Which law is this?
It started as Senate Bill 2760 and Assembly Bill 4384 and became P.L.2023, chapter 214, approved on January 8, 2024 and in force the same day. Lawmakers wrote it after the 2021 collapse in Surfside, Florida. It added structural inspection rules to the state's construction code law and reserve study and funding rules to the Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act, codified at N.J.S.A. 45:22A-44.2 and 44.3.
Who has to have a reserve study?
Every planned real estate development association: condominiums, cooperatives and homeowners associations alike. The only associations left out are those with less than $25,000 in total common area capital assets. The law does not define that phrase, but the Department of Community Affairs gives examples such as hallways, roofs, pools and parking areas. More on who must comply.
Who may prepare it?
A reserve specialist credentialed through the Community Associations Institute, or an engineer or architect licensed in New Jersey, has to perform or oversee the study. It must follow the latest CAI National Reserve Study Standards or other recognized standards. The state's guidance is clear that board members cannot prepare it themselves, even if they hold one of those credentials in their working life.
How often?
A study has to be conducted and reviewed at least once every five years. Associations that had no study in the five years before the law began had until January 8, 2025 to get one. A newly formed association must commission its first study as soon as practicable after unit owners elect the board, and in any case within two years of that election.
What has to be in it?
Reserve balances and cash flow, a physical analysis of the common components, the cost of keeping the structure sound, estimates for future studies and structural inspections, any corrective maintenance, and a 30-year funding plan in which the reserve fund never drops below zero. The full list, explained.
What about structural inspections?
They apply to residential condominium and cooperative buildings whose primary load-bearing system is concrete, masonry, steel or a hybrid. The owner retains a licensed engineer to inspect within 15 years of the certificate of occupancy, sooner if damage to the load-bearing system becomes visible, and again no more than 10 years after that first inspection. Typical wood-frame buildings are excluded. The inspection rules in full.
What changed in 2025?
The original law required associations to close any funding gap with equal yearly increases over as many as ten fiscal years. P.L.2025, c.132 replaced that. Associations now fund to one of the study's plans, and an association that existed on January 8, 2024 may fund at 85 percent of a plan for up to five fiscal years, provided owners get a bold-type notice saying when a special assessment or loan is expected. How the funding rules work now.
Who enforces it?
For associations that owners already control, nobody in state government. The Department of Community Affairs says it does not oversee their compliance with the reserve rules, and disputes run through the governing documents and, if needed, the courts. Structural inspection reports go to the municipal construction official and must be available to residents on request.
Read from the session laws on the Legislature's site and the DCA structural integrity and capital reserve FAQ, November 6, 2026. The DCA FAQ was written before the 2025 amendment, so its funding answers are out of date. This page is general information, not legal advice; check with the association's attorney.