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In front of a packed meeting room, the Neptune Township Committee last night approved a rent control ordinance by a 5-0 vote.

Under the ordinance, rent increases are linked to the regional consumer price index. Rental properties throughout Neptune and Ocean Grove are subject to the ordinance.

The ordinance establishes a five-member rent leveling board to oversee rent control regulations. Decisions of the board can be appealed to the Township Committee [shown above].

The board will hear complaints from tenants about rents charged in excess of the limits set, possible maintenance issues and reduced services. Landlords can apply to the board for rent increases for capital improvements. They can also apply for hardship rental increases if the controlled rents do not allow a fair financial return on the property.

New rental units are not subject to rent control until after the first full year of a tenant’s 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 State law, a landlord cannot terminate the lease solely to decontrol the unit and raise the rent, Committeeman J. Randy Bishop previously told the Sun. 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.

Frank Vitale, a Neptune resident who owns a number of rental properties within the township, said he interprets the ordinance as written to not exempt all single and two family rental properties. The ordinance only specifically exempts two family rentals when an owner occupies a unit, Vitale said.

“I would ask, and that you put it specifically in the language and make it clear, that it does not matter if the unit is owner occupied or not,” he said.

“There is some confusion,” said Mayor Eric Houghtaling, in regard to that provision of the ordinance.

Township Attorney Eugene Anthony said this morning that the ordinance does exempt two family rentals and rentals of single family homes.

“My position is it doesn’t need to be amended because that is the language that applies to single family and duplex units,” he said. “If the township wants me to amend it for further clarification, I’ll do it.”

Anthony referenced two other shore towns, Red Bank and Eatontown, whose rent control ordinances were closely followed when he drafted the Neptune ordinance.

“Red Bank has had the same language — Eatontown, that is the way it has been interpreted there. [Rent control] has never applied to single family homes. I drafted the ordinance and that is how I’m interpreting it,” he said.

The Neptune ordinance states as follows: “Exempt from this Chapter are: motels, hotels and similar type buildings; bed and breakfast facilities; guesthouses; commercial buildings with regards to commercial rentals; and housing structures owner occupied with (2) units or less rental units.”

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

Check back with the Sun for further coverage of the passage of the rent control ordinance, including the comments of members of the public and the Township Committee during the public hearing.

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