What happened next, and how fast

The legislative response arrived in under four weeks, which is unusual in any legislature.

State Senator Vincent Polistina told NJ.com his office was "working with the Office of Legislative Services to draft legislation that would help ease some of the financial burden," adding: "There must be a more balanced approach that does not price seniors, working families, and those on fixed incomes out of their homes."

On June 6, 2026, Polistina and Assemblyman Don Guardian announced a bill, circulating an Office of Legislative Services draft dated May 26, 2026. Polistina: "Over the past several weeks, our office has been inundated with calls and emails from residents who fear they may lose their homes because of staggering increases in homeowners' association fees." Guardian: "This legislation was never meant to force seniors on fixed incomes to lose their homes."

On June 23 and 24, 2026, A5306 and S4508 were introduced — using a different mechanism from the announced draft. The announced version set a ten percent trigger and a five-year catch-up. The introduced bills instead offer a 35-year reserve funding plan option.

Neither bill has had a committee vote.

The part the coverage did not reach

Two things are worth adding, because they change what a reader should do with the story.

First, the cap point is more severe than reported. P.L.2025, c.132 did not merely leave the ten percent ceiling inapplicable to reserve shortfalls — it deleted the subsections that had provided a phased ten-year cure for deficiencies requiring a larger increase. The statutory cushion that would have spread an increase like this one across a decade was removed in August 2025.

Second, there is nowhere to appeal. The Department of Community Affairs states in its own guidance that it "does not oversee owner-controlled associations" on reserve compliance and has "no statutory jurisdiction over the business judgment decisions of association boards relative to… the issuance of assessments to unit owners." Owners who disagree "will need to institute civil litigation."

What is not established

The dollar figures come from the reporting and, as reported, from the owner and the property manager rather than from association records we have seen. We could not independently confirm whether Hardings Run is a condominium or a planned real estate development for statutory purposes — which matters, because the structural-inspection duty and the reserve-study duty attach differently.

There are also indications of at least one further NJ.com piece in the same series, concerning a Middletown community where fees reportedly rose from $400 to $675 since 2022. We were unable to open it, and those figures should be treated as unverified.

Why this one story mattered

Because it supplied a number. New Jersey's reserve debate had been running in trade publications and at county commissioner meetings since late 2024 without a named community, a named resident and a figure attached to it. Within a month of getting all three, two bills were on the board.

They are still on the board. The assessment arithmetic that produced $624.77 is unchanged.