On Monday September 16th, 2024; 25 Landlords in multiple New Jersey counties were fined. This is a result of allegedly violating the Fair Chance in Housing Act(FCHA) in regards to asking about Criminal Background and alluding to discrimination if there was a criminal background. In January of 2022 the state of NJ enacted the FCHA which prohibited housing providers from asking about criminal records until after a conditional offer to the applicant (s) are made.
Make sure you review your application and adverting to insure that it does not refer to criminal background other than asking if the person is on the lifetime sex offender list.
I have always taken the position that it is best to turn them down for credit.
Once the conditional offer is made the housing provider may review the criminal history. However, the offer cannot be rescinded based on what is found in the background check or what the applicant admits to with minor exceptions. (please see article below)
The alleged landlords are from 15 different municipalities across the state, located in the following counties; Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Essex, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Ocean, Passic & Union counties. The enforcement actions are the results of an investigation completed by the DCR and NJ Law Against Discrimination (LAD). These organizations were specifically looking for source-of-income discrimination.
Please keep in mind that the violations start at $1,000.00 for a first offense, $5,000.00 for the second offense and up to $10,000.00 for any subsequent offenses.
The below link will give you the full outline of the FCHA program.