Lead-Safe Inspections in Weehawken, NJ

August 27, 2026

Weehawken rentals built before 1978 need a lead-safe certificate; the DCA-listed method is visual. The township is small, and its rental stock is mostly rowhouses and small multifamily buildings from the early 1900s, with a strip of newer waterfront development that is often exempt by age.

Two very different halves

Up on the Palisades, Weehawken is rowhouses, brownstones, and 2-to-4-family buildings; 56% of the township's housing units were built before 1980 (U.S. Census, ACS table B25034). Down on the waterfront, Port Imperial-era construction is post-1978 and typically exempt by certificate of occupancy date. Which half your building is in usually answers the exemption question by itself.

For the older half: painted stoops, original trim, and wood windows are the usual attention points. Intact paint passes; fix any peeling before the visit.

What the township code does, and does not, set

Weehawken is the quiet case. Its published code has no lead-based paint inspection chapter at all: searches for "lead-safe" and "lead evaluation" return nothing. Where Hoboken, Jersey City, Bayonne and Union City each wrote their own article with their own fees, Weehawken runs on the state framework alone, so the rules are the ones on our law page: inspection every three years or at turnover, certificate valid two years, 30 days to cure, up to $1,000 per week after that.

The only certain charge is the state fee. $20 per unit inspected, which every municipality collects for the state Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund. The township fee schedule sets no lead-safe inspection fee, so ask the clerk what Weehawken bills before you book.

Do not confuse it with the abatement permit. The fee schedule does carry a lead line: a lead hazard abatement permit at $140 plus a $28 clearance certificate. Those are construction fees for an actual abatement project, not the cost of a periodic lead-safe inspection. They only apply if you end up removing lead paint under a permit.

With no local article, the state rule is the whole rule

That is not a gap, it is the default: where a township writes nothing of its own, N.J.A.C. 5:28A governs directly. Worth knowing what it gives you, because in a town without its own program you are the one who has to know it.

You can bring your own contractor. N.J.A.C. 5:28A-2.1(d) lets the owner hire any DCA-licensed lead evaluation contractor. A municipality may refuse only in two narrow cases. In a township with no inspection program of its own, this is usually the faster route.

Your contractor files the copy, not you. N.J.A.C. 5:28A-2.4(a)2 puts the filing on the private contractor: when the certificate is issued, the contractor sends the copy to the municipality.

In a two or three unit building, one hazard pulls in the rest. N.J.A.C. 5:28A-2.4(b)1 requires the remaining units to be inspected when a hazard turns up in a small building. Weehawken rowhouses and 2-to-4-family conversions are exactly the shape this applies to, so budget for the building, not the unit.

In a condo, the unit owner pays, not the association. N.J.A.C. 5:28A-2.2(c) settles the argument that comes up in waterfront buildings: the fee follows the unit owner, and the association is not on the hook.

Abatement plus a clearance ends the cycle. N.J.A.C. 5:28A-2.5(e)2 moves a unit to lead-free after a full abatement with a clearance certificate. No more periodic inspections after that, which is what those $140 and $28 permit lines in the fee schedule are for.

At turnover you owe three separate things. N.J.A.C. 5:28A-3.1(a),(d) requires evidence of the certificate to the incoming tenant, a copy attached to the lease as an exhibit, and notice to the municipality. Two out of three is not compliance.

Where the certificate gets filed

Certificates are filed with the township clerk's office; confirm the current procedure and any local fee when you book. If we handle your inspection, filing is included.

Weehawken questions

My waterfront condo is from the 1990s. Do I need anything?

No certificate is needed for post-1978 buildings. Keep the CO date handy in case a tenant or agent asks.

Does a garden apartment in an older building count?

Yes, it is a rental unit like any other, including its share of common areas.

How fast can a single rowhouse unit get done?

Booked within 48 hours, inspected in under an hour, certificate filed after. See the process.

How much does a lead paint inspection cost in Weehawken?

Weehawken charges no local lead-inspection fee: the $140 abatement permit and $28 clearance certificate in the township fee schedule are construction fees, not the rental inspection. You pay the contractor's rate plus the $20 state fee. See the cost guide.