New Jersey HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

Section 1: Overview — Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in New Jersey?

Yes. A New Jersey condominium restricts short-term rentals through its recorded master deed and bylaws under the New Jersey Condominium Act, and a planned development does so through its recorded declaration and bylaws, all within a registration-and-governance regime administered by the Department of Community Affairs (DCA).¹ New Jersey is not a CC&R-primary state. It operates a two-statute framework: the Condominium Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-1 et seq.) governs condominiums, and the Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act, or PREDFDA (N.J.S.A. 45:22A-21 et seq.), cross-cuts condominiums, cooperatives, and planned developments as a registration, disclosure, and governance statute.² On top of PREDFDA sits the Radburn governance overlay (P.L. 2017, c.106), which added democratic-governance requirements covering elections, open meetings, and records access; these are governance rules, not rental-restriction provisions.¹⁴ Rental authority itself is declaration-driven: the substance of any short-term-rental restriction arises from the recorded governing documents rather than from a statute, and New Jersey has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA).¹ Separately, New Jersey does not preempt local short-term-rental regulation. Municipalities regulate heavily under home rule, from Jersey City's restrictive permit regime to Jersey Shore towns such as Asbury Park (a minimum two-night stay and a $200 annual permit) and Lakewood (a ban on all rentals shorter than 30 days), and the state imposes a transient-accommodations tax; all of that governs the relationship between an owner and the government and is distinct from association authority.⁴ The sections below detail the framework, the amendment and grandfathering mechanics, the tax and local layer, enforcement, and recent activity.

Section 2: The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The two-statute framework and the DCA governance overlay

Condominiums in New Jersey are governed by the New Jersey Condominium Act, N.J.S.A. 46:8B-1 et seq., enacted in 1969. The Act defines the condominium form, prescribes the contents of the master deed and bylaws, sets out the powers and duties of the association, and creates the assessment lien. It is condominium-specific and applies only to property submitted to its terms by a recorded master deed (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-8).¹⁵

PREDFDA, N.J.S.A. 45:22A-21 et seq., is the cross-cutting statute. Enacted in 1977 and administered by the DCA, it applies to any "planned real estate development" offered under a common promotional plan, a definition that expressly includes property subject to the Condominium Act, any form of homeowners' association, and housing cooperatives.² PREDFDA is primarily a registration and disclosure statute: it requires developers to register developments and deliver a public offering statement to purchasers.¹⁶ It is not a substantive rental statute. Because PREDFDA reaches fee-simple planned developments and homeowners associations, New Jersey planned communities are not governed solely by covenants; the statute is the reason a planned-community row in the Quick-Reference table cites PREDFDA rather than "no statute."

The Radburn amendments, P.L. 2017, c.106, effective July 13, 2017, significantly amended PREDFDA to add democratic-governance requirements. Named for litigation involving the Radburn community, the amendments established that all unit owners are association members, guaranteed election-participation rights for members in good standing, set default election intervals and board-term limits, and created default procedures for amending bylaws.¹⁴ The DCA adopted implementing regulations at N.J.A.C. 5:26.¹⁷ These are governance rules that dictate how an association must operate its elections, meetings, and records; they do not address rentals or grant or remove any rental authority.

New Jersey has not adopted UCIOA. Corporate governance for associations organized as nonprofits comes from the New Jersey Nonprofit Corporation Act, N.J.S.A. 15A:1-1 et seq.¹⁸ The combination of a condominium statute, a cross-cutting registration-and-governance statute, a state agency administering democratic-governance regulations, and nonprofit corporate law makes New Jersey a more regulated jurisdiction than a CC&R-primary state. Yet the source of authority to restrict rentals remains the recorded governing documents: the master deed and bylaws for a condominium, or the declaration and bylaws for a planned development.

2B. Rental authority, amendments, and grandfathering

Although governance is statutory in New Jersey, rental authority is declaration-driven. The Condominium Act does not itself prohibit or limit short-term rentals; instead, N.J.S.A. 46:8B-9(m) provides that the master deed may set forth "restrictions or limitations upon the use, occupancy, transfer, leasing or other disposition of any unit," provided the restriction is "otherwise permitted by law."¹ That is a grant of drafting authority, not a substantive statutory rule. PREDFDA and the Radburn amendments govern process and disclosure, not rental substance. The working conclusion, confirmed against the statutes, is that no New Jersey statute controls an association's rental authority; the governing documents do.

Adopting or strengthening a rental restriction is therefore done by amending the master deed or declaration and the bylaws, following the amendment provisions in those documents. The Condominium Act requires that any master-deed amendment be recorded to be effective (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-9(j)), and that bylaw amendments likewise be recorded (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-13(d)).¹⁹ PREDFDA supplies a governance default for bylaw amendments: where an association's bylaws provide no method for member amendment, or require a supermajority exceeding two-thirds, members may amend by an affirmative vote of a majority of the total authorized votes in the association (N.J.S.A. 45:22A-46(d)(2)), with associated notice and petition procedures.⁶ The specific vote threshold to add a rental restriction is set by the governing documents; there is no single statutory percentage.

New Jersey provides no UCIOA-style owner-protection provision, so grandfathering is governed by the documents and New Jersey common law. Two principles matter. First, a board cannot unilaterally impose a new leasing limitation, such as a minimum rental period, on an existing owner without consent, because that effects an impermissible "change in a unit." The New Jersey Supreme Court in Thanasoulis v. Winston Towers 200 Ass'n, 110 N.J. 650 (1988) held that a unit owner should retain essentially the same property rights originally deeded to him unless he affirmatively consents to their alteration, and a federal court applied that reasoning in In re 560 Ocean Club, 133 B.R. 310 (D.N.J. 1991) to strike a board rule curtailing short-term rentals.⁷ Second, and by contrast, a restriction adopted through a proper amendment to the recorded declaration by the required member vote can bind owners, including those who bought earlier; the Appellate Division held in Cape May Harbor Village & Yacht Club Ass'n v. Sbraga, 421 N.J. Super. 56 (App. Div. 2011) that an owner leasing before a validly adopted anti-leasing amendment was not grandfathered.²⁰ New Jersey does not import a Florida-style or California-style statutory grandfathering shield; the outcome turns on whether the restriction was validly adopted by amendment rather than imposed by board rule, and on the language of the documents.

2C. State law, tax, and the local layer

New Jersey does not preempt local short-term-rental regulation. Municipalities exercise broad home-rule authority, and many regulate short-term rentals heavily. Jersey City adopted restrictive limits by Ordinance 19-077, passed June 25, 2019 and upheld by voters in a November 2019 referendum; the ordinance caps unhosted (non-owner-present) short-term rentals at 60 nights per year, makes it illegal to offer the short-term rental of a dwelling with more than four units where the owner or operator is not present, defines a short-term rental as a stay of 28 consecutive days or fewer, and bars tenants from hosting.⁸ Jersey Shore municipalities and other towns impose their own permit and registration regimes. These local rules govern the relationship between an owner and the municipality.

Separately, New Jersey taxes transient accommodations. Under P.L. 2018, c.49, as amended by P.L. 2019, c.235, a rental of a transient accommodation is subject to the State Sales and Use Tax (6.625%), the State Occupancy Fee (5%, reduced to 1% in Atlantic City, Elizabeth, Newark and Jersey City and to 3.15% in Wildwood, North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest because those cities already impose a local tax), and, where adopted, a municipal occupancy tax of up to 3%, generally for stays under 90 consecutive days.⁹ The tax treatment turns on how the rental is booked. A rental obtained through a "transient space marketplace" (such as Airbnb or Vrbo) or that is a "professionally managed unit" (an owner offering three or more units) is taxable, with the marketplace generally collecting and remitting.²¹ A rental booked directly by an owner who offers fewer than three units, or executed through a licensed New Jersey real estate broker under specified conditions, is not subject to the tax. A lease of at least 90 consecutive days is excluded.⁵

The critical point for associations is that state and local regulation and taxation govern the owner-to-government relationship; they neither grant nor remove association authority. An owner who obtains a Jersey City permit, registers with the Division of Revenue, and remits every applicable tax may still violate a master-deed leasing restriction, and the association may enforce that restriction regardless of the owner's compliance with the government. Conversely, an owner who satisfies the governing documents may still owe the tax or need a local permit.

Section 3: Operational mechanics and enforcement

A. Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

The most common mechanism is a minimum-lease-term restriction, which converts a short-term-rental prohibition into a leasing floor (for example, no lease shorter than 30 or 90 days). Because N.J.S.A. 46:8B-9(m) locates leasing restrictions in the master deed, the durable approach for a condominium is a recorded master-deed provision or amendment, not a standalone board rule; 560 Ocean Club shows that a board rule limiting rental length without master-deed authority is vulnerable.⁷ Rental caps that limit the percentage of units that may be leased at one time are permitted where the governing documents establish them; neither the Condominium Act nor PREDFDA sets a statutory cap, so the documents govern. Associations may also impose internal registration, owner-information, and lease-filing requirements, and a reasonable rental-review fee tied to the actual cost of review, provided the master deed or bylaws authorize them; New Jersey courts have invalidated excessive rental-review fees imposed without such authority.²² Any of these tools must be consistent with the Radburn governance rules on how meetings and votes are conducted, but those rules concern process, not the substance of the restriction.

B. Enforcement and the Superior Court divisions

Before imposing a fine for a short-term-rental violation, a condominium association must give the unit owner written notice of the action and its alleged basis and advise the owner of the right to participate in alternative dispute resolution (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-15(f)), and the association must make an ADR alternative to litigation available (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-14(k)).¹⁰ Planned-community associations operate under their documents and PREDFDA governance rules, with a comparable ADR obligation.

The forum question turns on the relief sought. An action to enjoin an ongoing short-term-rental violation or to obtain a declaratory judgment on enforceability generally proceeds in the Chancery Division, General Equity, of the Superior Court, because those are equitable remedies. A claim solely for money damages or unpaid assessments proceeds in the Law Division. Appeals go to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court and then, by petition for certification, to the Supreme Court of New Jersey.¹³

Available remedies are fines, injunctive relief, and the assessment lien. For condominiums, the lien secures unpaid assessments and carries a limited priority of up to six months of customary assessments over a prior recorded mortgage if perfected before the mortgagee's foreclosure filing (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21); planned-community associations have a parallel lien priority under N.J.S.A. 45:22A-44.1.¹¹ Association enforcement runs in parallel with, and independent of, municipal enforcement of local short-term-rental ordinances and the Division of Taxation's collection of the transient-accommodations tax. The DCA's role is a genuine state touchpoint through PREDFDA registration and the Radburn governance regulations, but the DCA does not adjudicate rental disputes.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills (past 24 months)

B. Recent rulings (past 36 months)

There is no New Jersey Appellate Division or Supreme Court decision within the past 36 months that squarely resolves an association's authority to restrict rentals or short-term rentals. The controlling substantive authority on association rental power remains older: Thanasoulis v. Winston Towers 200 Ass'n, 110 N.J. 650 (1988) and In re 560 Ocean Club, 133 B.R. 310 (D.N.J. 1991), supplemented on grandfathering by Cape May Harbor Village & Yacht Club Ass'n v. Sbraga, 421 N.J. Super. 56 (App. Div. 2011).⁷ Two recent decisions bear on the surrounding framework.

C. Active legislative or local debates

At the state level, versions of the "Neighborhood Protection and Housing Affordability Act" continue to be reintroduced (carried forward as A1412 in the 2026 session), and the transient-accommodations-tax framework remains subject to periodic legislative adjustment.²⁴ At the local level, municipalities continue to tighten short-term-rental rules, with Princeton adopting its first STR ordinance (No. 2025-20) on December 8, 2025, requiring an STR to be the operator's principal residence, imposing a 3% occupancy tax and annual permits, and phasing out existing non-owner-occupied rentals over 36 months, while Jersey City and Jersey Shore towns continue active enforcement, all of which touch owners rather than association authority.²⁷

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

New Jersey sits toward the more-regulated end of the spectrum of how states approach short-term rentals and associations. It is a non-UCIOA state with a two-statute framework, the Condominium Act and PREDFDA, a state agency (the DCA) administering registration and democratic-governance rules under the Radburn amendments, and strong municipal home rule over short-term rentals. That is a more governed posture than a CC&R-primary state, where covenants do most of the work and state oversight is thin. Even so, rental authority itself remains declaration-driven: the substance of any short-term-rental restriction comes from the recorded governing documents, not from a statute. State and local short-term-rental regulation and taxation restrain governments and owners, not associations. For a multi-state operator entering New Jersey, the practical implication is a three-part checklist: comply with statutory governance under PREDFDA and the Radburn regulations, locate rental authority in the master deed or declaration rather than in a statute or a board rule, and plan to enforce short-term-rental restrictions through the Chancery Division, General Equity.

HOA Weekly's New Jersey Short-Term Rentals coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature, the Appellate Division and the Supreme Court of New Jersey, the Department of Community Affairs, and local governments act. Federal frameworks (the FHA, the ADA, the FDCPA, the SCRA, and the FCC's OTARD rule) also apply to New Jersey associations regardless of the state framework.

Footnotes

1. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-9(m) (Condominium Act, master deed contents: master deed may set "restrictions or limitations upon the use, occupancy, transfer, leasing or other disposition of any unit," provided the restriction is "otherwise permitted by law") ↩
2. PREDFDA, N.J.S.A. 45:22A-21 et seq. (definition of "planned real estate development" includes property subject to the Condominium Act, homeowners' associations, and cooperatives) ↩
3. NJ Division of Taxation, Transient Accommodations FAQ (transient-accommodations tax under P.L. 2018, c.49 and P.L. 2019, c.235 is a tax measure, not a rental-restriction statute) ↩
4. Jersey City Municipal Question 1 (Nov. 5, 2019), approving Ordinance 19-077 under municipal home rule ↩
5. NJ Division of Taxation, Permanent Residents (90-consecutive-day threshold; a lease of at least 90 consecutive days is excluded from the transient-accommodations tax) ↩
6. N.J.S.A. 45:22A-46(d)(2) (default bylaw-amendment method: majority of total authorized votes where documents provide no method or require more than two-thirds) ↩
7. Buckalew Frizzell & Crevina LLP, "Leasing Restrictions — Can Your Condominium Association Impose Them?" (discussing Thanasoulis v. Winston Towers 200 Ass'n, 110 N.J. 650 (1988) and In re 560 Ocean Club, 133 B.R. 310 (D.N.J. 1991), and the "change in a unit" doctrine) ↩
8. Griffin Alexander, P.C. / Ballotpedia (Jersey City Ordinance 19-077, passed June 25, 2019: 60-night cap on unhosted rentals, prohibition on STRs in dwellings with more than four units where owner not present, tenants barred from hosting) ↩
9. NJ Division of Taxation, TB-81R (Sales and Use Tax 6.625%, State Occupancy Fee 5% reduced to 1% in Atlantic City, Elizabeth, Newark and Jersey City and 3.15% in the Wildwoods, and municipal occupancy tax up to 3%) ↩
10. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-15(f) (no fine without written notice of the action and its basis and advice of the right to dispute resolution under N.J.S.A. 46:8B-14(k)) ↩
11. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21 (association lien; limited priority up to six months of customary assessments over a prior recorded mortgage if perfected before the mortgagee's foreclosure filing) ↩
12. Legal Services of New Jersey, Condominium and Homeowner Association Lien Super-Priority (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21 and N.J.S.A. 45:22A-44.1) ↩
13. New Jersey Courts, Superior Court structure (Chancery Division, General Equity, and Law Division; appeals to the Appellate Division and then the Supreme Court of New Jersey) ↩
14. P.L. 2017, c.106 (S2492), the Radburn law, amending PREDFDA on membership, board elections, and bylaw amendments, effective July 13, 2017 ↩
15. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-8 (condominium created by recording a master deed; the Act applies solely to property subjected to its terms) ↩
16. PREDFDA text, N.J.S.A. 45:22A-28 (public offering statement disclosure requirements) ↩
17. N.J.A.C. 5:26, DCA Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act Regulations ↩
18. New Jersey Nonprofit Corporation Act, N.J.S.A. 15A:1-1 et seq. (corporate governance for associations organized as nonprofits) ↩
19. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-13(d) (bylaw amendments must be recorded to be effective); see also N.J.S.A. 46:8B-9(j) (master-deed amendment recording requirement) ↩
20. Cape May Harbor Village & Yacht Club Ass'n v. Sbraga, 421 N.J. Super. 56 (App. Div. 2011) (owner leasing before a validly adopted anti-leasing amendment not grandfathered), as cited in New Jersey community-association case law ↩
21. NJ Division of Taxation, Taxes Imposed on Transient Accommodations (taxable if obtained through a transient space marketplace or a professionally managed unit; direct rentals by owners of fewer than three units not taxable) ↩
22. Buckalew Frizzell & Crevina LLP (New Jersey courts have struck excessive rental-review fees and board-imposed minimum-rental periods lacking master-deed authority) ↩
23. S3992 (P.L. 2025, c.132), signed August 21, 2025, amending the reserve-funding portion of the Structural Integrity and Reserve Funding Law ↩
24. New Jersey A5434, "Neighborhood Protection and Housing Affordability Act," introduced March 10, 2025; died in committee; carried forward as A1412 (2026 session) ↩
25. In the Matter of the Challenge of the Community Associations Institute–New Jersey Chapter, No. A-2241-21 (App. Div. Feb. 23, 2024) (certification denied) ↩
26. The Estates at Layton's Lakes Homeowners Ass'n v. Watson, No. A-3123-23 (App. Div. May 7, 2025) (restrictive covenants strictly construed) ↩
27. Princeton Ordinance No. 2025-20 (adopted Dec. 8, 2025): principal-residence requirement, 3% occupancy tax, annual permits, and phase-out of existing non-owner-occupied STRs ↩