Hudson County Rent Controls - Any Local Attorneys to Help?

[Justin McElroy]

Hi everyone - hopefully a local attorney is reading this, if so please message me as I'd love to hop on a call or meet for coffee to discuss (I'm also looking to find a great attorney to add to my team!).

I've been trying to figure out the rent ordinances in all of the cities I'm looking to invest in in Hudson County (West New York, Jersey City, North Bergen, Weehawken, Union City).  

I've been able to look up all of the documents that spell out all of the legal terms for rent ordinances and they all seem to be pretty close to the same stipulations, with some, small differences here and there, but 1 thing is not specifically spelled out (at least that i can see), relating to marking the rent to market rates.

From what I see, generally, if you purchase a triplex and owner occupy 1 of the units, you are able to increase the rent on all units to market after you are able to get any inherited tenants out.

My question is, if I were to buy a property as a straight investment property (without owner occupying), assuming the property is delivered vacant (or inherited tenants are out shortly after closing), am I able to make the rent to market for future tenants? Or am I limited to the increasing the rents 2% (or whatever the cost of living index currently is) on what the previous tenant was paying (which is essentially what was previously reported to town hall)?

Thank you in advance - Not looking for free legal advice at all, just want to make sure I understand the local laws correctly, because a lot of the deals I'm seeing in this area can't even come close to cash flowing unless you are able to mark the rent to market.

Justin