect for a buyer: an occupied unit conveys with its tenant, and a business plan that depends on delivering the building vacant needs a lawful cause for each unit before it is a plan.

Chapter 431 requires every rental unit to be registered, forbids renting one until a certificate of code compliance issues, and requires each unit to be inspected at least once every three years or on a change of occupancy.

The turnover inspection is the item that bites a schedule: a unit cannot be re-let until the certificate issues, so a vacancy assumption has to include the inspection queue, and that queue is exactly when a five-yearly reset would otherwise be taken. $60 per unit, renewed every three years or on a change of tenant; $100 per unit where the owner fails to renew or to give notice of the change; $60 for a reinspection where the first one finds the unit out of compliance. No fee for an owner-occupied unit where the owner is on the deed. Chapter 431 was itself amended in its entirety on 19 May 2025.

Fee per unit

$60

Pre-1978 one- and two-family rentals must be inspected for lead-based paint hazards at tenant turnover or every three years, whichever comes first. The certificate is valid for two years.

Budget the inspection and any remediation into the turnover cost of every pre-1978 unit, not into a one-off line at closing.

Construction

Built before 1978

In effect since 2022-07-22.