NJ apartment holding fee? reservation fee?

[Bill Liu]

Hi,

im pretty new here, still trying to catch up with all the podcasts before diving into the website forums. 

Im trying to rent my first unit out for august and i failed.  however, there was someone with a voucher who wants to move in september.

There is a decent chance that i can get it rented out by the 15th of august but the lady with the voucher offered to pay me half a month of rent as a 'fee' to hold or reserve the apartment for her for september. so that way i get paid from august 15th and still get the first month rent + full SD. 

my question is am i allowed to do that? the fee wouldnt be part of the lease, but i dont know what happens if she some how tells section 8 people. i know im not allowed to charge more than 1.5 month rent on SD but i figured this is different since its a fee, not a deposit. any thoughts? thanks