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A public hearing on a rent control ordinance that includes Ocean Grove is scheduled for Monday night’s Neptune Township Committee meeting. The committee may vote on the measure after the hearing.

The ordinance limits rent increases to the regional consumer price index. Rental properties throughout Neptune are subject to the ordinance.

The measure is similar to existing rent control ordinances in Red Bank and Eatontown, according to Committeeman Randy Bishop. The ordinances in both towns “have been very successful,” he said.

The ordinance establishes a Rent Leveling Board to administer the rent control regulations. The board would hear complaints from tenants about rents in excess of the limits.

Landlords can also apply to the board for an additional rental charge to pay for capital improvements. Hardship rental increases can be granted by the board if a landlord demonstrates the controlled rents do not allow a fair financial return on the property.

In Red Bank and Eatontown, the rent leveling boards have granted most requests by landlords for additional rents to pay for capital improvement, Bishop said.

“It’s for the benefit of the town,” said Bishop, the only Ocean Grove resident on the committee.

New units are not subject to rent control until after a year of tenant occupancy. In addition, the ordinance states that if a unit becomes vacant at the end of a lease, it is decontrolled for the next tenant. The controlled rent would then take effect on the renewal a year later.

Under New Jersey law, a landlord cannot terminate the lease solely to decontrol the unit and raise the rent, Bishop said. For a unit to be decontrolled with a new tenant, either an existing tenant leaves voluntarily or there are other grounds for the landlord not to renew the lease, he said.

Click here for a copy of the proposed ordinance. [Scroll down to Ordinance No. 13-26.]

The public hearing and potential vote on the rent control ordinance are on the agenda for the township committee’s regular meeting on Monday, August 12, at 7:00 p.m. in the municipal complex at 25 Neptune Boulevard.

[CORRECTION: A prior version of this post said that the ordinance covers properties of three units or more. However, questions have been raised on the ordinance language as to whether single and two family properties are covered. Township Attorney Eugene Anthony says he interprets the ordinance as exempting such units. Click here for the subsequent Sun story on the passage of the rent control ordinance which includes Anthony’s comments.]

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