State of New Jersey - Apartment Law

Has NJ set the trend for the rest of the country with respect to equal protection?

$160,000,000 in trash costs transferred from the multi-family industry to municipalities in 5-year phase-in

Because of a lengthy lawsuit and appeals lost by a municipality the State Legislature passed a law (Chapter 25, 2001) to control the impact on all municipalities with a 5-year phase-in of solid waste and recycle costs. The lawsuit challenged the town ordinance as being unconstitutional with the State Constitution and United States Constitution because it did not provide for "equal protection" and "due process". The courts ruled in favor of the multi-family complex.

Anticipating monumental costs to the municipalities the State of New Jersey Legislature passed a law phasing-in the court decision over a five-year period at 20% per year. In January 2006 the municipal obligation is at 100%.

What Are Municipalities Doing? They Have Two Choices.

1 - Provide the solid waste and recycle services
2 - Reimburse the multi-family property for 100% of their solid waste and recycle costs.

Providing The Service:

Eleven (11) municipalities in Burlington County have taken a pro-active approach to reduce and control their costs by forming the "Municipal Apartment Condominium Collection Services" (MACCS). This is a Joint Purchasing Program, sanctioned by the State of New Jersey , where the municipalities joined together and went out to bid for the collection of all their 91 multi-family complexes with 16,000 units for a five-year period. The program was initiated April 1, 2004.

AVR is the Contract Administrator for this program, handling all financial as well as day-to-day operational issues for the municipalities.

Reimbursement:

AVR's knowledge of the law and its understanding of the submittal requirements have allowed the company to develop a very successful program in attaining reimbursements for their clients.