Life Hazard Use Fees—Update
Earlier this year we heard that several members were being asked to pay allegedly unpaid life hazard use fees from prior years, in several cases going back to the 1990s.
Life hazard use fees are required to be paid by certain business owners (including service stations) based on the Legislature’s decision to pass the 1983 Uniform Fire Safety Act. Under the law, 65% of the fee that is collected goes back to the local agency enforcing the fire code, which they use to promote fire safety.
Earlier this year, we and our friends in the Fuel Merchants Association met to discuss regulatory items of mutual concern, among them the assessment of the Life Hazard Use (LHU) Fee on businesses from periods before the business was owned by the current owner.
Finally, we were able to meet with top level staff at the NJ Department of Community Affairs (DCA), including Kia King, Chief of Staff to the Commissioner, Alea Couch, Director of Policy and External Affairs and Lou Kilmer, Deputy Director of the Division of Fire Safety, to discuss this matter.
Director Kilmer informed us that prior to closing on a location, new owners should check with both the Division of Fire Safety within the state-level Department of Community Affairs to see if there are any outstanding fees; and also check with the town fire safety officials to see if there are any outstanding violations. If there are outstanding fees the Certificate will not be issued, and the business cannot open. This Certificate is not something that will come up on a title search. Unfortunately, it seems too many attorneys are unaware of this obligation and have not bothered to look for these outstanding fees.
A recent change in the law requires the Director to contact new business owners within five years of a new business operating at the location for collection of back LHU fees. For all years not assessable against the business owner, the LHU fee is assessable against the property owner.
The Director stated DCA sends bills to business owners before sending to property owners and in 75% of cases the bill is paid upon the first notice and in 88% of the cases the bill is paid on the second notice.
Furthermore, penalties can be waived or adjusted by the Director, but LHU fees are set by statute and can only be adjusted if there was no business in operation at that location or it was a different type of business than what the fee was assessed against.
Director Kilmer was kind enough to volunteer that he was willing to personally work with business owners affected by this problem, and that he is willing to help lessen the impact of these fees and especially any associated fines that our members have been hit with in the last year (to the extent allowed by current state law).
If you have received a past due life hazard use fee assessment that was many years old (even if you have already paid the fee and fine) we encourage you to reach out directly to Director Kilmer and see if your problem can be resolved or lessened. His email address is Louis.Kilmer@DCA.nj.gov. If you have any questions about the issue, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Nick@njgca.org directly so we can help work with you on this.
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