Extends protected tenancy period for certain tenants who are senior citizens and certain tenants with disabilities.

S413 TR

SENATE, No. 413

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Senator BRIAN P. STACK

District 33 (Hudson)

Senator RAJ MUKHERJI

District 32 (Hudson)

Co-Sponsored by:

Senators McKnight, Timberlake, Cryan, Wimberly and Diegnan

SYNOPSIS

���� Extends protected tenancy period for certain tenants
who are senior citizens and certain tenants with disabilities.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� As reported by the Senate Community and Urban Affairs
Committee with technical review.

��

An Act
extending protected tenancy period for certain tenants
who are senior citizens and certain tenants with a disability, and amending
P.L.1981, c.226.

����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� Section 2 of
P.L.1981, c.226
(C.2A:18-61.23) is amended to
read as follows:

���� 2.��� The Legislature finds
that research studies have demonstrated that the forced eviction and relocation
of elderly persons from their established homes and communities harm the mental
and physical health of these senior citizens, and that these disruptions in the
lives of older persons affect adversely the social, economic and cultural
characteristics of communities of the State, and increase the costs borne by
all State citizens in providing for their public health, safety and welfare.�
These conditions are particularly serious in light of the rising costs of home
ownership, and are of increasing concern where rental housing is converted into
condominiums or cooperatives which senior citizens on fixed limited incomes
cannot afford, an occurrence which is becoming more and more frequent in this
State under prevailing economic circumstances.� The Legislature, therefore,
declares that it is in the public interest of the State to avoid the forced
eviction and relocation of senior citizen tenants wherever possible,
specifically in those instances where rental� housing market conditions and
particular financial circumstances combine to� diminish the ability of senior
citizens to obtain satisfactory comparable� housing within their established
communities, and where the eviction action is� the result not of any failure of
the senior citizen tenant to abide by the� terms of a lease or rental
agreement, but of the owner's decision� advantageously to dispose of
residential property through the device of� conversion to a condominium or
cooperative.

���� The Legislature further finds
that it is in the public interest of the State to avoid the forced eviction and
the displacement of the handicapped wherever possible because of their limited
mobility and the limited number of housing units which are suitable for their
needs.

���� The Legislature further
declares that in the service of this public interest it is appropriate that
qualified senior citizen tenants and disabled tenants be accorded a
[
period of
]
protected
tenancy, during which they shall be entitled to the fair enjoyment of the
dwelling unit within the converted residential structure, to continue for
[
such time,
]
up to
[
40 years
]

the full
lifetime of the senior citizen tenant or disabled tenant
, as the conditions
and circumstances which make necessary such protected tenancy shall continue.

����
The Legislature further
declares that in the service of this public interest, as life expectancies have
continued to increase in the United States since the enactment of the "Senior
Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy Act," P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.22
et al.), it is necessary to extend protected tenancy period under the
"Senior Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy Act," P.L.1981, c.226
(C.2A:18-61.22 et al.) to protect senior citizen tenants and disabled tenants
from harmful disruptions in their living conditions later in life, especially
during a time when economic dislocations have sharply increased as a result of
the COVID-19 pandemic and as recent evidence has proven that relocation at
older age has been related to declines of both physical and cognitive functions.

���� The Legislature further finds
that the promotion of this public interest is possible only if senior citizen
tenants and disabled tenants are protected during this period from alterations
in the terms of the tenancy or rent increases which are the result solely of an
owner's decision to convert.

(cf: P.L.1981, c.226, s.2)

���� 2.��� Section 3 of
P.L.1981, c.226
(C.2A:18-61.24) is amended to
read as follows:

���� 3.��� As used in
[
this
amendatory and supplementary act
]

the "Senior Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy Act,"
P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.22 et al.)
:

���� a.� "Senior citizen
tenant" means a person who is at least 62 years of age on the date of the
conversion recording for the building or structure in which is located the
dwelling unit of which
[
he
]

the person

is a tenant, or the surviving spouse of such a person if the person should die
after the owner files the conversion recording and the surviving spouse is at
least 50 years of age at the time of the filing; provided that the building or
structure has been the principal residence of the senior citizen tenant or the
spouse for at least one year immediately preceding the conversion recording or
the death or that the building or structure is the principal residence of the
senior citizen tenant or the spouse under the terms of a lease for a period of
more than one year, as the case may be;�

���� b.� "Disabled
tenant" means a person who is, on the date of the conversion recording for
the building or structure in which is located the dwelling unit of which
[
he
]

the person

is a tenant, totally and permanently unable to engage in any substantial
gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental
impairment, including blindness, or a person who has been honorably discharged
or released under honorable circumstances from active service in any branch of
the United States Armed Forces and who is rated as having a 60% disability or
higher as a result of that service pursuant to any federal law administered by
the United States Veterans' Act; provided that the building or structure has
been the principal residence of the disabled tenant for at least one year
immediately preceding the conversion recording or that the building or
structure is the principal residence of the disabled tenant under the terms of
a lease for a period of more than one year. For the purposes of this
subsection, "blindness" means central visual acuity of 20/200 or less
in the better eye with the use of correcting lens.� An eye which is accompanied
by a limitation in the fields of vision such that the widest diameter of the
visual field subtends an angle no greater than 20 degrees shall be considered
as having a central visual acuity of 20/200 or less;�

���� c.� "Tenant's annual
household income" means the total income from all sources during the last
full calendar year for all members of the household who reside in the dwelling
unit at the time the tenant applies for protected tenant status, whether or not
such income is subject to taxation by any taxing authority;�

���� d.� "Application for
registration of conversion" means an application for registration filed
with the Department of Community Affairs in accordance with "The Planned
Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act," P.L.1977, c.419 (C.45:22A-21
et seq.);�

���� e.� "Registration of
conversion" means an approval of an application for registration by the
Department of Community Affairs in accordance with "The Planned Real
Estate Development Full Disclosure Act," P.L.1977, c.419 (C.45:22A-21 et
seq.);�

���� f.� "Convert" means
to convert one or more buildings or structures or a mobile home park containing
in the aggregate not less than five dwelling units or mobile home sites or pads
from residential rental use to condominium, cooperative, planned residential
development or separable fee simple ownership of the dwelling units or of the
mobile home sites or pads;�

���� g.� "Conversion
recording" means the recording with the appropriate county officer of a
master deed for condominium or a deed to a cooperative corporation for a
cooperative or the first deed of sale to a purchaser of an individual unit for
a planned residential development or separable fee simple ownership of the
dwelling units;�

���� h.� "Protected tenancy
period" means, except as otherwise provided in section 11 of
[
this
amendatory and supplementary act
]

the "Senior Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy Act,"
P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.22 et al.)
, the
[
40 years
]

remaining
lifetime of a senior citizen tenant or disabled tenant granted a protected
tenancy under the "Senior Citizens and Disabled Protected Tenancy
Act," P.L.1981, c.226 (C.2A:18-61.22 et al.)
following the conversion
recording for the building or structure in which is located the dwelling unit
of the senior citizen tenant or disabled tenant.�

(cf: P.L.1990, c.111, s.1)

���� 3.� This act shall take effect
immediately, and shall apply to all tenancies in effect, or entered into, on or
after the effective date.