New Jersey's only developer transition-timing bill died with no successor
New Jersey's only developer transition-timing bill died with no successor
2026-09-15 · New Jersey · Legislation · Did not pass
Transition of control is among the most litigated issues in New Jersey community-association law, and there is currently no bill pending that addresses when it happens.
A1367, "Revises time period at which unit owners assume control of homeowners' associations," was introduced January 9, 2024 by Assemblymen Julio Marenco and Clinton Calabrese, with Assemblyman Morales co-sponsoring, and referred to the Assembly Housing Committee.1
It had no further action. It died on January 13, 2026 when the 221st Legislature adjourned sine die. We searched the 222nd session and found no successor.
Why the death matters more than the bill did
New Jersey's transition framework turns on the election of a majority owner-controlled executive board under N.J.S.A. 45:22A-47. That trigger governs a chain of consequences, and the chain has got longer since 2024.
Under the reserve statute, an association formed after January 8, 2024 must obtain its first reserve study "as soon as practicable" after that election, and in no event more than two years after it. And under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1, as amended in January 2022, the six-year limitations period for an association's construction-defect claims against a developer does not begin until transition — rather than at substantial completion.
So the transition date now fixes both when reserve obligations attach and when the clock starts on defect claims. That is a lot of weight on a trigger nobody is legislating about.
What is pending instead
Two bills touch developer conduct without changing the timing trigger, and both come from the same 2005 report.
A2995 would clarify that the Commissioner of Community Affairs has authority to enforce PREDFDA against planned-real-estate-development builders. A2999 would require a developer to post a bond with DCA securing completion of the common elements and to maintain adequate reserve accounts; and, on transition, to have an engineering report on the common elements prepared by an engineer chosen by the owners, provide documentation that all governmental approvals and certifications have been granted for all common elements, and make a full accounting of all association activities during the period of developer control. During developer control, two or more owners would get certain participation rights.
Both were introduced January 13, 2026 by Assemblyman Erik Peterson. Both implement recommendations from the State Commission of Investigation's March 2005 report, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: New-Home Construction in New Jersey."
Both are reintroductions — A2995 of A2554, A2999 of A2558, chains running back to A3407 and A3412. Neither has a Senate companion, a committee statement or a hearing. A 2005 investigative recommendation remains unenacted in 2026.
Why the A2999 package is the one to watch
The engineering-report provision is the most valuable thing in either bill, and it is the item most often missing when a New Jersey transition goes wrong.
An engineer chosen by the owners, reporting on the common elements at transition, produces the baseline document every later dispute needs: what condition the common elements were in when the association took them, and what the developer left undone. Without it, an association litigating a defect claim years later is reconstructing the condition of a building from photographs and recollection.
The full accounting of the developer-control period is the second. Boards regularly inherit reserve accounts, contracts and obligations they cannot reconstruct, because the records were the developer's.
The case that shows the cost
In Wedgewood Gardens Condominium Association v. Wedgewood Gardens Developers, decided in February 2025, a Verona association sued in 2022 over a question answerable from the master deed in 1983 — whether the superintendent's unit was a common element the association already owned. It lost.
That is a thirty-nine-year-old transition question litigated at full cost. The provisions in A2999 are designed to prevent exactly that, and they have been proposed and abandoned in four consecutive legislative sessions.
What binds a transitioning board regardless
Commission the engineering report anyway, at the association's expense, before accepting turnover. Catalogue every unit, space and element against the master deed. Demand the accounting even though no statute requires it. And record the transition date precisely, because two separate statutory clocks now run from it.
Related New Jersey HOA Topics
- A1367 (221st Legislature) bill record — died January 13, 2026, no successor filed ↩
- A2999 (222nd Legislature), introduced text — developer bond and transition accounting ↩
- A2995 (222nd Legislature), introduced text — DCA enforcement authority over PRED builders ↩
- Wedgewood Gardens Condominium Association, Inc. v. Wedgewood Gardens Developers, Inc., A-0699-23 (App. Div. Feb. 5, 2025) ↩
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