Housing Discrimination

Under the Law Against Discrimination, an owner, lessee, managing agent or anyone else with the right to sell or rent real property may not refuse to sell, rent or lease it, or discriminate in its terms, conditions or privileges or in the facilities or services that go with it, because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, pregnancy or breastfeeding, sex, gender identity or expression, affectional or sexual orientation, familial status, disability, service or liability for service in the Armed Forces, nationality, or source of lawful income used for rent or mortgage payments.

• §N.J.S.A. 10:5-12

Nor may anyone advertise, use an application, or make a record or inquiry that expresses a limitation, specification or discrimination on those grounds, or say that property is not available for inspection or rental when it is.

• §N.J.S.A. 10:5-12

A landlord may not refuse to rent because a person's family includes children under 18, or make a lease that becomes void on the birth of a child. That rule, and the familial status rules generally, do not apply to housing for older persons.

• §N.J.S.A. 10:5-12
• §N.J.S.A. 10:5-5

Except for publicly assisted housing, the act does not apply to renting one apartment in a two-family dwelling where the owner lives in the other, or to renting a room in a one-family home where the owner or occupant lives at the time.

• §N.J.S.A. 10:5-5

A person may file a verified written complaint with the Division on Civil Rights, which tells them of the right to file instead in the Superior Court and have the case heard before a jury.

• §N.J.S.A. 10:5-13