New Jersey A 2815: Continues tax exempt status of certain real property owned by disabled veterans during reconstruction of homes destroyed by flood, storm, or other act of God.

Bill Text

A2815 

ASSEMBLY, No. 2815 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

� 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman BRIAN E. RUMPF

District 9 (Ocean)

SYNOPSIS

���� Continues tax exempt status of certain real property 
owned by disabled veterans during reconstruction of homes destroyed by flood, 
storm, or other act of God.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT 

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative 
Counsel.

�� 

An Act concerning tax exempt status of certain real property 
owned by disabled veterans of the State and amending P.L.1948, c.259.

���� Be It 
Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of 
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� Section 1 of P.L.1948, 
c.259 (C.54:4-3.30) is amended to read as follows:

���� 1.��� a.� (1)� The 
dwelling house and the lot or curtilage whereon the same is erected, of any 
citizen and resident of this State, now or hereafter honorably discharged or 
released under honorable circumstances, from active service, in time of war, in 
any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, who has been or shall be 
declared by the United States Veterans Administration or its successor to have 
a service-connected disability from paraplegia, sarcoidosis, osteochondritis 
resulting in permanent loss of the use of both legs, or permanent paralysis of 
both legs and lower parts of the body, or from hemiplegia and has permanent 
paralysis of one leg and one arm or either side of the body, resulting from 
injury to the spinal cord, skeletal structure, or brain or from disease of the 
spinal cord not resulting from any form of syphilis; or from total blindness; 
or from amputation of both arms or both legs, or both hands or both feet, or 
the combination of a hand and a foot; or from other service-connected 
disability declared by the United States Veterans Administration or its 
successor to be a total or 100% permanent disability, and not so evaluated 
solely because of hospitalization or surgery and recuperation, sustained 
through enemy action, or accident, or resulting from disease contracted while 
in such active service, shall be exempt from taxation, on proper claim made 
therefor, and such exemption shall be in addition to any other exemption of 
such person's real and personal property which now is or hereafter shall be prescribed 
or allowed by the Constitution or by law but no taxpayer shall be allowed more 
than one exemption under this act.

���� (2)�� Notwithstanding the 
provisions of this section, or any law to the contrary, whenever flood, storm 
event, natural cause, or other act of God destroys, in whole or in significant 
part, a dwelling house owned by a citizen and resident of this State, exempt 
from taxation pursuant to this section, the land on which the dwelling house 
was situate shall retain the tax exempt status provided under this section that 
the prior dwelling house and land previously enjoyed, so long as substantial, 
ongoing construction is undertaken within four years of the destruction.

���� For the purpose of this 
section, a dwelling house shall be deemed to have been destroyed in significant 
part if the dwelling house is rendered unsafe, unsanitary, or otherwise uninhabitable 
by flood, storm event, natural cause, or other act of God.

���� b.��� (1)� The surviving 
spouse of any such citizen and resident of this State, who at the time of death 
was entitled to the exemption provided under this act, shall be entitled, on 
proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption as the deceased had, during the 
surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a 
resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal 
owner thereof and actually occupies the said dwelling house or any other 
dwelling house thereafter acquired.

���� (2)�� The surviving spouse of 
any citizen and resident of this State who was honorably discharged and, after 
the citizen and resident's death, is declared to have suffered a 
service-connected disability as provided in subsection a. of this section, 
shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption the 
deceased would have become eligible for.� The exemption shall continue during 
the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while 
a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal 
owner thereof and actually occupies the dwelling house or any other dwelling 
house thereafter acquired.

���� c.���� The surviving spouse of 
any citizen and resident of this State, who died in active service in time of 
war in any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, shall be entitled, 
on proper claim made therefor, to an exemption from taxation on the dwelling 
house and lot or curtilage whereon the same is erected, during the surviving 
spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of 
this State, for the time that the surviving spo