Edison, NJ — landlord and rental rules

Edison Code §17-4.2 caps an annual increase at 5%. Whether §17-4.1 independently exempts every property with fewer than three units is disputed because the published sentence joins that phrase to a commercial-floor-space clause.

§17-4.1 excludes motels and hotels, then states an exclusion using both buildings with one-third or more commercial floor space and housing units fewer than three. The DCA reads fewer than three as a blanket exemption, but the codified sentence's conjunction makes that reading unsafe for a small mixed-use property. Ask the Board for a written coverage determination rather than treating three units as a mechanically sufficient threshold.

The current codified chapter now supports the 5% figure directly. Small-building coverage remains disputed only because of the exact §17-4.1 grammar; this entry does not repeat unverified reports about Board vacancies as fact. A hardship or capital-improvement route still depends on a functioning Board, so confirm hearing availability before underwriting it.

Annual cap

5%

Vacancy decontrol

Yes — rent resets on vacancy

Unit counts

See note

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.

Section 17-4.3 permits an uncontrolled initial one-year lease after a voluntary vacancy, legal process or abandonment not produced by harassment. The unit returns to the annual cap after that first year, and the landlord must file the decontrol registration within 30 days of re-rental.

The operative section and township registration form now agree. The twelve-month tail is the part a model usually misses — the first lease after turnover is uncontrolled, but the first renewal is not.

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.

Ordinance O.2215-2024, adopted 25 April 2024, rewrote Edison's annual multiple-dwelling registration: a building of five or more rental units registers each year at $100 per unit, giving the owner's name, address and telephone number and the square footage, sleeping rooms and kitchen facilities of every unit. The fee is waived where the owner is over 66 and lives on the property.

$100 a unit a year is the largest recurring municipal registration charge in this tranche by an order of magnitude — a twelve-unit building pays $1,200 annually, which is a real line in an operating statement rather than a filing fee, and it lands on exactly the size of building a small investor moves up into. It is being litigated: owners of more than 8,000 units sued the township in Middlesex County Superior Court arguing the fee is unlawful, the information demands improper and the inspection requirement vague. A repealer was introduced and then withdrawn. So budget the fee and check its status, in that order.

Fee per unit

$100

In effect since 2024-04-25.

Edison's Division of Health requires a certificate of approval, issued after inspection, before a dwelling unit is re-occupied. The certificate is $75 and a reinspection $100.

The reinspection costs more than the inspection, and the certificate is what stands between a turnover and a re-let. §17-1.11 requires the request at least seven business days before reoccupancy, so the vacancy assumption must include that minimum lead time as well as the work.

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.