Lead-Safe Inspections in Jersey City, NJ

August 27, 2026

Jersey City requires a visual lead inspection for pre-1978 rentals, per the NJ DCA method list. Requirements and filing practice vary by building type; certificates are filed with the city and stay valid for two years.

A city of four different housing stocks

Jersey City is really four rental markets. Downtown and Paulus Hook: brownstones, nearly all pre-1900. The Heights: 2-to-4-family frame houses, mostly pre-war. Journal Square and Bergen-Lafayette: prewar apartment buildings and rowhouses. The waterfront towers: largely post-1978 and often exempt by age. Citywide, 56% of housing units were built before 1980 (U.S. Census, ACS table B25034), so unless you own in a newer tower, plan on the inspection.

Frame houses in the Heights deserve special attention: wood windows, painted porches, and exterior trim weather faster than masonry, and deteriorated exterior paint on tenant-used surfaces counts.

What Jersey City adds on top of state law

Register the property, not just the certificate. Every property covered by the law has to be registered with the Division of Housing Preservation, on the city form or through its portal. The registration lists the owner, the lessor if that is someone else, the local agent in charge, every unit address, and the name of each tenant (§ 254-81.1, added by Ord. No. 23-018).

Update the registration within 20 days of a turnover. Not before the move, as in Hoboken, but after it: the registration has to be revised within 20 days of tenant turnover (§ 254-81.1B). Landlords who change tenants often are the ones who fall behind here.

New owner: re-register within 30 days. On any change of ownership or control of a building with three or more units, the new owner or manager applies for a new Limitation of Occupancy Notification within 30 days of acquisition (§ 254-80B). Buying a building starts that clock too.

Selling: a lead notice before the deposit. Jersey City has had its own disclosure rule since 1971. Before the earliest of a signed binder, a signed contract, or an accepted deposit, the seller or broker gives the buyer a printed lead-paint notice, gets a written acknowledgment, and keeps that acknowledgment on file for the Health Officer (§ 257-4). This sits on top of the federal disclosure, not instead of it.

Booking the city inspection, step by step

Jersey City takes requests only through its online permitting portal (jcnj.org/permitportal), under the application named Lead-Based Paint Inspections Request. The application asks for the number of units to be inspected, whether the property is owner-occupied, the date of the last known inspection, and a row for every tenant: name, apartment number, lease date, and number of occupants.

One attachment is mandatory and it is the part people get wrong: a notarized affidavit (the city's form) in which the owner swears that the information is accurate, that they are the owner or a duly appointed representative, and that notice of the application was served on every tenant, with copies of those notices attached. Without it the portal will not let the request through.

What the city charges. $200 per unit for the inspection, $20 per unit to the state, and $25 per unit for a re-inspection if the first one fails. Hire your own DCA-licensed contractor instead and the $200 does not apply.

You cannot pay up front. The city reviews the request first, then issues an invoice. You get an email, log back into the portal, and pay under My Invoices. Budget for that delay: it is not a same-day booking like Hoboken.

Claiming an exemption. Proof goes through a separate application in the same portal, Certified Lead Exemption Registration.

Where the certificate gets filed

Certificates are filed with the Jersey City Division of Housing Preservation, Three Jackson Square (342 Martin Luther King Drive), open Monday to Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm with the last walk-in at 3:30pm. Inspections can also be requested online: the city takes the Lead-Based Paint Inspection application through its permit portal. If we handle your inspection, filing is included.

Jersey City questions

Is there an old Jersey City rule about using lead paint?

Yes, and it is still in the property maintenance code: no lead paint may be used to cover interior ceilings, floors, trim, walls, or other interior surfaces of a dwelling, dwelling unit, or rooming unit (§ 254-45). Modern paint sold in the United States is far below the old thresholds, so this rarely affects new work.

What if the fix needs a full abatement, not just repairs?

Then a construction permit enters the picture. The city fee schedule sets a $140 permit fee for lead paint abatement (§ 160-1), separate from the inspection fees. Paint stabilization done as interim controls does not need that permit; abatement does.

What does the city charge for the inspection?

$200 per unit for a municipal inspection, non-refundable, set in the city fee schedule (§ 160-1, amended 9-11-2024 by Ord. No. 24-066). On top of that comes the $20 state fee per unit, which the city collects for the state Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund. Hire your own DCA-certified contractor and the $200 does not apply: only the $20 remains.

I own a condo in a downtown high-rise. Am I exempt?

If the building has a certificate of occupancy from 1978 or later, yes, by age. Check the CO date, not the marketing materials.

Do the Heights frame houses fail more often?

They fail for predictable reasons: weathered window sashes and porch trim. Fix peeling paint before the visit and they pass like anything else.

Does Jersey City have its own lead program?

Yes. The city runs its own program through the Division of Housing Preservation: book the municipal inspection at $200 per unit, non-refundable, plus the $20 state fee (Jersey City Code § 160-1), or hire any DCA-licensed private contractor. If you use your own contractor, the city inspection fee does not apply and only the $20 state fee is payable to the city for the state fund.