GetMyDepositBack
Vicinage 13 (Somerset/Hunterdon/Warren), NJ Courts ↗county guide

Getting your deposit back in Hunterdon County, NJ: the courthouse, the boards, and who helps

You do not need a lawyer to sue for a deposit here. On the county's median rent, a full-deposit case lands in the Special Civil Part at the Flemington courthouse - but that depends on your deposit, not the median, and the check below settles it. The rules behind it are the state's, not the county's: New Jersey law governs the deposit in all 26 municipalities, for the 7,558 households that rent here. What is local is everything around the rule: which courthouse hears the case, which towns keep a rent board, where the landlord is registered, and who will help for free.

Check my landlord's deadline - free →Build my case

← New Jersey deposit law, the rules themselves

I

Where you stand

Your deadline, your numbers, and why no Hunterdon County ordinance changes either.

Has your landlord missed the 30-day deadline?

Two fields, ten seconds - the math follows N.J.S.A. 46:8-21.1, the same statute in every Hunterdon County town. Add your deposit to see what you can demand and which Flemington track the doubled claim lands on.

The rules themselves: 30 days, doubled, one and a half months

These rules come from New Jersey state law, not from the county. We checked the published code of all 26 Hunterdon County municipalities against the state's 2026 survey: not one has a deposit ordinance of its own, so a landlord who tells you it works differently in Flemington, Alexandria or Bethlehem is wrong.

The Rent Security Deposit Act, N.J.S.A. 46:8-19 to 46:8-26, reads the same in every Hunterdon County town. The New Jersey page has the full text and the case law; this is the short version.

30 days
to return it after you move out
2x
what a court awards on money wrongfully kept
1.5 months
the most any NJ landlord may collect

The clock starts the day the tenancy ends - usually the day the keys go back - and runs 30 days, five business days if fire, flood or condemnation put you out. Miss it, or keep money without an itemized reason, and the court doubles what was withheld: "shall", not "may", with costs on top. The same doubling applies at the Flemington courthouse as anywhere in the state. The statute in full, the exemptions and the case law are on the New Jersey page.

What a deposit dispute looks like in Hunterdon County, in numbers

$1,687
median monthly rent
$2,531
the most a landlord may hold on it
7,558
renter households - 15% of the county

The median Hunterdon County renter pays $1,687 a month, so the deposit on a median unit tops out at $2,531 - one and a half months is the state cap. If a landlord keeps all of it past the 30 days, the claim is that amount doubled, $5,061, which is over the $5,000 Small Claims line: a typical full-deposit case in this county files in the Special Civil Part, on the longer form with the higher fee. Smaller deposits - anything under $2,500 - stay in Small Claims.

No rent board anywhere in Hunterdon County

Rent control is the one landlord-tenant rule New Jersey towns set locally, and none of Hunterdon County's 26 municipalities has chosen to. The rent is whatever the lease says, increases are limited only by the lease itself and the Anti-Eviction Act's bar on unconscionable ones, and there is no local board to call about a landlord - the county's Special Civil Part is the only forum. The deposit, meanwhile, is still capped at one and a half months of whatever that rent is.

II

The courthouse, and how you file

The Flemington window, the form your claim needs, and what it costs here.

Where a Hunterdon County deposit case is filed

Deposit lawsuits go to the Special Civil Part of the Superior Court, which sits by county. You file in the county where the landlord lives or does business - not where you live - and if the landlord is out of state, in the county where the rental is. A Flemington tenant whose landlord runs the building from the next county over files there; a Flemington tenant with a Flemington landlord files here. The Special Civil Part window is in the Hunterdon County Justice Center (Civil Division, 2nd Floor). Hunterdon shares a vicinage with Somerset and Warren, but each county keeps its own Special Civil Part office - file at the Hunterdon one.

The courthouse
Hunterdon County Justice Center (Civil Division, 2nd Floor)
Special Civil Part (Small Claims Section)
65 Park Avenue, Flemington, NJ 08822
Phone and hours
908-824-9750 ext. 13810
Mon - Fri: 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Small Claims Section
Claims up to $5,000. Filing fee $35, plus $5 for each additional defendant.
Special Civil Part
Claims up to $20,000. Filing fee $50 to $75.

The Flemington office in practice

Checked on September 4, 2026 against the court's own pages. Rooms, hours and phone extensions change without notice - confirm with the office before you rely on any line below.

Special Civil Part / Small Claims line - the courthouse number above
908-332-7700 ext. 13810
Mediation and arbitration
908-332-7700 ext. 13870

Free help inside the courthouse. The vicinage's Court User Resource Center - Somerset County Courthouse, 20 North Bridge Street, 5th Floor, Somerville, NJ 08876, 908-332-7700 ext. 13240, [email protected] - explains forms and procedure to people without a lawyer, Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Contact the ombudsman for appointments in Hunterdon and Warren counties. Staff cannot give legal advice, but they can tell you which form, which window, and what is missing from your file before you pay the fee.

Settling before the judge. On the hearing date the court sends both sides to a settlement conference first; many deposit cases end there with a payment plan.

Filing here: the Hunterdon County layer

The procedure is the state's - what is local is the window you hand it to. Filing to judgment in New Jersey, in four steps has the sequence, the exhibit stack and the hearing itself. Here is the Hunterdon County layer.

Before you file
Send the demand letter by certified mail first, citing N.J.S.A. 46:8-21.1 and the 30-day deadline, and give it 10 to 14 days. A judge will ask whether the landlord had a chance to pay, and the letter becomes your first exhibit.
Your form
Up to $5,000 it is the Small Claims kit; above that the Special Civil Part complaint. Enter your deposit in the check at the top and this page names your form.
Where to hand it in
The Special Civil Part window, 65 Park Avenue, Flemington, NJ 08822 - in person during court hours, by mail to the same address, or online through JEDS. One copy of the complaint per defendant.
What it costs here
$35, plus $5 for each additional defendant in Small Claims, $50 to $75 in the Special Civil Part. A fee waiver is available if you cannot afford it - ask the clerk for the form when you file.

The Flemington office at 908-824-9750 ext. 13810 can tell you the current wait - count on two to three months from filing to a hearing date in most vicinages.

The forms, from the court itself

III

Looking things up, and getting help

The landlord's legal name and address, which of 26 Hunterdon County clerks holds it, and who helps for free.

Finding the landlord's mailing address

A demand letter needs an address, and the one on the lease is often a management office that has since moved. Under New Jersey's Landlord Identity Law your landlord had to register the owner's name and address - with the municipal clerk for one- and two-unit buildings, with the state for anything larger - and the clerk's copy is public. The lookup below has the clerk for every one of Hunterdon County's 26 municipalities.

One Hunterdon County city runs its own rental registry on top of the state filing - an inspection or licensing office that holds the current owner and managing agent for every registered rental. Where your building is in one of them, that office is usually quicker than the clerk.

Where the landlord's registration is filed: the municipal clerk

New Jersey's Landlord Identity Law makes every landlord file a registration statement - the owner's legal name and address, and the managing agent's - and for one- and two-unit buildings it is filed with the clerk of the municipality the rental is in (larger buildings register with the state Department of Community Affairs). The clerk's copy is a public record. Pick your town for the office that holds it.

All 26 municipal clerks in Hunterdon County
MunicipalityClerk's officePhone
Alexandria Township782 Frenchtown Road, Milford, NJ 08848908-996-7071
Bethlehem Township405 Mine Road, Asbury, NJ 08802-1107908-735-4107
Bloomsbury Borough91 Brunswick Avenue, Bloomsbury, NJ 08804908-479-4200
Califon Borough39 Academy Street, PO Box 368, Califon, NJ 07830908-832-7850
Town of Clinton43 Leigh Street, PO Box 5194, Clinton, NJ 08809908-735-8616
Clinton Township1225 Route 31 S, Suite 411, Lebanon, NJ 08833908-735-8800
Delaware Township570 Rosemont-Ringoes Road, Sergeantsville, NJ 08557609-397-3240
East Amwell Township1070 Route 202/31, Ringoes, NJ 08551-1051908-782-8536
Flemington Borough38 Park Avenue, Flemington, NJ 08822908-782-8840
Franklin Township202 Sidney Road, Pittstown, NJ 08867908-735-5215
Frenchtown BoroughSecond Street, Frenchtown, NJ 08825908-996-4524
Glen Gardner Borough83 Main Street, PO Box 307, Glen Gardner, NJ 08826908-537-4748
Hampton Borough1 Wells Avenue, PO Box 418, Hampton, NJ 08827908-537-2329
High Bridge Borough71 Main Street, High Bridge, NJ 08829908-638-6455
Holland Township61 Church Road, Milford, NJ 08848908-995-4847
Kingwood TownshipPO Box 199, Baptistown, NJ 08803-0199908-996-4276
City of Lambertville18 York Street, Lambertville, NJ 08530609-397-0110
Lebanon Borough6 High Street, Lebanon, NJ 08833908-236-2425
Lebanon Township530 W Hill Road, Glen Gardner, NJ 08826908-638-8523
Milford Borough30 Water Street, Milford, NJ 08848908-995-4323
Raritan TownshipOne Municipal Drive, Flemington, NJ 08822908-806-6100
Readington Township509 Route 523, Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889908-534-4051
Stockton BoroughPO Box M, Stockton, NJ 08559609-397-0070
Tewksbury Township169 Old Turnpike Road, Califon, NJ 07830908-439-0022
Union Township140 Perryville Road, Hampton, NJ 08827908-735-8027
West Amwell Township150 Rocktown-Lambertville Road, Lambertville, NJ 08530-3509609-397-2054

List from the county's own directory, checked September 4, 2026.

Free help in Hunterdon County

IV

If it goes wrong

What losing costs, whether they can retaliate, and how a Hunterdon County judgment is actually collected.

Before you file: the three things people worry about

What if I lose?
You are out the filing fee and the time. You are the one suing, so losing leaves you where you started and puts no eviction on your record. What losing actually costs - and the one point most failed claims turn on - is on the New Jersey suing page.
Can the landlord retaliate?
After a move-out, barely - the tenancy is over and you are the plaintiff. If you still rent from them, New Jersey bars reprisals for exercising a legal right. The full answer is on the New Jersey suing page; in Hunterdon County the ombudsman at the Hunterdon County Justice Center (Civil Division, 2nd Floor) and Legal Services of Northwest Jersey (Hunterdon County office) both take the question in person, for free.
If I win, how do I get paid?
The court does not collect for you - a judgment is an instrument you enforce, and judgments against landlords are unusually collectable. Collecting your judgment walks through levy, garnishment and liens. The writ is issued by the Vicinage 13 (Somerset/Hunterdon/Warren) clerk at the same Flemington window you filed at.

Build your case

The case builder runs on New Jersey law, which is exactly the law that applies here. It checks the 30-day deadline against your move-out date, grades each deduction, and writes the demand letter with the statute cited - the letter that becomes Exhibit A at the Flemington courthouse if it comes to that.

Build your case →

Sources

Court, board and legal-aid details checked on September 4, 2026. Phone numbers and fees change; confirm with the office before you rely on one. Not reviewed by a licensed attorney, and not legal advice.