Roughly 35 New Jersey HOA bills are pending. None has had a committee vote
Roughly 35 New Jersey HOA bills are pending. None has had a committee vote
2026-09-15 · New Jersey · Legislation · Pending — not yet law
New Jersey's community-association legislation is unusually abundant and completely stationary. Around thirty-five bills touching homeowners associations, condominiums and cooperatives are alive in the 222nd Legislature. As of September 15, 2026, every one of them shows exactly one line of action history: introduced, referred to committee.
No hearings. No committee votes. No floor action. The session convened January 13, 2026 and is eight months old.
How New Jersey's two-year rule made this happen
The 221st Legislature adjourned sine die on January 13, 2026. Under New Jersey's two-year session rule, every bill not enacted by that moment is dead — no carryover, no revival. A sponsor who wants another attempt must reintroduce from scratch, with a new number, starting again in committee.
That is why the 222nd's HOA board looks the way it does. Thirty-one of the pending community-association bills are literal reintroductions of bills that died with the 221st, several of them on their third or fourth two-year cycle.
Where the bills are sitting
Almost all of them are in one of two rooms: the Assembly Housing Committee or the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee. The only association-adjacent exceptions are two bills on funding solar for age-restricted community clubhouses, which went to the telecommunications and environment committees instead.
Concentration in two committees is not itself a problem. Concentration in two committees that have taken no action on any of it in eight months is the story.
The clearest illustration: a bill that passed 75-0 and then died
A5174, sponsored by Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez, modified capital reserve funding requirements for planned real estate developments. Its history in the 221st: introduced January 14, 2025; reported out of the Assembly Housing Committee February 10, 2025; passed the full Assembly on February 27, 2025 by 75-0-0; received in the Senate March 3, 2025 and referred to Senate Community and Urban Affairs; no further action; dead January 13, 2026.
It is back in the 222nd as A3504, introduced January 13, 2026, sitting in Assembly Housing with no action — and this time no Senate companion at all. A unanimous chamber vote was discarded and the measure restarted from the bottom with less legislative infrastructure than it had before.
Two other 221st bills cleared a committee, and it did not help
S3121, on municipal duties to inspect and repair fire hydrants inside planned real estate developments, was reported from Senate Community and Urban Affairs with amendments on September 30, 2024 and referred to Senate Budget and Appropriations, where it died. It is back as S1263, unamended, with no Assembly companion.
A2450, requiring licensure of community management entities, was reported and referred to Assembly Appropriations on December 9, 2024 and died there. It is back as A1947, at introduction.
Those three — A5174, S3121 and A2450 — were the only 221st community-association bills to clear any committee at all. All three are now further from enactment than they were two years ago.
The eight-bill fight nobody is refereeing
The pending bills are not scattered across unrelated subjects. Eight of them attack the same statute, P.L.2023, c.214, from different angles: limit it to buildings three stories or taller; stretch the reserve catch-up window from ten years to twenty; add a 35-year funding plan option; let municipalities exempt duplexes and three-townhouse rows; let an association petition DCA to reduce its obligation based on risk-mitigating features.
Those approaches are not compatible with one another. Some shrink the law's scope, some only stretch its amortisation. A committee process would ordinarily be where they get reconciled, and that process has not started.
What this means for a board planning 2027
The planning implication is straightforward and slightly bleak: budget as though nothing changes. A board writing a 2027 budget around the possibility that A318 will exempt its low-rise buildings, or that S4508 will stretch its funding plan to 35 years, is planning around a bill that has not been heard by anybody.
One caveat worth stating: we confirmed the absence of committee action from each bill's official history as of September 15, 2026. We did not check whether hearings have been posted on committee calendars for dates after that. Anything could be scheduled tomorrow. Nothing has been heard yet.
Related New Jersey HOA Topics
- A3504 (222nd Legislature) bill record, New Jersey Legislature ↩
- A5174 (221st Legislature) bill record, showing the 75-0 Assembly vote of February 27, 2025 ↩
- A2450 (221st Legislature) bill record, reported to Assembly Appropriations December 9, 2024 ↩
- S3121 (221st Legislature) bill record, reported with amendments September 30, 2024 ↩
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