Selling or Renting
The New Jersey Private Well Testing Act, Explained
If a property in New Jersey gets its drinking water from a private well on that property, the well water has to be tested when the property is sold — and the buyer and the seller both have to see the results before closing.
The one-sentence version
If a property in New Jersey gets its drinking water from a private well on that property, the well water has to be tested when the property is sold — and the buyer and the seller both have to see the results before closing. This is the Private Well Testing Act, N.J.S.A. 58:12A-26 et seq., with regulations at N.J.A.C. 7:9E. It was signed in March 2001 and took effect on 14 September 2002.
When a test is required
- •The sale of any property that gets its drinking water from a private well located on the property, including new construction.
- •The sale of any property served by a well with fewer than 15 service connections, or that does not regularly serve an average of at least 25 people daily for at least 60 days a year.
- •The leasing of any property served by a private well that isn't required to be tested under another State law — and that testing must be done every five years.
NJDEP's own exclusion: if the well is only used for something other than drinking water, such as watering a lawn, it doesn't have to be tested under this Act.
What the law requires of the transaction
- •Every contract of sale for an affected property must include a provision requiring the testing as a condition of the sale.
- •Closing of title may not occur unless both the buyer and the seller have received and reviewed a copy of the results and have signed a document certifying that they received and reviewed them.
- •Every time an affected rental property is leased, the lessee must be given a written copy of the most recent results.
One honest line: landlords are the group most likely not to know this applies to them.
What gets tested
The test is of the untreated groundwater and covers up to 43 parameters. The required parameters are: total coliform; E. coli, which is only required if a sample is positive for total coliform, under N.J.A.C. 7:9E-2.1(a)2; nitrate; pH; iron; manganese; lead; arsenic; gross alpha particle activity; PFOA, PFOS and PFNA; volatile organic compounds; and synthetic organic compounds.
Then the county-conditional part:
- •Uranium is required in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren Counties. That covers all three of the counties we work in.
- •Mercury is required in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Monmouth, Ocean and Salem Counties — none of which are Sussex, Warren or Passaic.
What it costs
NJDEP estimates the average price of the testing at $1,200 to $1,500, and notes that there may be additional cost if a field blank has to be analysed, which is required for PFAS and VOCs. Laboratory rates vary with how difficult the sample is to collect and how far the property is from the lab. We do not publish a price for anything we do on this page.
Who has to see the result
The certified laboratory reports the results to NJDEP, and NJDEP forwards them to the local health authority. People are often surprised the result doesn't stay private between buyer and seller.
A failed result is not a deal-breaker
Most failures have a known treatment answer. Coliform leads to disinfection and finding how it got in. Iron and manganese are aesthetic limits about staining and taste, not health violations. Gross alpha leads to the follow-up testing NJDEP recommends, to identify which radionuclide it is, before anyone buys equipment. Find out before the appraisal rather than during attorney review, because time is what turns a treatable result into a renegotiation. Who pays for what is between the parties and their attorneys, and we don't give that advice. See our pages on reading your test results and well water testing.
A note on how little of this gets done
NJDEP says approximately 25% of the wells in the State have been tested under this Act. The law only bites at a sale or a lease, so a well that hasn't changed hands in thirty years may never have been tested at all.
Local rules can be stricter
NJDEP's position: both the local jurisdiction's requirements and the State's must be met, and where they overlap, the more stringent of the two is followed. Check with your local health authority or municipal office. See our page on who regulates your well.
Questions we get on this one
Who pays for the test?→
Who pays for what is between the parties and their attorneys. The law requires the testing as a condition of the sale and requires both buyer and seller to receive and review the results, but it does not assign the cost. That is a negotiation, and we don't give that advice — ask your attorney.
How long are the results valid?→
The Private Well Testing Act requires the test at the time of a sale or, for rentals, every five years. A result is a snapshot of that day, not a permanent answer. For your own use between transactions, annual testing for coliform and nitrate is the standard baseline advice.
Can I use my own lab?→
The analysis must be done by a New Jersey DEP certified drinking water laboratory. NJDEP publishes a list of certified labs, and any drinking water test under this Act has to go to one. We collect and handle the sample properly and coordinate the right test; we do not perform the certified laboratory analysis ourselves.
What if I'm buying a house and the seller already has a test?→
The law requires that both the buyer and the seller have received and reviewed a copy of the results and signed a document certifying that they did, before closing. Ask your attorney about the specifics of a transaction; this page explains what the rules say, not what you should do about a deal.
Does a new well need this?→
A newly constructed well is tested as part of New Jersey's well permitting and construction process, which NJDEP regulates. The Private Well Testing Act applies separately, at the sale or lease of the property. They are different requirements at different points in a well's life.
I'm renting out a house on a well, what do I actually have to do?→
Every time an affected rental property is leased, the lessee must be given a written copy of the most recent results, and the testing must be done every five years. Landlords are the group most likely not to know this applies to them. Check with your local health authority too, because local rules can be stricter.
Does the buyer have to accept the result?→
The law requires the buyer and seller to receive and review the results before closing. What either party does with a result — negotiate, treat, or walk — is between them and their attorneys. We explain what the rules say; we don't give transaction advice.
Questions about your own well?
Call (862) 276-0328Last reviewed September 2026. Rules change, and these pages summarise what the agencies say rather than giving legal advice. Confirm anything that matters with the agency named on the page.