Plainfield has no rent-control ordinance on record. The DCA's 2026 survey of all 564 municipalities lists it among the 444 with none, and records no rent leveling board, no ordinance and no increase limit for it.
No unit count is controlled, because no ordinance applies at any unit count.
A positive finding rather than a gap, and worth stating because Plainfield sits in a county where Elizabeth caps increases at 3% — assuming a Union County city is controlled is the ordinary mistake. It was proposed and rejected rather than never raised: ordinance MC 2025-01 would have created a rent levelling board and was tabled unanimously on 10 February 2025, and the city's directory lists no rent board. Two municipalities are routinely confused with this one and neither's rules apply here: North Plainfield, in Somerset County, does have a rent-regulation ordinance and a board, and South Plainfield is a third place again. What remains is the statewide layer, which is not nothing — the Anti-Eviction Act still requires cause for every removal, and an increase steep enough to be unconscionable is still contestable.
- Unit counts
- See note
Sources
- NJ DCA — 2026 Rent Control Survey — New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, 2026 Rent Control Survey (spreadsheet, linked from the DCA Landlord-Tenant Information page; last revised 20 May 2026). The department's own caveat: the survey is only as current as the published codes, and the stated percentage may differ from the increase actually permitted.The survey's Plainfield row reads "No rent control ordinance on record" and "No rent increase limit", and its municipalities-by-status sheet lists Plainfield City, Union County under "No".
- City of Plainfield — council legislative records — City of Plainfield council record for MC 2025-01, a rent control and rent levelling board ordinance, tabled 10 February 2025.The council's own record of the ordinance that was not adopted, which is what makes this an established absence rather than an unsearched one.
- NJ DCA — Landlord-Tenant InformationWhere the survey is published, beside the Truth in Renting guide and the flood-risk notice.