New Jersey Bans the Box for Housing: What Tenants Should Know

It is illegal for landlords in New Jersey to inquire about criminal history in the early stages of a tenant application and screening process. The rule – part of the Fair Chance in Housing Act, which has officially been the law in New Jersey since January 1, 2022 – gives renters rights regarding tenant background check processes and other parts of the pre-lease screening process. Perhaps most crucially, New Jersey instructed tenants to report landlords who violate the new ban the box policy.

In recent years ban the box legislation has become typical for employment. Laws or ordinances restrict what employers can ask about during interviews in many states, counties, cities, and other jurisdictions. Typically, these policies require employers to eliminate the tick box on job applications, which requires that candidates check if they’ve ever been convicted of a crime.

Usually, ban the box policies also extend to the criminal background check part of the screening process, requiring employers to delay the background check until later in the hiring process. Usually, ban the box policy demands an employer to wait until after the first interview or making a conditional employment offer before asking about criminal background.

Ban the box for tenants

Similarly, the Fair Chance in Housing Act in New Jersey prescribes that landlords can’t ask questions about criminal history on job applications or in interviews and cannot activate a criminal background check process until they have extended an offer of housing to an applicant.

While the law has been in effect for some time, it doesn’t mean compliance is 100%. According to NorthJersey.com, criminal justice advocates throughout the state “are still hearing complaints that former inmates are facing discrimination when looking for housing.”

The non-compliance issue has prompted a coalition of advocates, calling themselves New Jersey Together, to seek preemptive steps from law enforcement to help bring more landlords in line. Specifically, the New Jersey Together group wants the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office to “proactively scour property listings and file applications to make sure landlords aren’t illegally denying the formerly incarcerated access to housing.”

Reporting

Ex-offenders in New Jersey who have been denied housing this year in breach of the Fair Chance in Housing Act are urged to share information about their experiences with the Attorney General’s Office. Non-compliance with the law can be reported to the Attorney General’s Division on Civil Rights.

Tenants should understand that the law in New Jersey does not bar landlords from conducting criminal background check processes as part of the due diligence process. Property managers are still entitled to consider criminal history information and other background details as part of the housing application process.

Provided landlords delay the tenant background check process until after making a conditional offer, they are allowed to consider many types of criminal history, including first-degree convictions from the past six years, second- or third-degree convictions from the past four years, fourth-degree convictions from the past year; and any convictions for murder, aggravated sexual assault, arson, human trafficking, kidnapping, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, or any crime that requires lifetime sex offender registration.

Effective September 2024, we discontinued tenant screening and credit report access services. Because this is not a core market for us, we cannot support its rapidly growing regulatory burdens but continue focusing on optimal service delivery for employers and individuals.