52:27D-210 Additional violations; penalties.

19. a. No person shall:

(1) Obstruct, hinder, delay or interfere by force or otherwise with the commissioner or any local enforcing agency in the exercise of any power or the discharge of any function or duty under the provisions of this act;

(2) Prepare, utter or render any false statement, report, document, plans or specification permitted or required under the provisions of this act;

(3) Render ineffective or inoperative, or fail to properly maintain, any protective equipment or system installed, or intended to be installed, in a building or structure;

(4) Refuse or fail to comply with a lawful ruling, action, order or notice of the commissioner or a local enforcing agency; or

(5) Violate, or cause to be violated, any of the provisions of this act.

b. (1) A person who violates or causes to be violated a provision of subsection a. of this section shall be liable to a penalty of not more than $5,000 for each violation. If a violation of subsection a. of this section is of a continuing nature, each day during which the violation remains unabated after the date fixed in an order or notice for the correction or termination of the continuing violation shall constitute an additional and separate violation, except while an appeal from the order is pending in connection with any property except for those properties which are certified by the fire code official to be unoccupied. For the purposes of this section, a building may not be certified to be unoccupied unless it has been unoccupied for a period of not less than six months.

(2) If an owner has been given notice of the existence of a violation of the act and fails to abate the violation, he shall be liable to an additional penalty of not more than $50,000. If a violation is of a continuing nature, each day during which the violation remains unabated shall not constitute an additional and separate violation for the purposes of the penalty in this paragraph.

(3) An additional $150,000 or the actual cost, whichever is greater, may be imposed as a penalty for the expense to the municipality or fire district of suppressing any fire, directly or indirectly, resulting from the unabated violation and for any other actual expenses, including attorney fees, incurred by the municipality for the enforcement of the violation.

(4) Upon the 121st day subsequent to its filing, an appeal to a county, municipal or joint construction board of appeals, a departmental appeal, or an appeal to a court of competent jurisdiction shall not automatically stay any order, including orders to pay a penalty imposed pursuant to P.L.1983, c.383 (C.52:27D-192 et seq.), or prevent the seeking of an order in a court of competent jurisdiction to enjoin the violation of any order of an enforcing agency in connection with any property which is found by the fire code official to be unoccupied .

Any party filing an appeal with a court of competent jurisdiction regarding violations assessed against property which has been certified as unoccupied pursuant to this section shall file a motion upon the initiation of the appeal requesting expedited consideration of the appeal on the ground that acceleration is warranted because the subject of the appeal involves matters of public safety. In the event the appeal is granted, the court shall grant the motion to expedite.

c. The commissioner or a local enforcing agency may levy and collect penalties in the amounts set forth in this section, but not in excess of the maximum amounts that the commissioner shall establish by regulation for different types of violations. If the administrative penalty order has not been satisfied by the 30th day after its issuance, the penalty may be sued for, and recovered by and in the name of the commissioner or the enforcing agency, as the case may be, in a civil action by a summary proceeding under "The Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999," P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.) in the Superior Court or municipal court. All moneys recovered in the form of penalties by a municipality shall be paid into the treasury of the municipality and shall be appropriated for the enforcement of the act; except that the additional penalty paid by an owner to a municipality under paragraph (2) or (3) of subsection b. of this section shall be placed in a special municipal trust fund to be applied to the municipality's or fire district's cost of firefighter training and new equipment. A person who fails to pay immediately a money judgment rendered against him pursuant to this subsection may be sentenced to imprisonment by the court for a period not exceeding six months, unless the judgment is sooner paid.

d. A person shall be deemed to have violated or caused to have violated a provision of subsection a. of this section if an officer, agent or employee under his control and with his knowledge has violated or caused to have violated any of the provisions of subsection a. of this section.

e. Upon request of the owner or purchaser of a building or structure, the enforcing agency having jurisdiction over the building or structure shall issue a certificate either enumerating the violations indicated by its records to be unabated and the penalties or fees indicated to be unpaid, or stating that its records indicate that no violations remain unabated and no penalties or fees remain unpaid.

f. A person who purchases a property without having obtained a certificate stating that there are no unabated violations of record and no unpaid fees or penalties shall be deemed to have notice of all violations of record and shall be liable for the payment of all unpaid fees or penalties.

L.1983,c.383,s.19; amended 1991, c.91, s.501; 1991, c.489, s.1; 1999, c.401, s.2.