SENATE COMMUNITY AND URBAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3865

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 5, 2025

      The Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 3865.

      This bill prohibits landlords from performing, or causing to be performed, hard credit inquiries on prospective tenants who apply for low- or moderate-income housing, defined in the bill as “affordable housing applicants.”  Landlords may, however, perform soft credit inquiries on affordable housing applicants.  Hard credit inquiries can lower an individual’s credit score while soft inquiries are conducted with consent of the applicant, and are meant to have no impact on one’s credit score.  Landlords who violate the provisions of the bill would be subject to a penalty of not more than $100 for the first offense in a one-year period, and up to $200 more for subsequent offenses in a one-year period. 

      This bill also requires a consumer reporting agency that receives multiple hard credit inquiries, concerning the same individual, for the purpose of rental housing applications over a one-month period, to consider those inquiries to be one hard inquiry for purposes a consumer report concerning the individual. 

      This bill requires the Director of the Division of Housing and Community Resources in the Department of Community Affairs, within six months of the bill’s enactment, to make information available on its Internet website concerning certain requirements of the bill.