New Jersey is a state where the interesting question is not what the application asks but what it is not allowed to ask, and when. The state has legislated on the sequence of a housing decision, and it treats several grounds that are ordinary elsewhere as unlawful here. A national template will carry questions that New Jersey has taken off the initial application altogether, and a landlord who uses it will have collected information they were not entitled to collect at that stage, which is a harder position than simply having asked an awkward question.
The initial application is a restricted document here
New Jersey's fair chance in housing legislation sets a sequence: certain histories may not be asked about on an initial application at all, consideration is deferred to a later stage, and where it happens at all it has to be individualised and the applicant given a route to respond. The practical consequence for the form is simple and easy to get wrong. Delete the question rather than adding a note beside it, because a question that is asked and then disregarded has still been asked, and the file will show it.
Source of income is a protected characteristic in New Jersey
The state's anti-discrimination law reaches the source of a person's lawful income, which means an advertisement or an application practice that excludes a housing voucher is unlawful here even where it is lawful federally. That reaches the advertisement, the screening criteria, the wording of the application and what a leasing agent says on the telephone. It is one of the most common findings against small landlords in the state and one of the easiest to design out of the paperwork.
The statement of rights has to reach the tenant
New Jersey requires landlords of qualifying buildings to distribute the state's statement of the legal rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords, and to do so at defined points rather than on request. Treat it as part of the pack that travels with the lease and record when it was given, because the obligation is on the landlord and the evidence that it was met is a document with a date on it.
The deposit cap shapes what the application can promise
New Jersey limits the security deposit a landlord may take and regulates where it must be held and how the tenant is told about it. An application that offers to hold a unit for a payment has to be careful that the payment does not become a deposit in excess of the cap once it is applied. Name the payment on the form, say what happens to it in each outcome, and keep it on its own line in the ledger.
Questions people ask about nj rental application
What can an NJ rental application not ask?
New Jersey's fair chance in housing law takes certain criminal history questions off the initial application and defers any consideration to a later, individualised stage with a right for the applicant to respond. Read the current text before drafting, and remove the question rather than annotating it.
Can I say no vouchers in a New Jersey listing?
No. The source of a person's lawful income is protected under New Jersey's anti-discrimination law, so an advertisement, a criterion or a conversation that excludes a voucher holder is unlawful in the state.
Do I have to give a New Jersey tenant anything at signing?
For qualifying buildings, yes: the state's statement of the legal rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords has to be distributed, and it is worth recording the date it was handed over.