9. The commissioner shall ensure that each rooming or boarding house whose owner possesses a valid license is inspected and its records reviewed at least once each year for the purpose of determining whether the owner or operator is complying with standards promulgated pursuant to the provisions of P.L.1979, c.496 (C. 55:13B-1 et seq.). If the commissioner determines, as a result of any such inspection and review of records, that an owner or operator is in violation of such standards, he shall serve the owner or operator of the facility with a written notice thereof, which shall fix a date by which the owner or operator shall enter into compliance. The commissioner shall not be required to perform annual inspections of facilities licensed and inspected by a municipality pursuant to P.L.1993, c.290 (C. 40:52-9 et seq.), but shall have the authority to oversee and ensure the enforcement of the “Rooming and Boarding House Act of 1979,” P.L.1979, c.496 (C. 55:13B-1 et seq.), and the rules and regulations adopted pursuant thereto in those facilities. A municipality shall file with the commissioner a copy of an inspection report prepared following an inspection of a rooming or boarding house performed by the municipality pursuant to P.L.1993, c.290 (C. 40:52-9 et seq.). The commissioner may prescribe a standard inspection report format to be used by the municipality.

The Department of Community Affairs shall post on its Internet website each inspection report prepared following an inspection performed on behalf of or filed with the commissioner pursuant to this section, along with any other inspection report prepared by or on behalf of the department for a rooming or boarding house.

If an inspection reveals a serious health and safety violation at a rooming or boarding house, the department shall post the inspection report, including the name of the rooming or boarding house and the owner of the rooming or boarding house, on its website no later than 72 hours following the inspection. If a license of a rooming or boarding house is suspended, the department shall post the suspension on its website no later than 72 hours following the suspension. The department shall update its website to reflect the correction of a serious health and safety violation, and the lifting of a suspension.

The department shall notify, as soon as possible, the Commissioner of Human Services, or the commissioner’s designee, and the director of the county board of social services or county welfare agency, as appropriate, in the county in which a rooming or boarding house is located, of a serious health and safety violation at the rooming or boarding house and of any suspension of a license to operate such rooming or boarding house.

L.1979, c.496, s.9; amended 1999, c.241, s.3; 2015, c.6, s.2.