2 rules apply — the local one first, then the county and state rules that bind alongside it.
Verified on 2026-08-17.
Irvington caps an annual increase at 4% of the prior year's rent where the landlord supplies heat and 3% where the tenant pays for it, and at 2% where the tenant or all adult tenants are 65 or over. Chapter 472 exempts dwellings of two units or fewer, and owner-occupied three- and four-unit dwellings.
Dwellings of two units or fewer are exempt, and a three- or four-unit dwelling with at least one owner in occupation is exempt as well — so an absentee-owned three-family is the smallest building covered, and an owner moving in takes a four-family out of the chapter.
Who pays for heat is a term of the lease and it moves the cap by a full point, so the rent roll and the utility arrangement have to be read together. Two things this chapter does not have, and buyers assume it does: there is no new-construction exemption — the old one was repealed on 9 April 1985 — and no substantial-rehabilitation exemption. The chapter was amended in its entirety on 23 January 2023 and further amended on 9 March 2026.
Exemptions
Sources
Verified on 2026-08-17.
New Jersey has no statewide rent control. The Department of Community Affairs' 2026 survey of all 564 municipalities found 120 with an ordinance and 444 without, and their caps, unit thresholds, exemptions and vacancy rules differ town by town.
This municipality's ordinance has not been read into this knowledge base. Check the DCA's survey — it names every municipality and gives the unit threshold and the increase limit for each — and then read the ordinance itself or call the rent board, before assuming rents can be reset on purchase or turnover. One statewide limit does apply everywhere: N.J.S.A. 2A:42-84.5 keeps municipal rent control off housing completed after 25 June 1987 for 30 years from completion.
Sources